thedrifter
03-17-08, 07:40 AM
Denied early entry by court commissioner, foster teen vows to enlist
By Dana Bartholomew, Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 03/16/2008 11:03:49 PM PDT
SIMI VALLEY - He's as chiseled as a Marine, as gung-ho as a Marine and as gun keen as a Marine.
And if this 17-year-old gets his way, he may soon be a Marine.
Foster teen Shawn Sage - who drew national attention when word got out that a Los Angeles court commissioner dashed his hopes for early enlistment in the Corps - is counting the days until June 7 when he turns 18.
"The very next day, I'm going to the recruiting office and sign," said Sage, interviewed at his home last week in Simi Valley. "I can't wait.
"I feel just a little bit overwhelmed. Now I know why Britney Spears is crazy. I never thought it would get this big."
Neither did his recruiters, whom Marine brass ordered to keep mum after Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich called for a full judicial review of the incident.
A Daily News story this month put the spotlight on the Oct.12 decision by Commissioner Marilyn Mackel to deny Sage's petition to enlist in the USMC Delayed Entry Program. Sage and his recruiter said Mackel's decision was based on her opposition to the Iraq war and the military as a career.
The decision cost Sage a guaranteed job and a potential $10,000 signing bonus.
Mackel, who has looked after Sage for the county since he was 7, has refused to comment on her decision.
Undeterred, the Royal High School senior insisted there ought to be a law to allow foster teens to enlist in the service at 17 without express permission from a judge.
Assemblyman Cameron Smyth, R-Santa Clarita, answered by awarding Sage with a pending bill, Assembly Bill 2238, that would permit early enlistment with consent from a foster parent or social worker.
The controversy has sparked heated debate on talk radio, TV and blogs. Following a Drudge Report posting of the Daily News story, readers responded with an initial 1,300 comments.
Veterans and conservatives called for Mackel's ouster for injecting political bias to the bench.
Others, including a Vietnam veteran and the man Sage credits with turning his life around, defended Mackel's decision to safeguard a minor from an unpopular war overseas.
"She's looked out for him and made sure he's on the straight and narrow," said Rob Pilloud, a magnet coordinator at Holmes Middle School in Northridge who was Sage's foster parent for five years.
"She's a bit on the rough side, but she also has a soft side, and she's been very good to Shawn.
"I love him so much I don't want to see him go into the military before he graduates."
Still, Mackel's decision has led to a deluge of media requests and postcards to Sage from as far away as Florida.
And in Simi Valley, the would-be Marine has been treated like a local hero.
"I don't see a lot of these kinds of kids," said Simi Valley Councilwoman Barbra Williamson, who issued him a city proclamation during double school assemblies this month.
"To really take the bull by the horns and say, `I'm not going to stand for this. ...' This young man is totally unassuming, but there is a strength of steel behind his calmness."
Everything about the lean, 6-foot-1, 153-pound would-be recruit says Semper Fidelis.
In his cluttered bedroom, which he shares with his foster brother inside a large stucco home, is an oversize poster of a fighting Marine.
Its motto: "Protection." "Liberation." "Warriors."
Sage points out the Marine's M-16A1 rifle with its 40mm M203 grenade launcher: "Oh, I know my guns," he said.
He has Marine cadences on his MySpace.com Web site.
Only his single bed is loose enough to swallow a pocketful of quarters. Was he ready to make a proper Marine's bed?
"I know the hospital corners, everything," Sage interjected. "I know my stuff."
When he was 2, his parents abandoned Sage and his brother with what may have been a baby sitter and never returned.
For a rocky few years, they lived with their Florida grandparents. When he was 7, they were flown to California to be near their mother, doing prison time for prostitution and drugs. He has not remained in contact with her.
Sage went on to endure five foster homes from Pacoima to Panorama City to Simi Valley - some "unbearable," some with loving parental care.
In the sixth grade, he got caught for stealing cash off the dining room table.
"I used to be a bad kid," he said. "Didn't care about school. I was a rebel. Being a little kid, you don't know what you're living for.
"People treat you like crap. They make you feel like crap. So you think you're crap."
The turnaround, he said, came when he met Pilloud.
He soon became Rob and Susie Pilloud's foster son.
"It was their love," Sage said. "But mostly it was the role they took in school. School was big. 3.0 (grade point averages). Chores. Everything that a real parent would expect of their kid.
"Being treated like a real son and looking at these foster parents like real parents, that's what changed me."
For his part, Pilloud, who now teaches history and math at Holmes Middle School, credited Mackel's strong direction in Sage's life.
"He's a good kid. I like him. I love him," added Pilloud, an Army veteran.
"I was a Vietnam vet for 18 months. I said to Shawn: `It's a privilege to serve your country. You'll be asked to make many decisions. It'll make you proud. (You'll) also make decisions that may haunt (you) for the rest of (your) life."'
While with the Pillouds, Sage joined the Boy Scouts. He got a telescope and took to gazing at the heavens. He revived a lifelong dream of joining the service, perhaps the Air Force.
Or of becoming a firefighter just like the one who took him for a firetruck ride and let him don 120 pounds of firefighting gear.
A year ago, he saw the movies "Shooter" and "Full Metal Jacket," and he was hooked on becoming a Marine.
His current foster parents gave the go-ahead. But Mackel did not.
"She said, `I'd rather see you go to college, continue on with your life, being happy, rather than join the military."'
"I was flabbergasted," he said. "I couldn't believe she used her own personal opinion about the war and the military to say no. I was in a state of disbelief."
Gary Endicott, an Air Force veteran who fosters three teens, including Sage, said he thinks every child should do a two-year stint in the service.
"He's a good kid," he said. "I'm proud of him. I support his desire to go into the Marines."
To her credit, Mackel did what she thought was best and "has a really good heart," Sage said.
Though early deployment might have given him a hefty bonus, he said he doesn't care about the money.
Instead, he works out with Simi Valley recruiters each Wednesday to be in shape for the Corps.
And when he graduates from high school a week after his birthday, he'll make a beeline to the recruiting office for a life as a Marine.
"I think I'm a good poster boy," he said. "I'm gung ho."
Ellie
By Dana Bartholomew, Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 03/16/2008 11:03:49 PM PDT
SIMI VALLEY - He's as chiseled as a Marine, as gung-ho as a Marine and as gun keen as a Marine.
And if this 17-year-old gets his way, he may soon be a Marine.
Foster teen Shawn Sage - who drew national attention when word got out that a Los Angeles court commissioner dashed his hopes for early enlistment in the Corps - is counting the days until June 7 when he turns 18.
"The very next day, I'm going to the recruiting office and sign," said Sage, interviewed at his home last week in Simi Valley. "I can't wait.
"I feel just a little bit overwhelmed. Now I know why Britney Spears is crazy. I never thought it would get this big."
Neither did his recruiters, whom Marine brass ordered to keep mum after Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich called for a full judicial review of the incident.
A Daily News story this month put the spotlight on the Oct.12 decision by Commissioner Marilyn Mackel to deny Sage's petition to enlist in the USMC Delayed Entry Program. Sage and his recruiter said Mackel's decision was based on her opposition to the Iraq war and the military as a career.
The decision cost Sage a guaranteed job and a potential $10,000 signing bonus.
Mackel, who has looked after Sage for the county since he was 7, has refused to comment on her decision.
Undeterred, the Royal High School senior insisted there ought to be a law to allow foster teens to enlist in the service at 17 without express permission from a judge.
Assemblyman Cameron Smyth, R-Santa Clarita, answered by awarding Sage with a pending bill, Assembly Bill 2238, that would permit early enlistment with consent from a foster parent or social worker.
The controversy has sparked heated debate on talk radio, TV and blogs. Following a Drudge Report posting of the Daily News story, readers responded with an initial 1,300 comments.
Veterans and conservatives called for Mackel's ouster for injecting political bias to the bench.
Others, including a Vietnam veteran and the man Sage credits with turning his life around, defended Mackel's decision to safeguard a minor from an unpopular war overseas.
"She's looked out for him and made sure he's on the straight and narrow," said Rob Pilloud, a magnet coordinator at Holmes Middle School in Northridge who was Sage's foster parent for five years.
"She's a bit on the rough side, but she also has a soft side, and she's been very good to Shawn.
"I love him so much I don't want to see him go into the military before he graduates."
Still, Mackel's decision has led to a deluge of media requests and postcards to Sage from as far away as Florida.
And in Simi Valley, the would-be Marine has been treated like a local hero.
"I don't see a lot of these kinds of kids," said Simi Valley Councilwoman Barbra Williamson, who issued him a city proclamation during double school assemblies this month.
"To really take the bull by the horns and say, `I'm not going to stand for this. ...' This young man is totally unassuming, but there is a strength of steel behind his calmness."
Everything about the lean, 6-foot-1, 153-pound would-be recruit says Semper Fidelis.
In his cluttered bedroom, which he shares with his foster brother inside a large stucco home, is an oversize poster of a fighting Marine.
Its motto: "Protection." "Liberation." "Warriors."
Sage points out the Marine's M-16A1 rifle with its 40mm M203 grenade launcher: "Oh, I know my guns," he said.
He has Marine cadences on his MySpace.com Web site.
Only his single bed is loose enough to swallow a pocketful of quarters. Was he ready to make a proper Marine's bed?
"I know the hospital corners, everything," Sage interjected. "I know my stuff."
When he was 2, his parents abandoned Sage and his brother with what may have been a baby sitter and never returned.
For a rocky few years, they lived with their Florida grandparents. When he was 7, they were flown to California to be near their mother, doing prison time for prostitution and drugs. He has not remained in contact with her.
Sage went on to endure five foster homes from Pacoima to Panorama City to Simi Valley - some "unbearable," some with loving parental care.
In the sixth grade, he got caught for stealing cash off the dining room table.
"I used to be a bad kid," he said. "Didn't care about school. I was a rebel. Being a little kid, you don't know what you're living for.
"People treat you like crap. They make you feel like crap. So you think you're crap."
The turnaround, he said, came when he met Pilloud.
He soon became Rob and Susie Pilloud's foster son.
"It was their love," Sage said. "But mostly it was the role they took in school. School was big. 3.0 (grade point averages). Chores. Everything that a real parent would expect of their kid.
"Being treated like a real son and looking at these foster parents like real parents, that's what changed me."
For his part, Pilloud, who now teaches history and math at Holmes Middle School, credited Mackel's strong direction in Sage's life.
"He's a good kid. I like him. I love him," added Pilloud, an Army veteran.
"I was a Vietnam vet for 18 months. I said to Shawn: `It's a privilege to serve your country. You'll be asked to make many decisions. It'll make you proud. (You'll) also make decisions that may haunt (you) for the rest of (your) life."'
While with the Pillouds, Sage joined the Boy Scouts. He got a telescope and took to gazing at the heavens. He revived a lifelong dream of joining the service, perhaps the Air Force.
Or of becoming a firefighter just like the one who took him for a firetruck ride and let him don 120 pounds of firefighting gear.
A year ago, he saw the movies "Shooter" and "Full Metal Jacket," and he was hooked on becoming a Marine.
His current foster parents gave the go-ahead. But Mackel did not.
"She said, `I'd rather see you go to college, continue on with your life, being happy, rather than join the military."'
"I was flabbergasted," he said. "I couldn't believe she used her own personal opinion about the war and the military to say no. I was in a state of disbelief."
Gary Endicott, an Air Force veteran who fosters three teens, including Sage, said he thinks every child should do a two-year stint in the service.
"He's a good kid," he said. "I'm proud of him. I support his desire to go into the Marines."
To her credit, Mackel did what she thought was best and "has a really good heart," Sage said.
Though early deployment might have given him a hefty bonus, he said he doesn't care about the money.
Instead, he works out with Simi Valley recruiters each Wednesday to be in shape for the Corps.
And when he graduates from high school a week after his birthday, he'll make a beeline to the recruiting office for a life as a Marine.
"I think I'm a good poster boy," he said. "I'm gung ho."
Ellie