Detroit Lakes’ Elena Gilbert Graduates from US Naval Academy with Honors

Elena Gilbert shaking hands with President Biden (Credit: US Naval Academy)

ANNAPOLIS (KDLM) – Elena Gilbert (Detroit Lakes High School Class of 2018) and her family celebrated Graduation and Commissioning from the United States Naval Academy on Friday, May 27 in Annapolis, Maryland.

Gilbert is the daughter of Phil and Beth Gilbert of Detroit Lakes, sister to Ava Gilbert (DLHS ’21) and Granddaughter of Ellen Gilbert of Detroit Lakes. Gilbert is graduating from the Naval Academy with a Bachelor of Science in Oceanography with Honors. She has been selected for Navy flight school and will be reporting to Pensacola, Florida later this summer.

USNA’s 2022 Graduation and Commissioning Ceremony was held outside at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. This year’s speaker was President Joe Biden.

Gilbert’s grandfather David Horslev of Barrington, Illinois, who served in the U.S. Air Force, was on hand for graduation and was thrilled to be the first to salute his granddaughter after helping pin on her new rank insignia as ensign in the Navy.

Shortly before graduation, Gilbert was awarded the Oceanography Department’s prestigious Professor Emeritus Jerome Williams Oceanography Research Paper Award. The award recognizes the best individual research paper (honors research, independents research or independent Capstone paper). Gilbert stated “I am really surprised and honored to have been selected for the award. I put a lot of hard work into the project but there are so many smart people in my class that I really didn’t expect this award.”

Her paper focused on the Spratly Islands and was entitled “Predicting Mixed Layer Temperature and Salinity in the South China Sea.”