- December 15, 2025
Coast Guard Academy graduate Will Leffler will be stationed in Kodiak, Alaska, on a 378-foot ship.
BY MATT MENCARINI | STAFF WRITER
Will Leffler was in a car with his sister on the way to accept an ROTC scholarship to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University when he received a call that changed everything.
The caller was a representative from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, informing Leffler that he'd been accepted.
“It was possibly one of the happiest moments of my life,” Leffler said. “At first I was a little shocked, and then it hit me, ‘You’re going to the academy now.’ It was a goal of mine to get into one of the academies since I was in middle school.”
In fact, Leffler says he knew he wanted to attend a military academy before he even knew there was such a thing as a Coast Guard Academy.
His father, Charles Leffler, served four years in the Coast Guard, and so it seemed right, following in his footsteps.
Vice President Joe Biden was scheduled to deliver the commencement address, at the May 22 ceremony, and after graduation, Leffler is commissioned as an ensign. He will be assigned to the Munro, a 378-foot cutter ship, based out of Kodiak, Alaska.
“He wants excitement,” his mother Laura Leffler said. “I mean, this is a 22-year-old kid who wants excitement.”
Leffler is a fifth-generation Floridian who's spent the past four years in Connecticut while attending the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. And he said he’s ready for the Alaskan weather, as long as there’s good hunting and fishing.
“The real appeal to me was the challenge that Alaska holds,” Leffler said. “It has this allure to it as one of the most difficult places to be stationed in the Coast Guard, and I’m the type of person to rise to the challenge.”
He expects to be stationed in Alaska about two years, then he hopes to serve as an executive officer on a ship in Bahrain for a year. At that point, Leffler hopes to have enough experience to take command of his own ship.
But he’ll start as a deck watch officer for the Munro, one of the largest ships in the Coast Guard’s fleet, far from the beaches and ocean near which he grew up. He said the academy prepared him for the challenge.
“Obviously, the academies are tough for a variety of reasons — sleep deprivation due to academics or training,” Leffler said. “Each year brings its own different challenges. When you're a freshman, it’s the adjustment from civilian life to being in the military.”
The next adjustment happens during a cadet's sophomore year, which Leffler said is the most difficult academic year.
Leffler’s conduct assignment his senior year was to run the honor boards, which are small hearings convened when the academy’s honor code (“Do not lie, cheat, steal or attempt to deceive”) is broken.
“It was a big responsibility, but you learn a lot,” Leffler said. “You learn a lot about why we do things a certain way. You learn the best option isn't always an easy one.”
