They are twins.
It is the most obvious thing, of course, but the level of their — oh, my goodness, what? — twin-ness is rather shocking.
Let’s start with the basics.
Their names are Marquette and Natasha Ried. They are 22-years-old, and were born in Fort Collins where four years ago they both were valedictorians of the first senior class of Fossil Ridge High School.
They answered the door of their parent’s home on a neatly tended cul-de-sac dressed, each of them, in summer white naval officer uniforms.
Both graduated last week from the U.S. Naval Academy with degrees in aerospace engineering. In the 1,050-member Class of 2010, Ensigns Ried, the Navy said, finished Nos. 121 and 122, both graduating as battalion commanders, a rank only 12 seniors can achieve.
Both, until a few weeks ago, had planned to become Navy fighter pilots, a plan upended when Marquette, strapped into a T-38 Talon and doing acrobatic stunts, became ill and decided flying was not for her.
No matter.
When the Department of the Navy announced in April a policy change allowing women to serve aboard submarines, Marquette Ried immediately volunteered.
In May, she was selected along with 10 other women to be the first female submariners in the service’s 110-year history.
“If they trust that I can do this,” Marquette said, embarrassed by the all the fuss over her, “I know I can do it.”
She had never envisioned the military, much less the Navy, in her future. And then a sailor home from deployment in the Middle East spoke to her high school class. Afterward, she could think of nothing but joining the Navy.
Natasha, on the other hand, had thought of little other than flying since she was 10 and saw the launch of a space shuttle.
“I fell in love with the thought of becoming an astronaut then,” she said.
When both were accepted to the Naval Academy, the twins headed off to college together.
“The funny thing is we had wanted to separate when time for college arrived, you know to form our own identities,” Natasha said.
Wednesday marked the first time they will live in separate cities. Natasha boarded a plane for Pensacola, Fla., and flight school. Marquette will work in recruiting in Denver until August when she reports to submarine school in Charleston, S.C.
After 15 months, she will report to her first Ohio-class nuclear sub, where she will command an engineering division of 10 to 15 sailors. She is required to spend the next five years in the Navy.
Natasha, whose plan is to fly F-18 fighters, has two to three years of flight school, plus another eight she is required to give the Navy.
“This will be a great challenge for me,” she said.
I bid farewell and Godspeed to the submariner and the pilot, convinced both will be as successful as each can imagine. They stopped me at the door.
“It is time we create our own identities,” Marquette, standing ramrod straight, said. “I’m grateful to the Naval Academy because it has given each of us a good middle ground to go on our own paths.”
“When I went in, it was all about me,” Natasha said. “I was always patriotic, I guess, but the academy gave me an experience that was all about the big picture. I think it is an honor now to serve my country.
“I think we are going to be OK.”
Bill Johnson writes Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Reach him at 303-954-2763 or wjohnson@denverpost.com.
