By Sara Laurie, Editor
Senior Eduardo Celaya ships out for basic training the day after graduation. Celaya joined the Marines this year. “I want to do something in my life,” Celaya said. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
This year four KHS seniors will be joining the Marines: Cesar Lazcano, Ivan Melendez and Celaya. Zachary Bingham and Brian Schnaitman are joining the Air Force, and Haley Peterson is joining the National Guard.
Social Studies teacher Javier Martinez, a former Marine, said enlisting is not a decision to be taken lightly. “It’s not all like the movies or a video game. Becoming a Marine is hard work. Boot Camp and Officers Candidate School is meant to be the most difficult thing a young man or woman has experienced up to that point in their life. You will be expected to take on a great deal of responsibility and live up to a very high standard,” Martinez said.
Celaya said he is expecting hard times ahead and his parents disagreed with his decision to join the Marines.
“They don’t want me to leave,” he said. “They want me to change my mind about joining.”
Martinez said it’s important to discuss enlistment with parents since it’s a big decision.
Requirements to enlist in the military include a high school diploma, a medical exam, proof of legal residency and basic training.
“We Marines have a saying that if everyone could be a Marine, then we wouldn’t be the Marines,” Martinez said.
- Military recruitment has gone up as unemployment has increased, with the waiting list longer than it has been in years. “Our economy has something to do with this, but not everything,” Col. David Lapan, deputy assistant secretary of defense for media operations, said. Free college tuition for veterans is a major incentive.
- One in five veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan has a traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress disorder, and one commits suicide every 80 minutes. A study from the Brain Injury Research Institute said the reason is chronic traumatic encephalopathy, caused by exposure to repeated explosions.
- An elite Navy SEAL team raided the compound where Osama bin Laden, was hiding in Pakistan and killed him. “We should all be proud. That handful of courageous men, of strong will and character, have changed the course of history,” Rear Adm. Edward Winters of the Naval Special Warfare Command wrote.