Dylan Frank accepted into U.S. Naval Academy

Custer High School senior Dylan Frank will go down in history at Custer Jr./Sr. High School as the eighth student to ever be accepted into a military academy.
Frank, the son of Chris Frank and Tracy Clark, has attended school in Custer for his entire life. During that time, he has been active in sports like cross country, track and soccer as well as academics by taking dual-credit classes and becoming the president of the National Honor Society.
As a sophomore, Frank developed an interest in applying for the U.S. Naval Academy due to his passion for aviation and his family history of military service.
“Originally, I thought I wanted to be a commercial pilot. Then, I discovered the aviation side of the U.S. Navy and found out that I wanted to be a naval aviator. From there, I looked at my options and thought the Naval Academy was my best option,” said Frank.
Frank’s dad is a chief warrant officer and works as a pilot at the National Guard base in Rapid City. Meanwhile, on his mom’s side of the family, Frank’s grandpa was a Vietnam veteran and his great-grandpa was a World War II Navy veteran. Frank said this generational history was part of the reason he had such a drive to go into one of the military academies.
“It’s not like a traditional college experience, but I definitely think the generational side of things is a factor,” said Frank.
Frank started the application process at the beginning of his junior year when he was 16. For traditional college applications, Frank said you fill out your academics, extracurriculars, grade point average, maybe an essay and other such things. To apply for the U.S. Naval Academy, there is much more required to get accepted.
“You have to do an interview with a blue and gold officer, so a former attendee of the academy,” said Frank. “You have to do nominational interviews to see if you get nominated by a congressman. I had to do three of those.”
There is also a physical fitness test and medical process to work through.
For the U.S. Naval Academy specifically, Frank said there is a prerequisite of attending a week-long summer seminar that serves as an introduction to the academy to see if you really want to attend. He attended this in the summer of his junior year of high school.
“It’s a lot longer process than a normal college experience,” said Frank.
Overall, Frank spent a little over a year working through the process.
Frank was nominated for the U.S. Naval Academy by U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson and U.S. Sen. John Thune in December of 2024.
According to Frank, the nomination basically says, “From the people of South Dakota, these are the best people we think should attend.”
Once you are nominated, you still have to be accepted into the academy.
“That was on April 1. On April Fool’s was a little weird because they were joking with me a little bit, but I did get a call from Dusty Johnson, John Thune’s staff and Mike Rounds, which was very cool. I got to talk to all of those guys,” said Frank.
“I was really excited. I had just gone down to Embry-Riddle at Daytona Beach, which is a campus in Florida, and I was going to do NROTC (Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps.), which is a naval college program where I would commission as an officer, just like I am through the academy, but I would have to do aerospace engineering as my major.
“The thing with that was it’s more restrictive on the academics, but less restrictive on my daily life. So I could have done other stuff, but I wouldn’t be able to choose what I wanted to for my major. We had gone down there only a couple of days before I got accepted. I was really looking at that as my second option,” Frank continued.
Then, Frank got his acceptance call during the first hour at school April 1.
“I had to go outside of class and answer the phone. I was just super, super excited. I mean, I was expecting something, so I wasn’t super shocked, but with two nominations, I was really thinking my chances were pretty good,” said Frank.
As for being the eighth student in school history to be accepted into a military academy, Frank said, “It’s very surprising. I think the last one was Sam Mertz, who went to the U.S. Naval Academy, Mrs. (Doris Ann) Mertz’s son. She’s helped me a lot with my application since she has experience with this.
“To be the eighth person is a very good honor. It’s very rare for someone to go to a military academy. Acceptance rates are very low…So it’s just a very big school history thing.”
Frank has to be at basic training, or Plebe Summer, in Annapolis, Md., by June 26. Then, it will be seven weeks of no communication with the outside world or understanding of time. He will be told what to do and when to do it while experiencing core Navy training and gaining an understanding of what it means to be an officer.
From there, Frank will spend the next four years focusing on academics and Navy training.
“The summers even are pretty much taken up by Navy cruises and hosting that summer seminar,” said Frank.
Currently, Frank is planning to major in Foreign Area Studies. Through this, he will study the historical, political and cultural backgrounds of different areas and learn languages.
“I think that’s a pretty good major for me right now. I’ve always been interested in global topics, but you don’t have to choose your degree until your second year. Everyone has the same classes the first year, so you can learn what you want to do and talk to older midshipmen, see what they think and then from there make a decision,” said Frank.
Upon graduating in 2029, Frank will be commissioned as an officer.
“Then, I can do whatever job I am interested in doing if I have good standing, because they’ll appoint you to your number one pick based on your class rank, GPA and all those things. From there, there’s a five-year commitment for each job, basically, and then you can stay in. A lot of people go to 20 years, because once you have 20 years in, you get a retirement. Once you start going through, you can always kind of switch your career. So like for Foreign Area Studies, there are foreign area officers. They kind of work with embassies and diplomacy and stuff like that. With my major, I’d be able to switch into one of those careers. So it always keeps a lot of options open,” said Frank.
At this time, Frank is still fairly sure that he wants to go into aviation, but there are several routes he could take.
On May 5, all of Custer Jr./Sr. High School gathered in the commons to celebrate Frank’s achievement with an honorary signing. Russ Bailey, Frank’s chemistry teacher, said he had the honor of being Frank’s hype man for the event.
“You have to understand the magnitude of it,” Bailey said to the attendees. “The U.S. Naval Academy was established in 1845 to basically train U.S. Naval officers for service in the U.S. Navy and the Marine Corps. Twelve hundred people enter every year. That’s it—1,200.”
After explaining the application, nomination and acceptance process, Bailey said each member of Congress is allowed to nominate two people. They are allowed to carry five throughout four years. On average, Bailey said only eight percent of those who apply are accepted.
“In other words, these guys are the best of the best,” said Bailey, and Frank now stands among them.
“I would just like to thank all the coaches and mentors. I’m involved in music a lot, so everyone that I do clubs with too. Pretty much everyone I know, I’m grateful to them that they helped me get through my academics and sports and give me advice on things. It’s certainly good to have a good surrounding group of people that are really encouraging, from my family to even people I don’t know well who have heard about my acceptance,” said Frank.
To the other students at Custer Jr./Sr. High School, Frank said, “Going to a military academy is a great route to pursue. I mean, there are tons of other great things, but to have a guaranteed career and a full ride thing, access to really good D1 sports and sport clubs—it’s really nice. It’s certainly an experience.
“When I went in the summer, it was very fun for me. I mean, it’s a little tough with the physical training and stuff, but it’s fun to wake up early and go to bed really late, do class work, be on the boats and get to swim a lot. If you’re good at academics, and you’re good at athletics and you have a good idea of what the military is like through friends or family, then I would definitely consider a military academy and applying for one of those.”