Continuing a legacy of military service

Photo By Ferdinand Detres Jr | Pvt. Jelsa Camacho, culinary specialist, 501st Sustainment Brigade, Special Troops Battalion, Camp Casey, March 5, prepares dinner chow for troops of the 501st SBDE during a field training exercise.  

CAMP CASEY, SOUTH KOREA

03.05.2015

Story by Sgt. Ferdinand Detres Jr 

501st Sustainment Brigade

CAMP CASEY, South Korea - All of us in the military have our own stories of how we came into the service. Some of us had few choices others joined for many other reasons.

Twenty year-old, Pvt. Jelsea Camacho, food specialist, 501st Sustainment Brigade, Special Troops Battalion, Camp Carroll, South Korea, had a few choices before ultimately deciding on joining the Army.

Camacho, a native of Dededo, Guam and daughter of a former Marine, always wanted to be a part of the military since she was a little girl.

"As a little girl growing up in Guam, I always used to see a big portrait of my dad in the house," said Camacho. "He was wearing his Marine blue dress uniform and I always said that one day, I wanted to wear the same one."

She always had a curiosity about the military and found it could be an opportunity for her to travel, but also had thoughts of attending college after graduating from high school. The questions she posed were frequently answered by her uncles who were themselves former military.

"I wanted to travel a lot," said Camacho. "I have uncles and relatives in the Army and they talked about it all the time. They spoke of the benefits, pros and cons of being in the Army. At times I would ask my dad these same questions, but he always seemed bothered when I asked him, so I would just ask my uncles."

With the economy in Guam not doing so well and her desire not to stay in one place too long Camacho made up her mind of joining the military. At first Camacho, the oldest sibling of three sisters, wanted to join the Marines and follow in her dad's footsteps, but one particular event quickly made her decide otherwise.

"I was going into the recruiters' station, where the Marines office was opposite of the Army's, inside the same building. As I started to walk towards the office, one of the Marines that looked at me had a really unwelcoming look on his face, so I kept on walking past them and into the Army's office," Camacho said.

Once she started talking with the Army recruiters, the bargaining process all Soldiers are familiar with started.

"At first I wanted to be a mortician!," Camacho said excitingly, "but the recruiters told me I wouldn't be able to leave until winter if I chose that job. I had never been to the U.S before or experienced winter and snow, so I told them I wasn't going to wait that long. 'I need to go now' I told them. So I enlisted as a cook."

Shortly after graduating high school, Camacho attended basic training at Fort Jackson, S.C. in May 2014. Then, she attended Advanced Individual Training at the U.S. Army Quartermaster Cooking School, Ft.Lee, VA and graduated in Aug. 2014.

Although she wanted to be a mortician, Camacho does not regret her choice of becoming a cook.

"I like it. I try to be hooah about everything and enjoy being a cook with the Soldiers I work with," said Camacho, "It's a good working environment being that everyone is very interactive and it feels like a family, they are family to me."

Camacho still has ambitions of becoming a mortician if the opportunity presents itself, but has other plans in place if things don't work out in her favor.

"I want to go to airborne school soon. Wether I am a cook or a mortician, I still want to attend airborne school."

Camacho, who arrived to Korea in September, ironically has a follow on assignment to Fort Drum, N.Y. which has plenty of what she was trying to avoid before leaving to basic training, and hasn't seen much of... Snow!

• Date Taken: 03.05.2015
• Date Posted: 03.07.2015 02:40
• Story ID: 156290
• Location: CAMP CASEY, KR
• Hometown: DEDEDO, GU