News
Be Strong, Army Strong
Being army strong means having immense emotional, physical and mental health. Being a high school student means having class 8 hours a day, tests and finals. Certain students among the halls balance the two in their own way.
Junior Josh Strait is involved in JROTC at central academy.
“I want to full active in the military after I go to mechanic school,” Strait said.
Strait used to skateboard on a regular basis but when he decided to start JROTC and training for the military he couldn’t risk getting hurt.
“The military expects you to be in good physical health, giving up skateboarding was hard but I really want to join when I’m done with school,” Strait said.
Strait spends a lot of time balancing school and military stuff.
“School takes up time as it is, so balancing the work and training for ROTC it can get difficult,” Strait said.
Senior Seth Jamison became involved with ROTC and the military for many reasons.
“I want to be in the military because I understand how it works and I have the experience from ROTC,” Jamison said. “Plus it will help me with college and its one of the most respected programs.”
Physical fitness is a huge part of the military. People joining are expected to be in shape and meet physical expectations. If someone cannot live up to expectations they may be denied entrance.
“I do a lot of running, pushups, and sit-up’s because that’s the military basic physical, I also do raiders for ROTC which takes place before and after school,” Jamison said.
Jamison doesn’t find that his programs interfere with school.
” ROTC is a class so its not a problem, Raiders is an extracurricular activity so it doesn’t interfere,” Jamison said.
Many other things can interfere with joining the army. Such as dating someone in the army and already being involved.
Senior Ellie Riordan is not joining the army because her boyfriend is involved.
” I’m already involved with the military through ROTC and my boyfriend is in the army so I’m involved,” Riordan said.
The Military’s quota saying is “Army Strong”. Merchandise has this saying on it and so does much other stuff they sell.
Jamison and Strait have their own definition of what army strong is.
” I pretty much agree with the army’s definition of army strong so I don’t really have my own words,” Strait said.
Jamison has his own personal definition of being army strong.
” Being army strong is probably not only to be strong physically but mentally and emotionally as well,” Jamison said. “To push yourself to the absolute limit and never give up, to be the best we can be.”