On Jan. 26, 2011, Blake Cohoe said these words: “I am enrolling in the ROTC program and then joining the Air Force. I want to serve my country and then get my degree. Hopefully, I will work for a military hospital. Or become a flight doctor.” He was featured in the Air Force Times.
Cohoe was 12 years old at the time, a seventh-grader at Key Peninsula Middle School.
He was part of the NASA Explorer program at the school. Airlift squadrons from Joint Base Lewis-McChord would send pilots each year to speak with students about careers as a pilot. A panel of three pilots visited the school on that day and Cohoe’s interview was part of that visit.
Fast forward 12 years. Blake Cohoe, now 25, will be graduating from Washington State University in Spokane from the College of Medicine in May 2024. He plans to become an orthopedic surgeon.
“I am an Air Force HBSP student,” Blake said, referring to the Health Professions Scholarship Program offered through the ROTC.
“I graduated from ROTC in college. I was commissioned as an officer. I went in as an inactive until I graduated from medical school. I think it’s an opportunity not many people know about.”
The HBSP includes many benefits, he said. For example, students receive full tuition and required fees at the accredited U.S. medical school of their choice, books and other educational fees, an annual salary of $34,000 for ten months, and a $20,000 signing bonus for some students.
Because of his ROTC enrollment, Cohoe will finish eight years of higher education with no student loans.
After he completes his medical residency, Cohoe will serve eight years in the Air Force, a repayment of each year of undergraduate study and medical school. He has the choice of serving his residency at a military hospital where he would be able to meet his obligation concurrently, or training in a civilian setting and serving his eight years in the military after he’s completed his training.
Cohoe credits his family and community for his academic successes and direction. His mother, Marcie Cummings Cohoe, is an elementary school teacher in the Peninsula School District, which made Blake feel very connected to the education community at large and led to valuable encouragement from PSD staff.
“I enjoyed my teachers as the caring people that they were," he said.
Cohoe aspired early on to be a doctor and seldom wavered from that intent. As he moved through high school, he realized he liked science and liked working with people. Medicine seemed a perfect meld of those two interests. ”I liked the idea of people being central to my career and my job,” he said.
Cohoe's grandfather, Richard Cummings, sparked his interest in ROTC. His grandfather taught ROTC in Bozeman, Montana. Cohoe learned it was an honor to serve in the military and applied to ROTC because of him.
Cohoe also credited the Peninsula High School Hawks Scholarship Fund for a great deal of help during his first year of college. It was during his freshman year he applied to the ROTC college scholarship program. PHS did not have an ROTC program when Cohoe attended but now offers an elective course in the Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps. There is no scholarship component and students do not have an obligation to serve in the military, but successful cadets have an advantage if they do enlist or apply to a military academy or ROTC college.
And Cohoe had advice for today’s middle-schoolers: “This probably comes in part from my dad, but make sure that you are being kind to people and keeping those lasting relationships — you can never get those back. Keep following different avenues. Find things that you enjoy no matter what happens. Hard work is what matters most. Be willing to put in the time, I think that is what it takes.
“No matter where you go to school, there are opportunities, you just have to find them.”
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