(Washington) Jonny Kim born 1985
in Los Angeles to South Korean parents. After graduating from Santa Monica High School in 2002,
Kim enlisted in the Navy as a seaman and made the cut for the elite
SEAL team. Earning his way onto San Diego-based SEAL Team Three, Kim served as
a sniper, navigator and point man, among other roles, on over 100 combat
missions in the Middle East, earning Silver and Bronze stars. In 2006 while in
Iraq, two of Kim’s closest friends were shot on the same day. Kim was serving
as a medic and treated one of the friends who had a facial wound. Neither
friend survived. The deaths of his friends left him with a “feeling of
helplessness” and led to his decision to become a doctor. After earning a
mathematics degree from the University of San Diego in 2012, Kim went to
Harvard Medical School earning a medical degree in 2016. One year into his
residency at Massachusetts General Hospital Kim would learn he had been chosen
as a NASA astronaut candidate out of a pool out of over 18,000 applicants.
Congratulations! Dr. @JonnyYKim, former enlisted #NavySEAL member, math degree holder @uofsandiego, & @harvardmed alumnus, for becoming the 1st Korean-American @NASA astronaut to embark on assignments to the @Space_Station, Artemis missions to the Moon, and potentially Mars! pic.twitter.com/WbANp3aHKA— U.S. Embassy Seoul (@USEmbassySeoul) January 13, 2020
