“I can’t think of any two more honorable careers than being a teacher or serving in the country,” Copas said. “How appropriate it is that we gather for a recognition of what these young men and women are about to do.”
He addressed the troops on the seven “Army Values” of loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage, which he said could easily be translated to “Military Values” as they would apply to anyone joining the service.
“I can’t tell you what adversities you will face or when you will face them,” he said, “but I do assure you that if you apply these military values into the situation, not only will you be proud of yourself, but all of those around you will be proud, too.”
Local Air Force Recruiter Ssgt. Dale Brown recognized Sierra Conley, who will deploy on Sept. 25 to study electronic environmental systems.
Ssgt. Steven Speissegger, the local U.S. Army recruiter, recognized five enlistees:
• Caryn Parsons, who is already serving in the U.S. Army Reserved. She will take basic training at Ft. Jackson, S.C., and will study to be a water treatment specialist before attending the University of Cincinnati in the spring of 2013 to study criminal justice.
• James Smith, who will take basic training at Ft. Benning, Ga., as an infantryman.
• Austin Jovanovich, who will study to be a Military Police, taking basic training at Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo., and Airborne training at Ft. Benning, Ga.
• Michael G. Collins, who will take basic training and Airborne training at Ft. Benning.
• Monica Whitten, who will study ground combat electronic missile system repair.
Sgt. Justin White, recruiter for the Marine Corps, recognized eight enlistees:
• Deziree Dryer, who will begin basic training on June 4 to become an aviation electronic technician.
• Michael Botos, who will begin basic training June 4 to become an infantryman.
• Michael Owens, who will begin basic training June 11 to become an infantryman.
• Sean Rhizor, who will begin basic training July 6 to become an infantryman.
• Christopher Tamas, who will begin basic training Aug. 20 to become a legal administrator.
• Donald Reece, who will begin basic training Sept. 4 to become a communications electrician.
• David Monin, who will begin basic training on Nov. 5 for combat support.
U.S. Navy recruiter TM1 Thomas Burke recognized two enlistees:
• Michael Brown, who will leave for boot camp on Jan. 11 to study nuclear engineering.
• DeSaun Burt, who will leave for boot camp in October to study information technology programming.
Hamilton High School’s commencement will be 7 p.m. May 30 at Millett Hall on the Miami University campus in Oxford.
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