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Overachiever finds yet one more way to overachieve

by Mason••39
Lieutenant Jonny Kim, MD, USNR, former Navy SEAL
Lieutenant Commander Jonny Kim, MD, USNR, former Navy SEAL

I talked about Silver Star recipient Jonny Kim a while back in a Valor Friday piece. Since then the man who enlisted into the Navy, became a SEAL, was decorated for valor in action, was commissioned an officer, became a medical doctor (from Harvard no less), and then became an astronaut has squeezed another extremely hard achievement-of-a-lifetime into his resume.

I ended my VF piece on Kim by saying, “He’s only 37, so he’s got a couple more decades to work in some other amazing career choice.” Well, he’s now 39 and has just received his wings of gold as a US Naval Aviator. Yup, he’s taken up flying helicopters. This guy is living like three of my childhood dreams. I feel so inadequate.

Task and Purpose has the story;

Navy SEAL doctor astronaut Jonny Kim somehow finds time to become naval aviator

U.S. Navy SEAL. Harvard Medical School-trained physician. Astronaut. These are all things on Lt. Cmdr. Jonny Kim’s already extensive list of accomplishments. Now Kim can add naval aviator to that list.

Kim completed his advanced helicopter training on March 24, pinning on his wings at Naval Air Station Whiting in Corpus Christi, Texas, according to a Navy press release published this week

“NASA really values helicopter pilots for their perspectives and crew resource management mentality,” Kim said in the release, adding that astronauts in the Apollo space program also completed helicopter aviation training due to the similarities with lunar landing procedures.

“Space flight is closely related to aviation, and proper crew resource management allocates human resources to accomplish the mission safely and effectively. By virtue of the helicopter cockpit environment, helicopter pilots bring an abundance of CRM to the spaceflight table,” he said.

To complete the aviation training, Kim completed both solo and night flights.

“The NVG [night vision goggle] training in the advanced syllabus for helicopters was amazing, especially because I have a lot of ground experience as a SEAL using night vision … but I didn’t have the experience of integrating a cockpit-NVG scan with degraded visual environments … That was really challenging and formative in my growth as an aviator,” said Kim.

Kim’s graduation from flight school – he was, naturally, on the so-called “Commodore’s List” of distinguished graduates – likely makes him one of few people in the ranks of the U.S. military who are both qualified naval flight surgeons and pilots.

More at the source.

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39 thoughts on “Overachiever finds yet one more way to overachieve”

  1. He needs to slow down and switch to a diet of beer and cupcakes He’s making the rest of us look bad. 😀

    1. The thing that always impressed me most about this guy was that he grew up in the worst of a circumstances and never made excuses. He just went out and did life. The garbage ideas of our victim based society says that he should not exist, but he does.

  4. Astronaut first, then aviator? Sounds backwards to me but, damn, who am I to criticize? I do like the Trident patch on his NASA jumpsuit. So, this is someone who can shoot a high-value target, medevac said HVT to the hospital, and save their life? Talk about one-stop shopping.

    1. Not quite the way it sounds. He’s completed the astronaut training program, which anyone can do as a scientist or mission specialist. In his case it’s medical, not necessarily to fly the spacecraft.

      Later in the article it does say they intend for him to pilot unmanned craft in space, specifically the lunar lander, so getting his Naval Aviator qual in helos makes sense.

      This is just the next step in his training. Later on he’ll earn his Naval Astronaut pin after his first space mission.

      https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/artifacts/uniforms-and-personal-equipment/pins–badges–and-insignia/pins/usn-flight-surgeon-astronaut-pin.html

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Astronaut_Badge

  5. Lt Commander Kim’s very real military resume sounds like some posers fevered wet dream.

  6. Great story, but you shouldn’t have posted it. You’re giving future SV types too many ideas 😄.

  7. Dude. Chill!  😄 

    Seriously, he must have a lot of fun learning how to do cool stuff. I hope the works as hard being a husband and father (if he is married)

    1. He’s got three kids and is married. Those kids have some very big shoes to try to fill.

      1. Wonder when he found time to have marital relations?

        My superpower of “sleeping in late” is defeated by my arch nemesis “gotta pee”!

        BZ, Good Sir…Much Respect…SALUTE!  :saluting: 

      2. It is possible to do a lot and be a good husband and father, but you have to work as hard (or harder) at it as you do at achieving other things.

    2. Task and Purpose edited their story, and ran a correction…

      [Correction: 4/24/2023; a previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Naval Air Station Whiting Field was located in Corpus Christi, Texas.
      It is located in Milton, Florida.
      A previous version of this article also omitted that Lt. Cmdr. Jonny Kim is part of the Navy’s Aeromedical Dual Designator Program. ]

  10. I feel so inadequate.

    No kidding. As I look around the fabric covered box I work in, I am thinking, “Well, you’ve done mediocre for yourself.”

  11. I feel like SUCH a slacker.
    BZ, Cdr Kim! Aim high! Reach high!

  16. People like this give me hope for the future. That is a feeling I have in very short supply.

  18. Until he earns the highly coveted and rarely awarded Precious Recovery Expert Badge, he’ll still be reaching for the brass ring.

    1. Agree, Skivvy, didn’t see any Scout Swimmer school in that C.V.

      When I steal valor, it will be as a Scout Swimmer

  21. And here I am just happy to get out of bed in the morning without stepping on my crank.

  23. I’m thinking that’s the kind of guy we need as the Sec Nav and later as Sec Def.

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