farragutpress

Following family, FHS pair appointed to USAFA

July 2, 2020 by Michelle Hollenhead

Farragut High School had two elite graduates who reported for duty at the U.S. Air Force Academy, doing so just one week after coronavirus-delayed FHS graduation ceremonies were held Friday, June 19.

Both Tony Lyons and Gabriel Reiman received their official appointments to the prestigious military academy from Retired U.S.A.F. Col. Rick Kuhlman in a Saturday, June 13, ceremony.

The duo arrived on the Colorado Springs, Colorado campus Thursday, June 25, where they joined fellow FHS alums already attending the Academy: rising sophomore Joely Gruhn, rising junior Kaitlyn Grunau and rising senior Spencer Flint, all of whom were home in Farragut earlier this year due to the coronavirus shutdowns.

Tony Lyons

“I’m of course extremely blessed and excited to have been appointed, and I couldn’t have done it without outstanding support from friends and family,” said Lyons, son of Gerald Lyons and Tian Lyons.

He also noted being from “a family of veterans” who has “wanted to serve my country from a very young age.

“I worked hard in high school and I’m prepared to work even harder at the Academy,” he added. “Some important contributors to my appointment includes my participation in Boys State, summer seminars at U.S. Naval Academy and the USAFA, and my achievement of the Eagle Scout rank.”

Grabriel Reiman

Reiman, too, points to a military background influencing his decision to serve.

“My maternal grandfather’s father was in the Navy and Marines, my maternal grandfather was in the Army and my father graduated from West Point and served in the Army for almost 24 years, eventually retiring as a lieutenant colonel. He was a Green Beret and served in the Seventh Special Forces Group. He was also (a military police officer) in Bolivia,” he said.

“... My church’s choir/youth group was doing some mission work in Texas, and we swung up into Colorado to visit the Academy, as one of our pastors had a connection there,” he added. “Long story short, we sang in the Cadet Chapel, and I fell in love with the campus, not at all realizing what exactly the Academy was.

“Thus began a distanced fascination … that eventually solidified into a tangible desire to attend when, the summer after eighth grade, I met Spencer Flint and he told me about how he was going through the application process.”

With Flint a positive influence, “I took this as a sign that if the most able, qualified person I knew wanted to go, then surely that was an environment I was meant to be in,” Reiman said. “And during my junior year I started that same application process, which led to my eventual appointment — an appointment that would not have been at all possible without the extensive guidance and support of my parents and my Air Force liaison officer, Col. Rick Kuhlman.

“While I am at the Academy, I will likely major in biology and minor in one or more foreign languages, though my eventual hope is to pursue a career as a combat rescue officer,” he added.

At FHS, Reiman was a member of the National Honor Society and received the American Council of Teachers of Russian’s Russian Scholar Laureate Award.

He ran track and cross country for FHS and swam on the Village Green neighborhood swim team.

He is the son of Chad Allan Reiman and Amber Nicole Albritton-Reiman.