Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Darron Salzer | Sgt. Aaron Garrison, left, looks on as Master Sgt. Robert Triplett reviews the weekly...... read more read more
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Editor's note: This is part three of a five-part series on the National Guard’s Youth ChalleNGe program.
Sgt. Aaron Garrison sits at the end of a long, narrow hallway hovering over a binder of papers on his desk. His hand glides across the open page as he scribbles notes onto the forms, catching up on paperwork.
It’s early, the time of day when a peaceful stillness often hangs in the air. The sun won’t be up for another two hours and the low hum of florescent lights is one of the few sounds heard as he looks at his watch. Garrison lingers in the chair for a moment, as if savoring the quiet peacefulness.
The moment doesn’t last — it never does — and he stands to head down the hall to begin the crash and bang that signals wake up for cadets at the Maryland National Guard’s Freestate ChalleNGe Academy.
Cadre members like Garrison train, care for, mentor and watch over the cadets of every class that cycles through the academy. It’s a job that requires them to respond to a myriad of issues at a moment’s notice, while making quick decisions without blinking.
“You have to develop ways to handle things on the fly very, very quickly and in a very efficient manner,” said Staff Sgt. John Stout, a cadre member like Garrison.
There isn’t a special formula for what makes a great cadre member — their backgrounds are just as varied as there are stars in the sky — but there is one thing each cadre member at Freestate seems to have: passion.
“It takes a special kind of person to do what the cadre do here,” said Charles Rose, the program director at Freestate. “Their passion permeates throughout the entire staff.”
That passion means the cadre do everything they can to intervene in the lives of the cadets and help mold them into contributing members of their communities, Stout said.
“We work with kids that society has given up on,” he said. “We work with kids that families have given up on [and] we work with kids that the kids themselves have given up on.”
Many have labeled the teens as failures, said Stout, but that’s not the way he sees it.
“I say these kids are under construction,” he said. “Some of them come from broken families, some of them come from homes that aren’t conducive to being successful. My job is to train them, get them to where they need to be and then send them out into society as productive citizens.”
Stout joined the academy in 2004 after a staff member recruited him. At 24, he wasn’t much older than the cadets he mentored back then.
“When I stepped through the door, I thought what am I getting myself into,” he said, adding that despite that initial feeling, he knew he found his calling at Freestate.
“What got me was my first cycle here,” he said.
In that class was a cadet who was homeless and had been living on the streets.
“His case manager at the time basically brought him in and said this was his last chance,” Stout said. “I saw him want more from this program than I have ever seen someone [want] to this day.”
That particular cadet graduated from the program and went on to find additional successes and continues to thrive and excel, said Stout.
“I want to make that happen over and over again for all [of] these other kids,” he said.
Getting cadets to that point is sometimes a long road, said Stout, adding that one of the most challenging aspects is teaching cadets positive ways to express their emotions, especially anger and frustration.
For Sgt. Drisana Lynch, also a cadre member, that means letting cadets express their feelings, while working with them on constructive coping strategies.
“These kids have valid points and I always tell them that they have valid feelings,” Lynch said. “However, how they choose to express them is not always OK and it’s not gonna work in the real world.”
Lynch said she tries to empower the cadets to come up with solutions, rather than simply reacting to the problem. Though, that often comes after giving the cadets corrective training first, usually in the form of pushups or flutter kicks.
“I give them corrective physical training to let them know that the way they’re acting out is not acceptable,” she said.
The intent, Lynch said, is for cadets to think about the punishment before similar situations occur in the future. Tough love is what the cadre call it. The cadets, however, sometimes have other names for it, and often the cadre too.
“I always say you’re not going to like me, but you’ll love me at the end of the program,” Stout said. He added that former cadets have told him it was months or years before they fully realized the reason for his stern attitude and how they benefited from it.
That’s not the most difficult part of the job though.
“The most challenging thing is how much time [the cadre] give up with their own families to be here,” Lynch said.
Stout agreed, and stressed that it’s not a typical 9-to-5 job.
“The kids are there 24 hours a day,” he said, adding that “somebody has got to be there with them.”
Somebody is, in fact, always there.
From the moment cadets wake up, cadre members are there. They make sure the cadets prepare for the day, march them to and from class and every meal. Along the way the cadre address any issues that may arise and ensure cadets adhere to academy standards while progressing appropriately toward graduation.
“In the beginning, you’re constantly saying the same things to the cadets over and over and over,” said Master Sgt. Robert Triplett. “You know what the end result of all of this is — the kids don’t know — and you want them to be able to lead themselves, understand structure and have discipline.”
Those three items — leadership, structure and discipline — are among the overarching critical skills taught to cadets. They’re also lessons Triplett said he learned well while serving in the military.
“I transferred to a lot of different units,” he said. “It taught me to be able to adapt and that’s what you have to do here — adapt.”
Lynch learned similar lessons as a police officer, she said, giving her the ability to interact with a variety of people, make split decisions and think creatively. Those skills easily apply to her role at the academy, where she uses them to “make a difference in somebody’s life somehow.”
Watching as cadets grow and change is the most rewarding part of the job, said both Lynch and Triplett.
“This is more rewarding than anything else I could be doing,” Triplett said. “I know that we can’t save every cadet, but knowing that these kids graduate and go on to become successful, it gets me into work every day.”
For Stout, it’s the privilege of being part of graduation day.
“I’ve seen it twice a year for 12 years and it’s just simply amazing,” he said. “There’s something that’s magical about every single one.”
However, graduation means only the first phase is complete. There are still another 12 months of the program to go, where cadets continue to work with mentors and academy staff as they move toward their goals in life.
“The cadets still need some positive motivation to move forward,” said Stout. “We always tell the parents the job is never done, just like our job.”
| Date Taken: | 08.16.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 08.16.2016 11:45 |
| Story ID: | 207274 |
| Location: | EDGEWOOD, MD, US |
| Web Views: | 106 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, The ChalleNGe: Cadre (Part 3 of 5), by SFC Darron Salzer, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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