Senior Brandon Snailer marches onto the field, one of hundreds of other graduates. From the stands his parents watch as his drill sergeant dismisses the platoons, ending their ten weeks of basic training. No longer a recruit but an army soldier, Snailer sets out to find his parents and return home.
He enlisted in the National Guard, a branch of the Army, after participating in JROTC throughout high school. Over summer he went to Fort Jackson for basic training. In training Snailer endured as few as four hours of sleep each night, days of physically strenuous drills and endless pressure from his superiors.
He slept outside for days in grime-covered uniforms without bathing. He went weeks without seeing his family and friends from home, with only the occasional letter and a single phone call every four weeks to keep him going.
He took test after test, passing them all. He stood in a gas chamber and let the gas burn his skin, learned all the basics of an Armyman’s duties and obediently took any heat his superiors gave him.
He hiked three miles at night to the Night Infiltration Course with rain pouring, crawled under barbed wire, threw up after swallowing mud, crawled through the vomit and hiked three miles back to the barracks.
He endured the most demanding training of his life for nine weeks, all in hopes of earning a title. And, in the end, he made it. He made it to the end of the 15k hike, the end of his training, where his sergeants declared him a soldier. And he made it to graduation, where he became an official National Guardsman.
