Patriotism, job security draw recruits to service

[thedrifter]

Patriotism, job security draw recruits to service
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By CASEY S. RACE
Staff Writer
CentralOhio.com

ZANESVILLE - From patriotism to ensuring a job, new military recruits have a narrow range of reasons for wanting to join the service during war time.

"It's nice to never have to worry about losing your job, or finding a place to sleep," said Zanesville resident Jacob Imlay, 20. Imlay joined the military two years ago and will be shipped out to South Korea next month. He originally wanted a break from school before heading to college, and has three more years to decide if he wants to make a career out of the military.

At least a dozen new recruits from the area gathered Saturday evening at Secrest at the request of local recruiters, to meet up with veterans and form a support group for those new enlistees and their families.

The gathering - the brainchild of Zanesville Army Recruiting Station Commander Sgt. 1st Class Robert Riley - acquainted new recruits with veterans, and helped network family members together for the future.

"We're trying to start a big Army family circle," he said. "This is how we can help them with anything they may need for their soldier."

For 17-year-old Duane Eddy Jr. of Zanesville, enlisting in the Army was something he had always wanted to do.

"I want to make a career out of it," he said. Eddy has several family members who have enlisted in the service and decided to follow in their footsteps.

The prospect of heading to war does not concern Eddy that much. "And as long as there are still people that don't mind going, it saves people who don't want to go," he said.

Adamsville resident Brody Watson, 17, had similar reasons for joining.

"I just want to do it for the experience," he said. Watson has family members in Iraq now and is not frightened by the possibility of being sent to a war zone.

Seeing family in uniform and wanting a good education were reasons for Cleveland resident Brad Hejl, 19, to join up as well. War fears were secondary.

"It's your job - that's what you do," he said.

Hailey Cronin, 18, of Zanesville, was saddened that she was not allowed to enlist in the infantry - she wanted to be on the front lines.

"I've always wanted to be in the service," she said. "I want to be sent out in the world." Cronin said she takes after her father, who served in the Marines.

"I'm not afraid of death at all," she said. "When God thinks it is my time to die, so be it."

The Drifter's Wife

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Future of teen shaped by terrorist attacks
BY JEFFREY HAGEjeff.hage@lee.net

Nearly four years ago, Patrick Gallichio's life changed forever. That's when a student ran into Patrick's freshman Spanish class, yelling that the United States was being attacked.

The date was Sept. 11, 2001, and terrorists had just attacked the World Trade center in New York City and the Pentagon building in Washington, D.C.


Patrick, who will graduate from McDonell Central High School this evening, says that was the most memorable moment of his four high school years -- not only because that day changed the future of America, but because it shaped the future of a teen growing up outside Chippewa Falls in the town of Wheaton.

"That very day I decided my future. I wanted to join the Marine Corps," Patrick said.

That's exactly what one would expect from McDonell's 2005 recipient of the Bishop's Award for Excellence in Religion, an annual scholarship presented by the bishop's office of the La Crosse diocese.

The award honors students who show above-average character, discipline and academic achievement in school subjects and school life. Other factors are a desire to build the community and Christian service.


Patrick, whose grandfather served in the Army in World War II and whose uncle was in Vietnam, said setting his sights on the Marines was an easy decision.

"It's unfair to ask of others what you're unwilling to do yourself," Patrick said, quoting Eleanor Roosevelt.

He was also moved by the Marines' history and reputation.


"Honor, pride and challenge. That's why I made the decision," Patrick said. "I think I could also benefit from the discipline."

It's ironic that 2001 events in New York and Washington shaped Patrick's future, and 2005 events in those same cities helped fortify the notion that he made the right decision.

McDonell seniors visited New York and Washington on the annual class trip, and seeing war memorials, monuments and some of the areas affected by the terrorist attacks made a strong impact on Patrick.


"I was moved by the fact that so many were willing to make sacrifices, and many men and women gave their lives," Patrick said.

"By joining the military, I'm giving thanks back to them and honoring them."

The trip also served as a great opportunity for Patrick and his classmates to become a close-knit group, he said.

"We all got to know our classmates better and built a camaraderie that should last forever," Patrick said.


That's not to say he didn't have a connection to his classmates and the Chippewa Area Catholic Schools system prior to the trip.

He has been involved in the community through teaching CCD classes and volunteering at the Salvation Army. He has been involved in the Dead Theologian Society, and organizing teen youth nights.

"I just try to help out where I can," he said.

Patrick also enjoys school -- a statement backed up by the fact that he did not miss a day of school in 2004-05.

"I tried not to miss much school my entire high school career," he said.

That kind of hard work paid off in terms of earning the Bishop's Award.


"School always seems to be a highway filled with people being honored for their participation in athletics or the fine arts," Patrick said. "I'm honored to be recognized for academics and for doing something good."

The Drifter's Wife

Ellie

[thedrifter]

A Reminder of Sacrifice Ahead
Gar-Field High JROTC Honors Slain Alumni

By Ian Shapira
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 3, 2005; Page B01

The JROTC Marine Corps cadets at Gar-Field Senior High School in Woodbridge have a clear idea of the honor and wreckage that death in combat brings.

Yesterday, in the school's main lobby, they helped dedicate a memorial to the three Gar-Field graduates who have died serving in the military: Marine Lance Cpl. Brian A. Medina, 20, and Army National Guard Spec. David Ruhren, 20, who were killed last year in Iraq, and Richard W. Yates, a naval medical corpsman killed in South Vietnam in 1969.

The cadets said the deaths -- particularly those of the two recent alumni -- are sobering. But some said they represent a sacrifice they are willing to make.

"Obviously, it scares me -- if it doesn't scare you, you're insane. But I don't know, I just feel like I should go," said Patrick Clouse, 17, of Dale City, a captain in the school's Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps. "I decided that on September 12, 2001. I am going to join the Marines. If they decide to send me to Iraq, that's where I am going to go."

Bill Willis, a physics teacher and Vietnam War veteran, served as host of the dedication, which included students, county School Board members and the families of the fallen soldiers. "We honor each one not only as a soldier, a sailor or a Marine," he said, "but also as young men in the prime of their lives and as students from our school."

The memorial is a wooden display case containing duplicate medals and photographs of the three alumni. The dedication had the pomp of a commencement and the gravity of a funeral. The Gar-Field symphonic band, its members dressed in tuxedos and black dresses, played "America the Beautiful," and Willis read a wrenching letter that Ruhren's mother, Sonja, wrote to her son after he died.

"Hi, handsome," the letter began. It went on, "You had no idea that the man you were trying to become, the image you were trying to become, you were already there."

Willis said he and other school officials got the idea for the memorial last year after Medina died. They raised more than $3,000 in funds and materials from the school's staff, an American Legion group, a Veterans of Foreign Wars post and local merchants.

In his own research, Willis learned about Yates and tracked down his friends by putting ads in local papers and military publications. He even spoke with one of Yates's former classmates in Alaska who still reads a local paper and saw an ad.

One of the hardest parts of creating the memorial, Willis said, was leaving space for more names.

In Prince William, the area's second-largest school system, enrollment in the JROTC program has increased in the past five years from about 500 students to as many as 800, said Fred Milbert, a curriculum supervisor. Milbert said the county is hoping to add more programs at other schools. In Fairfax County, Northern Virginia's largest system, the program's enrollment for the past five years has not changed, at 880 to 890 students a year.

As Medina's and Ruhren's parents spoke, many of the JROTC cadets gazed at the podium with clenched jaws.

"This reminds us all of all the danger we're going to face. We don't know what's going to happen," said Christopher Hoffmann, 17, a junior. As he was listening to the alumni's parents, he said, "I was thinking about how hard it would be for my parents."

Hoffmann stepped into the line of people waiting to file past the memorial. After staring at it for several seconds, he placed a hand momentarily on the shoulder of a fellow cadet and then walked away.

The Drifter's Wife

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Many graduates trade books for boot camp

By Michael D. Clark
Enquirer staff writer

Mona Lammers knows that 13 Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky soldiers who served in the Middle East in the last two years came home in caskets.

In fact, the Fairfield High senior was in the school gym last month staring at one of those caskets during the military funeral for Marine Lance Cpl. Taylor Prazynski, a 2003 graduate of the Butler County school.

Yet Sunday, just hours after she finishes her school graduation ceremony, Lammers will report to a U.S. Marine Corps office in Louisville to begin a trip to boot camp at Parris Island, S.C.

Lammers, 18, joins other area graduates who will soon trade their graduation caps and gowns for boots and fatigues. They say they are willing to sacrifice their lives if necessary in America's fight against terrorism.

Their patriotism remains undimmed by the rising casualties from Iraq and unaffected by the polls that indicate growing public dissatisfaction with the purpose and the pace of the conflict.

"I was at Prazynski's funeral, and it only strengthened my decision," said Lammers, who enlisted in November. "Most of my classmates think I'm crazy, but my parents raised me to have the highest respect for the military, and it's such an honor to be a Marine."

Marine recruitment remains strong locally, said U.S. Marine Sgt. Scott Whittingham of the Louisville recruiting office.

The office, which covers a region spanning all of Kentucky and parts of Southwest Ohio and southern Indiana, recruited 702 people in the fiscal year ending October 2004, up from 647 the previous year. In 2003, the Cincinnati Marines office recruited 88, which was more than any other office in the region. And in 2004, the Fairfield recruiting office was the busiest in the region with 103 recruits, Whittingham said.

Nationally, however, Marine recruiting has dipped. In January, the military branch reported narrowly missing its national recruitment goal of 3,270 for the first time in a decade, short by 84 recruits.

Lammers' older sister, Cathi Parrish, is already a Marine, and her older brother, Josh, plans to join in September. Lammers watched her sister's boot camp graduation ceremony last year at Parris Island, and the stirring event left her emotional and inspired.

"I'd give up everything for my country. I like the whole idea of the Marines being the few and the proud. A lot of high school seniors don't understand that sort of challenge," Lammers said.

She cited the 9/11 terrorist attacks as igniting her patriotism. "I know 100 percent this is what I'm supposed to do," she said.

Fairfield English teacher Jay Muldoon, who has known Lammers for two years, described her as very compassionate.

"And that compassion leads her to want to serve. She wants to give back to her country," Muldoon said. "This is a very patriotic community and while many Fairfield students were emotionally crushed by the Prazynski funeral, some like Mona were inspired."

Reading High School senior Brad Streets graduated Thursday He is scheduled to report to Army training in Fort Jackson, S.C., within two weeks.

Unlike Lammers, whose first exposure to military life will be Marine boot camp, Streets has been a member of the Navy JROTC program at Scarlet Oaks vocational school for two years. He was motivated to enlist by the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

"On 9/11, a lot of innocent people died for no reason," Streets, 18, said. "We're in a war on terrorism, and I'd rather go and fight for my country than work at pumping gas or be working at some fast-food restaurant for minimum wage"

Streets, who enlisted last year, said he hasn't been daunted by the deaths of local soldiers. "I view them all as heroes," he said. "I'm sorry for them, but in the Army, I will have to look past all that and do my job."

Streets, who learned welding at Scarlet Oaks, plans to fly and repair Blackhawk helicopters. He might stay in the military or seek a career in aviation with the skills he expects to learn during his service.

Joyce Jones, his counselor at Reading, described Streets as self-motivated and a student who "likes the structure provided by the military because it helped him build self-confidence."

Ryle High School graduate Eric Wentzel, 18, is headed for the Marines and will begin boot camp at the end of the summer.

The Florence resident points directly to 9/11 as being "the moment I knew I wanted to serve."

Coming from a military family - his father served 21 years in the U.S. Air Force before retiring - helped solidify his decision to enlist in the Marines. But he also wanted to show "active patriotism" by enlisting before he graduated this month.

Wentzel also said the recent local military funerals bolstered his decision.

"It made me feel stronger about wanting to serve. I don't want to just be a face in the crowd supporting the troops. I want to be part of the troops. I like the challenge of being part of one of the most elite fighting forces in the world."

E-mail mclark@enquirer.com

The Drifters Wife

Ellie

[yellowwing]

These are some great stories of schools actively supporting our troops and honoring who we are. We need more coverage of these patriotic folks.

There must be hundreds of schools sending letters to our Marines. But its the few nasty letter writers that get the media spotlight. Go figure.

[jinelson]

Well said Wing, dang media. I for one am very proud to stand with these young patriots that follow in our foot steps.

Semper Fi

Jim :marine:

[thedrifter]

Vietnamese family sends son to Marines
By Aimee Yee

Tony Nguyen, 18, is leaving for boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, S.C., to become a U.S. Marine.

It's a dream the young man has had since childhood, and one his parents, Thai and Kim, have encouraged, although they know they're sending him to fight in a war in a country similar to the one they escaped so many years ago.

Nguyen, a recent graduate of St. Thomas Aquinas Regional Catholic High School, said he has always wanted to pay back the country that has given him so many opportunities. He wants to be a hero, and that's OK with his parents. To the Nguyens, it's important that Tony be a success at fulfilling his dreams in the military. They said it's important he understands that he and his five brothers have been able to live in this country because of the work of soldiers, some who gave their lives, to liberate the Vietnamese from communism.

At a farewell party at businessman Philip Monteleone's store on C.M. Fagan Drive, the family gathered with about 75 friends and family members Sunday afternoon to bid Tony good wishes for his future.

Out of Vietnam

Kim escaped Vietnam at age 12, the day Saigon fell. She remembers the chaos of that day and feeling how lucky she was to escape with her whole family intact.

Escaping wasn't so easy for Thai, he said. It took him three failed fishing boat attempts in the three years after Saigon fell before the fourth trip finally paid off and he arrived in America. Wearing shorts and a T-shirt, he was only 16 years old.

The two met in the States, married and moved to the small Tangipahoa Parish community of Independence. They set up a store and began a family .

"St. Thomas Aquinas, the staff there, the principal, Sister Judith Ann Haase, they helped raise Tony," Thai Nguyen said. "He would come home with new shoes, a new outfit, and say the coach bought it for him. Without them, we couldn't have raised our family. We've enjoyed a sense of community here in Independence, and it takes a community to raise a child. With six boys, we had a lot of help from our Independence community."

"It was very important to us that Tony and our other children receive a Christian education. We're all raised up Catholic. The boys did without, but they went to a fine school that helped them achieve a good, moral Catholic education and background," Kim Nguyen said."That's what you live for, work for -- your children. I told each of them, you can be a doctor, a president, but without God, you're nobody."

"We teach them all of their lives never to take anything for granted. We didn't have much. We share all that we have. We told them how it was to be refugees, and it makes us proud he's serving this country, our country. It's a good opportunity to be here, to live and prosper and be in America. Tony is returning the favor to the country that helped us. There is so much here in America."

Heroes

Kim Nguyen had spent the night before the farewell party cooking traditional Vietnamese food, so much that after everyone ate several plates and left carrying plates at the Nguyens' insistence.

It had already been a hard weekend for Kim. She left New Orleans Saturday after burying her 20-year-old goddaughter, Thu Van Le, who was soon to graduate from Tulane University. She had planned to become a pediatric physician. Instead, she was murdered at the Algiers store where she worked with her family. Monteleone said the young woman was killed, but no money was taken. It appears she was killed for no other reason than for simply being Vietnamese.

"I'm very proud of Tony," his mother said to the guests Sunday. "As a mother, I'm scared for him. But this is his choice for his future. He's always wanted to be a hero. I want him to come home a hero. He said to me that he could be killed here at home simply walking down the street, and I know that's true."

Tony Nguyen passed up three full football scholarships to join the Marine Corps. One was to Princeton, another to Louisiana State University, and the third to Louisiana Tech. He plans to attend Louisiana Tech when he returns from service to his country.

His mother spoke of two men who have inspired him and helped him achieve his dream.

The family met Monteleone, a Marine who served in Vietnam, at the Vietnam Moving Wall in Ponchatoula two years ago. He quickly befriended the family, visited them at their Independence store and became fast friends with Tony.

Sgt. Greg Davis of the USMC met Tony when the boy was in the eighth grade at Mater Dolorosa Catholic School in Independence. The teenager joined the Jr. ROTC and expressed a great desire to join the armed forces and fight for his country.

"I want to congratulate you for taking the right course in life and becoming a Marine," Monteleone said to Tony during the party. "All I've heard since I returned from Vietnam is that it was a waste of time and effort. Look around you today and see the smiling Vietnamese people here. Democracy was the way to go. There is a brighter future here in America.

"Look at the people you walk by daily, whose shoulders you brush, and whose lives you touch. Many people struggle to have things we were simply born into.

"For me, seeing Tony join the Marines is a bit of closure," Monteleone continued. "I know that my friends died for a purpose, and that purpose is now. I have every one of their pictures on my wall at home. We lost 58,000 men. That's 10 men for every Vietnamese person we got out of the country. That shows you how much America cares, for you and your right to freedom. God bless you, and God bless America."

When Sgt. Greg Davis spoke, Tony held a patch up for all to see. The patch read, "The nation which forgets its defenders will itself be forgotten."

"Let's remember all of those who go before us," Davis said. "We all know that Monday is Memorial Day. We shouldn't ever forget."

Giving back

As their guests ate and listened to a medley of official military songs, Tony and his parents walked the room and made sure everyone was comfortable and had plenty to eat and drink. They served more and more crawfish, corn and potatos.

The Nguyens finally got themselves a plate and joined in the festivities. When Tony sat at the table, the Marine Hymn began playing loudly through the speakers near the tables heavily-laden with food.

After speaking in his native tongue to the elder Vietnamese members of the family, Thai spoke English again. "This party isn't for Tony," he said. "This party is for all of the people here who helped Tony be raised and everyone in the community, his school. They all adopted us and helped him become the person he is. He's a lucky child to be so cared for here by these good people. Tony's going to take that with him in life."

"Tony," his mother said. "You know I hate to send you away. It's only a short time we had to teach you all that we could, and we know you'll never forget all of these people who made you a lucky boy and a good man."

Tony approached the microphone to address the crowd, his arms filled with presents wrapped in newspaper and silver duct tape. He apologized for the wrapping, saying he'd done it himself.

He called Sister Judith and his two high school coaches to the front of the room to receive the gifts he had chosen for them to thank them for their help in his life.

"He wants to do this," his mother said. "He wants to give back to a country that gave us so much. In America, we had the opportunity and the chance to be somebody. We don't get that chance in Vietnam. We encourage our children to give back, to pay back the country."

The Drifter's Wife

Ellie

[thedrifter]

To serve, protect and study

Four Lincoln-Way East grads heading to U.S. military academies

Wednesday, June 8, 2005

By Kati Phillips
Staff writer
When Dan Zoellick goes to college, the school will provide him with a PC, a scientific calculator and a hand-held computer.

Five years down the line, he also could get a fighter plane.

Zoellick is among four Lincoln-Way East High School seniors to graduate tonight who will attend U.S. military academies and serve at least five years in the military after college graduation.

This is the highest number of graduates to commit to military education in Lincoln-Way history, spokeswoman Stacy Holland said.

The students' motivation lies not in patriotism or family ties, but in the opportunity to play water polo, wrestling and football on nationally ranked teams, and the knowledge that no matter the state of our economy, they will have a job waiting for them in 2009.

"I kind of got everything I wanted out of a school," said Zoellick, who will play water polo and study aviation at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. "However, it doesn't go without a lot of hard work."

Boot camp

That hard work starts in three weeks, when other members of the class of 2005 will be easing into summer jobs and perfecting their tans.

Military academies require six weeks of basic training before classes begin in the fall.

East grad Dave Izzo, a future aerospace engineer, expects hours of running and browbeating when he becomes an Air Force Academy "plebe."

Unlike your typical freshman, Izzo hopes no one sends him a care package in his first weeks away. He hears drill sergeants swipe them and order the intended recipient to run laps.

"I'm already thinking about how bad they are going to beat me up," he said.

Buzz cut

Conditioning should not be a problem for East grad Drake Rossi who, as a top state wrestler, stays in shape year-round.

But he admits he doesn't fit the military school stereotype, with his laid-back demeanor and shaggy curls.

His older brother and friends wanted him to join them at the University of Illinois, but he chose the Military Academy at West Point because of its academic rigor, wrestling team and friendly coach.

His vision of West Point was cadets marching around with guns, gung-ho about fighting on the front lines.

But once he visited New York and talked to students, he found out he could serve his military time on an international wrestling team or study law or medicine and become a military lawyer or doctor.

Now the 18-year-old is thinking long term.

"If we are at a peaceful wartime state in nine years, I will think about staying in," he said. "I'd have nine years and with just 11 more I could get a pension."

Front line

Football standout Kyle Bookhout is the only East graduate who said he would volunteer to fight in Iraq if it comes time.

Ever since he was a child, Bookhout has devoured books about the military.

After he completes a year at the Navy prep school and four years at the Naval Academy playing ball, he wants to join the Marines Corps.

This would place him with an estimated 30 percent of academy graduates who choose a military career after their mandatory service is up.

"I don't want to be the guy who is always sitting back in an office somewhere. I want to see combat," he said.

Different world

Beyond the combat option, military academies are unlike civilian colleges.

Each incoming class is limited to about 1,200 people, and students take an oath of loyalty to their country and promise to be honorable in everything they do and say.

The students are graded not only on academics, but on moral, physical and mental strength.

After they earn a bachelor's degree, the students choose a branch of military service based on their class rank. They serve five years as an officer.

Raymond Rossi, the former mayor of Frankfort, said his son asked the family for advice while choosing among West Point or another top wrestling school. They made it a point not to convince him one way or the other.

"Given the timing, it is pretty scary," Rossi said. "I am proud he wants to go in and serve. He will get a great education. It is a great honor."

Kati Phillips may be reached at kphillips@dailysouthtown.com or (708) 633-5976.

Ellie