Photo By Joseph Siemandel | Photo of Officer Candidate Lee Baggensen-Jensen, Washington Army National Guard.... read more read more
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Officer Candidate Lee E. Baggesen-Jensen is one of the 98 candidates going through phase III of Officer Candidate School (OCS) on Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Standing at an unassuming 5 foot, 11 inches tall, Baggesen-Jensen is slim, fit, clean-cut, and wears glasses, and if you walked by him on the street, you might just think it was another guy with another story. However, he has lived a lot of life in his 28 years.
Originally from Solvang, California, Baggesen-Jensen graduated from Santa Ynez High School. He then earned his bachelors of science in Molecular Environmental Biology from University of California, Berkeley. In 2017, after college, Baggesen-Jensen moved to Seattle. He worked as a personal trainer for the downtown Seattle YMCA.
“I just wanted to do something different, and I was really intrigued by Chinese culture,” said Baggesen-Jensen.
He decided to move to Taiwan and teach English in 2019. Baggesen-Jensen left everything he knew and moved to New Taipei City, Taiwan, where he taught English at a small private school called Annies English School.
“I was interested in a different perspective, and I really appreciated the traditional Chinese culture,” said Baggesen-Jensen.
While in Taiwan he became fluent in Mandarin, and is currently learning to speak Russian.
Baggesen-Jensen lived in New Taipei City during COVID-19.
“It was the safest place to be,” he said.
While living in Taiwan, his younger brother joined the Army as a Human Intelligence soldier. Baggesen-Jensen said that his brother had such a passion for his newfound job that it spurred him to want to join, so in 2020, he returned to the United States. In February 2021, he joined the Washington Army National Guard.
“I wanted to come back to the U.S. and do something impactful,” said Baggesen-Jensen.
He will finish Phase III of Officer Candidate School and soon be commissioned as a 2nd Lt. in the Washington Army National Guard.
“It’s been very long and arduous, but the anecdotes of the staff have been helpful and taught me a lot, ” Baggesen-Jensen said when asked what has helped him most in this phase of his commissioning process.
For Baggesen-Jensen, the journey to this point and the work to become an officer is all worth it because he knows he can give back more.
“With all of my education and experiences in life, I just wanted to do something that had a large impact on my life.”
| Date Taken: | 07.30.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 07.31.2023 18:07 |
| Story ID: | 450362 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, WASHINGTON, US |
| Web Views: | 185 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Officer Candidate's journey to make an impact worth the work, by SSG Andrew Goedl, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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