LITTLE ROCK — The chow-hall-turned auditorium at Camp Robinson was full of men and women - 144 of them from 41 states - formerly known as civilians without high school diplomas.
Sgt. 1st Class Mark Todd: “Good afternoon, warriors.”
Hooah!
“What makes a diamond?”
Pressure! Hooah!
“For the next 20 weeks, you’ll be under pressure,” he said. “When you get back to your state, that’s when you’ll be a diamond.”
Hooah!
On Friday, to the tune of multiple rousing hooahs, the Army National Guard inducted all 144 diamonds in the making into the nation of GED. The GED certificate, the equivalent of a high school sheepskin and proof of GED citizenship, is required to enlist in the Guard.
They earned the certificate at the only Army National Guard GED center in the United States.
The only one, which means that every single person in this country who wants to join the Guard but doesn’t have a high school diploma must spend three weeks in North Little Rock.
Chief Warrant Officer John Runyan, a son of McGehee whose last assignment was in Washington, D.C., returned to his home state six months ago to take charge as company commander of the program, which has pushed through about 8,000 new recruits since it opened in 2006.
In July, GED Plus moved into an $18 million building where the recruits study, eat, sleep, test and graduate.
About 1,500 recruits have gone through the program in the new building. Of the 144 who started most recently, 144 graduated, says Lt.
Col. Mary Maguire, the battalion’s deputy commandant, and 141 of them passed the exam on the first try.
Warrant Officer 1 Marcus Walden: “I’m not from D.C. I’m from Tennessee. In 1989, I was a high school dropout.”
Now he is one class away from his bachelor’s degree. “I’ll be the only one in my family with a college degree,” he said.
“You can too.”
Hooah.
Drill Sgt. Kirby Pierce: On his first night in basic training, he admitted to the recruits, he wanted to call his mama.
“Y’all know - hooah - one of these days one of you will be up here making this speech. Our country needs you to step up. You are doing this for every civilian walking the street.”
Hooah.
There are at least 144 different reasons recruits didn’t have a diploma upon enlistment. I happen to know the story of one, 20-year-old Private Matt Dillard, who came here from South Carolina and left for basic training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri on Monday.
Matt’s test score put him in the top 10 percent of this graduating class.
I decided not to embarrass him Friday when he walked in front of his fellow recruits to accept his certificate and an achievement coin, so here goes:
Hooah!
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 09/28/2010