GUERNSEY – In 2019, many students have learned to be realistic about life after high school.
The national discussion has shed light on the fact that four years of college can result in a debt many people find impossible to repay. Trade apprenticeships can be hard to find, and entry-level jobs require an unfair amount of experience to be considered.
It can seem like a hopeless proposition, but it doesn’t have to be. For some students, the military can be a viable option – and that is what United States Army National Guard SFC Kerry Wyatt wanted to show Goshen County high school students.
On Tuesday, he led a large group of juniors and seniors from all three area high schools on a behind-the-scenes tour of the Guard’s facilities at Camp Guernsey during Guard for a Day, a program designed to give students a look at everything the National Guard has to offer. Students spent the day surrounded by Humvees, high-tech communications equipment, improvised explosive device detectors and, yes, even sniper rifles, M16s and a grenade launcher.
They also spent the day with the soldiers who use and maintain that equipment, and learned how the skills obtained in the various military occupational specialties translate into the real world.
“A lot of kids have no idea what’s in their own backyard,” Wyatt said. “They drive by these big buildings, but they really don’t see inside. They don’t see what the people that work for the National Guard actually do. We have a lot of incredibly intelligent people that are dedicated to repairing this equipment and maintaining this equipment so it’s in a ‘ready’ status on a full-time side, so that when the units come in to train on the weekends, they have viable equipment that’s ready for them to be utilized.”
Over the course of the day, students got the chance to interact with diesel mechanics, communications personnel and even met with the Guernsey Police Department to get an idea of one of the career fields available using skills learned in the Guard.
“There’s a tremendous amount of trades,” Wyatt said. “Myself, I have six different MOSs that I’ve been trained in over the years. That is your military occupational specialty, or your job skills, so when you look at it, we have STEM. We have science, technology, any of those type of electronics and mathematics. We have all that stuff, and we have infantry, we have the grunt stuff. We have cyber warfare stuff.”
Not just guns
The National Guard is 43 percent of the Army’s strength, Wyatt said, and that’s not just infantry.
“We want educated people. We want smart people,” Wyatt said. “A lot of people in the community will say ‘he could really use this, or he could really use the military’ or whatever. Well, that’s fine and dandy, but we’re looking for the cream of the crop, too.”
During the tour, students got a glimpse of military occupations that can lead to careers in the STEM fields. At one stop, students were able to examine a Humvee fitted with a communication center that can project a Wifi signal up to 20 miles away. The rig is maintained in Guernsey, but ones like it are used by military personnel all over the world to establish communications. Warrant Officer Derik Wambach explained that from that rig, soldiers are able to intricately layer their frequencies and make it impossible for enemies to intercept the signals.
Torrington High School junior Emily McGaugh said she had considered enlisting in the military because she comes from a military family. Both her father and uncle have served in the Army, and she said that seeing the communications equipment up close and learning the steps communications specialists take to encode their signals is something she could see herself doing.
“I really liked when we went to the radio rooms and you get to hear about all of the frequencies, like how they go over like 1,000 times, and that way an enemy can’t tap in and listen to what you’re doing,” she said. “I thought that was really cool and that might be something I’m interested in doing.”
According to Wyatt, students who are interested in working in the STEM fields should consider the wide variety of options available in the military.
“We have the STEM stuff,” he said. “We have the science, technology, electronics, mathematics. We have all that stuff and you’ll be surprised at how many jobs we have that really do transition.”
Wyatt said his son, Nathaniel, utilized the Guard’s resources to graduate from college with no debt and go to work as a key team member for Microsoft’s One Drive service.
For students interested in those fields, the National Guard can also offer advantages that a college-only education can’t.
“Along with that, you’re going to get a top-secret security clearance and those cost somewhere between $60,000 to $100,000 to get, so you think about that,” he said. “If you have one of those, you can go to work in the job market where they need those, and they want you really, really bad.
“You could even do an internship in college and you go work for those places. When you do an internship with places that need a security clearance, you can to go to work right away, where any of these other college kids that haven’t been in the military that don’t have a background, they’re just kind of there doing paperwork. They don’t really get to get into the guts of it.”
The students also got a chance to meet soldiers in other specialties, like Spec. Jacob Corbett, a diesel mechanic. He gave students who were more interested in combustion engines than the computer systems a look at his workspace, including a Humvee he was in the process of overhauling.
Students visited the base’s body shop, where soldiers were putting the finishing touches on a Korean War-era tank that will be displayed on the base. Students also toured the on-base airport and firefighting station.
According to Wyatt, soldiers in the Guard learn skills they can benefit from for decades to come.
“Don’t think for a minute that there aren’t real job skills,” he said. “Most of our mechanics get SAE qualified. We have diesel mechanics, we have generator mechanics, we have HVAC mechanics, we have armor mechanics, we have weapons mechanics, we have electronics mechanics - I mean, any of these people can go anywhere in the job force because they understand technical manuals. They understand the technical field and they’re going to know that terminology they’re going to know schematics and they’re going to know all of those things.”
… But there were guns, too
The students also got a taste of what Wyatt called the ‘fun part’ of being a soldier.
Sgt. Bill Webb showed the students some of the tools of the soldier’s trade, including night vision binoculars, a trio of infantry rifles, a belt-fed machine gun and a grenade launcher.
They were able to handle more firearms, including a selection of pistols and a sniper rifle, under the supervision of Master Sgt. Morgan Jenkins, who spoke about how competent National Guard soldiers are with their firearms.
And finally, students got a chance to try their hand at shooting converted semi-automatic M16 rifles on an electronic indoor range. They went through the Guard’s firearm testing, and while some of them were already comfortable squeezing off rounds, it was a new experience for Torrington senior Falecia Blow.
Blow said she had only shot a gun once before Guard for a Day, and she hadn’t enjoyed it. She said the simulation, however, was a good time.
“I think it’s pretty awesome that we got a chance to come and see this and explore what they do and how they operate,” she said. “I shot a black powder before, and that’s about it. It wasn’t my best experience. I never wanted to shoot again because I hurt my shoulder, but it was a simulation. I’d say the coolest thing that I’ve seen so far was how they train to get into different positions to shoot. It was pretty fun. I knew how bad of an aim I was.”
Wyatt said operating a firearm isn’t the only important thing about being a National Guard soldier, but it is vital.
“Shooting weapons is just a small part of being a soldier, but it’s a vital part,” he said. “It’s a really fun part of it and a woman should never be afraid of wanting to shoot a weapon. Women are unbelievable when they learn and get taught right. When you look at their lower heart rate, they typically have better breathing control, they usually have better trigger squeeze, so we can typically teach a female to be a remarkable marksman. They should never ever underestimate themselves.”
Employers love veterans
What Wyatt emphasized the most, however, wasn’t the tactical training or the firearms – it was the skills and careers that are possible through the National Guard. The students got a look at a lot of different MOSs, and Wyatt said that no matter what a soldier chooses, the lessons learned in the military are valuable in the job market.
“You can do those type of things and the leadership, discipline and the training and the decision-making principles, and all those things will buffer any of these kids’ resume and make them very marketable in the marketplace and in the workforce,” he said. “Employers love people that have been in the military because they know they have that direction. They know they understand how to give orders and how to take orders. They know they have discipline and direction and drive.”
The statistics reflect that. According to a September 2019 Pew Research study, military veterans have a lower unemployment rate than non-veterans. The same study reported that most military veterans said their military service was instrumental in helping them obtain key skills and training for non-military jobs.
“This is one of the best kept secrets there is when you look at being able to serve your community, your state and your country,” Wyatt said.
