Soldiers who are stronger, smarter, and better at protecting their homeland are being trained within our very high school. Throughout time, a strong military has been seen as the foundation of a strong country, and America is making strides to ensure our strength by preparing our soldiers in their youth.
New systems, like the Future Fighters Program, allow high schoolers who plan to join the military to finish their basic training during their junior and senior summers, directly entering their preferred field right after their senior year summer basic training.
“During the first few weeks, I started feeling homesick, making it difficult to wake up,” Private Jose Angel Buanventura Acosta, a senior, said. “I missed my family and friends and being able to sleep for a good amount of hours.”
Even through these struggles, those who join used the fact that they were making the right choice for themselves and their families as fuel to continue through this treacherous journey.
“It was tough, but I’d definitely recommend joining to everyone,” Private Gutierrez-Zumidio, a senior, said.
Some of these challenges can be very unexpected—for example, the rook march.
“The most challenging was the marching,” Buenaventura said. “They progressively got harder as we went through training, the last one being 10 miles taking us almost two hours, walking in a line in extreme heat plus we were wearing 50-pound rook sacks.”
With the amount of effort put in, many new skills are gained, like basic skills for day-to-day civilian life.
“I knew we would learn more discipline,” Buenaventura said. “But I didn’t realize we would be forced to be so organized, now if I don’t follow my old waking-up routine I feel like I did something wrong.”
Within the National Guard, a variety of career opportunities allow students to follow a passion while making good financial choices and serving duty to their country.
“There are over 130 different careers which the National Guard can help set you up to follow, ranging from engineering, nursing, tech, or finance and much more,” Gutierrez said.
This large amount of opportunities, disciplines, and knowledge has made the soldiers glad about their choice.
“Joining the National Guard has been one of the best choices of my life,” Buenaventura and Guteriezz said.
