Sweathogs attend Lady's Island Elementary career day

Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort
Story by Cpl. Brady Wood

Date: 03.28.2014
Posted: 03.28.2014 08:49
News ID: 122986
Sweathogs attend career day at Lady’s Island school

MARINE CORPS AIR STATION BEAUFORT, S.C. - Marines with Marine Wing Support Squadron 273 attended a career day at Lady’s Island Elementary School, March 14.

The purpose of the visit was to inspire students by exposing them to many different types of career paths available to them as adults.

The Sweathogs took with them a Logistics Vehicle System Replacement wrecker, AMK-29 dump truck and a 31870 hauler. While students were talking to Marines, they had the chance to try on a flak jacket, and go inside the hauler and look around.

During the visit, Maj. Stewart Wittel, the aviation safety officer for Marine Aircraft Group 31, also showed students an anti-gravity suit. The suit is worn by pilots to allow them to fight the pull of gravity.

As the pilot pulls more G’s, the pants inflate to press blood back up into the upper portion of the body. This helps the pilot stay conscious during flight. Wittel demonstrated the way the suit inflates.

He also informed them that the suit has a flotation device that automatically deploys in the event that he ejects from his F/A-18 and lands in the water.

“Career day exposes children to other jobs that they can strive for,” said Wittel. “It’s also a mechanism to show the children that through hard work and study they can have one of these jobs when they get older.”

“We wanted the students to see people that would have a good influence on them,” said Kelli Harper, the school counselor for Lady’s Island Elementary School. “The Marines did a great job interacting with the students and allowing them to look at the equipment they brought with them.”

After viewing Wittel’s demonstration of the anti-gravity suit and honking the horn of the hauler, the Marines gave the children the opportunity to be lifted into the dump truck to see from a Marines eyes what it would be like driving the equipment.

“A career day allows us to get out in the community and prove that the military is an integral part of the community,” said Wittel. “It also proves that if we help the local community they will help us in return. This makes a good working relationship between community and military.”

According to Harper, there are a lot of students that have military parents.

“For this reason it was great to have military representatives come here,” said Harper. “To see the students interacting with the Marines by asking them questions and looking at the equipment was a great experience.”

Career days allow the gathering of multiple job fields into one environment. This allows children to not only see what they can strive for once their adults but also get a small understanding of each job.