Local veterans on Friday visited a variety of classrooms at the STEM Academy to answer questions from students about their service.
Rick Mitchell, a former sergeant in the 101st Airborne, told high school students he went to Fort Campbell Kentucky and learned how to jump out of airplanes and rappel out of helicopters.
Mitchell said boot camp was fun.
“Basically you just do a bunch of obstacle courses. People yell at you, scream at you, throw stuff at you. It’s fun. I really enjoyed it,” Mitchell said.
He grew up in Kermit and graduated from there in 1996. Mitchell described basic training as being like two-a-days in football.
“You learn how to be a soldier. They take you to the shooting range. You learn how to shoot, learn how to march. When I went, it was 9 weeks long. They break you down from being a civilian and make you a soldier,” Mitchell said.
When he graduated from high school, he went to work in the oilfield, but in 1998 when the price of oil declined steeply, he lost his job.
“I had to have a job, so I enlisted in the Army just off a whim. Best decision I ever made,” Mitchell said.
Jayni Whitefield is a master sergeant in the Army. Her husband, Derrick Whitefield, is with the Ector County ISD Police Department and a veteran. He also spoke to the STEM students.
Jayni Whitefield asked first-grade students she talked to Friday to give people they know in the military a call to thank them for their service.
Junior Vice Commander of VFW Post 4372 Kory D. Grant served in the Air Force. Grant is coordinating a military parade at 10 a.m. Saturday along Texas Avenue.
Grant was deployed twice to Iraq and once to Afghanistan and said he thought talking to the students was pretty cool.
This is oilfield country and some people don’t know as much about the military as in other places where it’s more visible.
Derrick Whitefield, who was in the Air Force and currently in the reserves, said he got to do a lot of things that people outside the military don’t such as riding in a Blackhawk helicopter.
Asked what the most mentally challenging thing was about being in the service, Derrick Whitefield said it was being away from family.
When you go through basic training, the only communication you get is handwritten letters and you got one phone call every three weeks for 10 minutes.
“If you got in trouble, you did not get a phone call. You just had to keep writing letters,” Derrick Whitefield said.
During his reserve time, Derrick Whitefield said there is still that camaraderie in his unit. That hasn’t changed with what’s going on in the country.
“It doesn’t matter. Race, creed, color, gender, it doesn’t matter at all in the military. You 100% depend on the person to your left and to your right, to the front of you and to the back of you. None of those things matter. As a matter of fact, there are a lot of females that I would 100% take into combat without a doubt and they are some amazing people. There’s a lot of amazing people in the military,” Whitefield said.
He added that the military teaches you life skills such as how to manage your finances effectively, hygiene, making your bed, doing your laundry, attention to detail, getting into a schedule and other things.
Derrick Whitefield said these things transfer over into whatever career you choose.
One of the big hits was Todd Wantz, an Air Force veteran who brought his service dog, Zeus, with him. Zeus is a rescue long-haired Dachshund with some corgi mix, he suspects.
“He’s the boss of the show,” Wantz said.
He said he told the students to follow their passion and don’t do something just because you think you’re going to get an award or recognition for it.
Wantz added that he doesn’t like the word can’t.
“I don’t believe it should be in our vocabulary because if you really want to do something, you set your mind to it, you will accomplish it. It might not be the way you think it needs to be accomplished, but you’re still going to accomplish it and you’re going to feel better about yourself when you do,” Wantz said.
