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    Blood, sweat, summa cum laude

    Blood, sweat, summa cum laude

    Photo By Staff Sgt. Michael Selvage | Sgt. 1st Class Sidney Haynes, a Baton Rouge, La., native, senior communications...... read more read more

    BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan – Being a leader in the Army and taking college classes can be a challenge, but graduating top of the class just sounds bizarre.

    Sgt. 1st Class Sidney Haynes, a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, native, and senior communications specialist for the 10th Sustainment Brigade, graduated from Grantham University with honors and summa cum laude.

    Being a full-time Soldier, father and husband can be a lot to handle by some, but Haynes decided he needed more of a challenge, so he started to take college courses.

    “There just has to be a balance,” said Haynes. “The needs of the family have to come first.”

    He said his family knew what he was doing was for the family’s benefit as well as his career.

    “They were understanding of the situation and let me achieve my goals,” said Haynes. “Family first, then the Army and then college; I just kind of focused on that triangle. When one didn’t need my attention, I was able to shift my attention to the other one.”

    He started working towards his bachelor’s degree in 2009 using the military tuition assistance, which is a program that provides financial assistance for military service members for college courses that are offered in the classroom or by distance learning.

    He said it worked out so that when he used up the TA for that year, the next year was just starting.

    “The majority of the time working toward my bachelor’s degree, I was a recruiter,” said Haynes. “It was rough, sometimes we would work 12-14 hours a day.”

    He said there were days where he knew he had assignments due but his Army responsibilities had to come first.

    “At times, it was hard leaving a long day at the office only to return home and do six more hours of school work,” said Haynes. “Lots of late nights.”

    Haynes would get home late and spend some time with his family before he started school work. Saturday and Sunday was when he would do the majority of his work.

    After recruiting, Haynes was assigned to the 10th SBDE at Fort Drum, New York.

    “I’ve been a platoon sergeant since I arrived to the 10th SBDE,” said Haynes. “I’ve also been the section noncommissioned officer in charge for a year, making me dual hatted.”

    The brigade deployed for a year to Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2011. He is currently deployed again in support of OEF.

    While deployed, he continued to work towards his degree, never letting up.

    “Because my family isn’t here, it’s basically back and forth between work and school,” said Haynes. “Work is a steady 12-14 hour day.”

    He said the mission always came first.

    “Some days you will be in a position where you don’t have a lot of mission work, so you can shift you attention to college,” said Haynes. “But just like recruiting, you could have a 12-14 hour day but still have assignments due; you just do what you have to do to get things done.”

    When he returned from the deployment, he went to Advanced Leaders Course and Senior Leaders Course back-to-back. He earned honor graduate while attending both courses. He also competed for and won a student leadership and the student first sergeant while at SLC.

    “I completed 12 credit hours while I was at ALC and SLC,” said Haynes.

    He said he doesn’t compete against other people, he only competes against himself.

    “When I do something like get honor grad, it’s because I’m competing against myself,” said Haynes. “I like to find my limits and I try to be better than that.”

    Haynes said raising his grade point average slowly started turning into a fun challenge.

    “I started playing a little game with myself about getting a 4.0 GPA,” said Haynes.

    His goal was a 3.95, but he ended up graduating from Grantham University summa cum laude in February 2014 with a 4.0.

    “I would say that the last four years of my life have been the busiest, time consuming and schedule-intensive time ever,” said Haynes. “My whole drive and motivation is to be better than I was yesterday.”

    Maj. Joseph G. Govocek III, the brigade communications officer, said Haynes has pushed himself and never let his school work interfere with his duties as an NCO.

    Recently he was supposed to start working toward his master’s degree.

    “I can’t seem to bring myself to do it,” said Haynes. “I’m really just taking a knee and catching my breath. I’ve done so much in the last three years putting myself in a position for success.”

    Haynes received a multidisciplinary degree.

    “It’s like a general studies degree but it has more layers to it,” said Haynes. “There is a concentration in digital forensics.”

    The last seven classes he took were focused on digital forensics and criminology.

    “The growing trend in today’s market place is cyber security,” said Haynes. “A lot of people are moving towards cyber security. I’m basically the digital detective that goes behind the cyber guys and figures out the who, what, when, where, why something happened and to collect evidence and build a case for the prosecutor.”

    He said he is a little tired after recruiting, two deployments, more than 70 credit hours of college, two professional development schools and balancing his family and work load.

    “I’m just sorta burnt out,” said Haynes. “But it’s a good burnt out. I gave myself a six month break, because I really just needed it to be honest.”

    He said he is going to start working toward his master’s degree in August.

    Haynes said none of this would have been possible without the support he received from the TA program.

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 07.06.2014
    Date Posted: 07.06.2014 08:03
    Story ID: 135362
    Location: BAGRAM AIR FIELD, AF
    Hometown: BATON ROUGE, LA, US

    Web Views: 694
    Downloads: 1

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