When people think of the men and women who serve in the United States military, words that come to mind may be honor, strength, sacrifice, and perseverance. People willing to lay down their lives for this country are honored and respected throughout the nation. However what some students may not know is that some of these military service members, and future military service members are walking in the same halls that you are now. Many students at PCHS, wish to pursue enlistment or ROTC scholarships, and some are already members of the US military and have undertaken their oath. These students deserve recognition for their willingness to sacrifice everything for our country, which has facilitated our education and freedom. 

The military has limitless opportunities in a wide array of different fields and specialties, and this is demonstrated by senior Benjamin Oliver’s experience in trying to be commissioned into the Army. 

“I’ll be going into flying, hopefully, helicopters,” Olliver said,

A special program that the army has is allowing him to start his training right after high school. 

“So the programs literally called high school to flight school, right after high school you can go right to flight school,” Olliver said

This program is exclusive to the Army and is a highly unique opportunity that allows high school students to become pilots with just a diploma.

This high school does not only contain future military service members, students are allowed to enlist at the age of 17 and senior Marcus Edlin has already gone through the whole process, and is an enlisted member of the United States Marines. His enlistment was a long and arduous process but it was well worth the wait.

According to Edlin, the procedure includes, an overnight stay, a thorough medical checkup, to ensure that the enlistee is eligible, and the signing of a large stack of documents. But all of these were necessary in order for Edlin to achieve his long-time dream of joining the military. 

“I’ve been wanting to join the military like my entire life,” Edlin said. Another important part of enlisting in the military is the ASVAB which is the standardized test the military uses to ensure the readiness of the enlistees. 

“It checked your skills as a person to see what you’re good at,” Edlin said. The ASVAB tests things such as reading level and mechanical skill. 

This dream is extremely important to many people, and having the opportunity to do this means a lot to the people who are trying to enlist. However, joining the military is not easy. It has numerous trials and tribulations, including the infamous Marine boot camp. Edlin ships off to boot camp on June 23.

“Its a lot of classes and having to learn like Marine Corps history and stuff about your weapon[…]it’s a lot of the mental aspect when you’re going into boot camp, like[seeing] you can mentally handle all of it,” Edlin said

The Marines heavily emphasize the value of mental strength, and Bootcamp perfectly represents this.