KAPOLEI, Hawaii – The sound of laughter could heard from throughout the halls of Barbers Point Elementary School as students learned what it meant to serve as a “Tropic Lightning” Soldier when 1st Lt. Jason Butkus visited their classes for career day on November 22, 2019.
With the intention of shedding light on the military’s purpose, Butkus, a provost military officer with the 25th Infantry Division, spoke to the eager students about different topics associated with the Army.
“It’s important to speak to the kids, especially being in Hawaii, because there’s such a huge military presence,” said Butkus. “I think that the children need to understand what we’re doing here.”
Butkus explained what a day in the Army looks like and the rank structure. He also discussed some of the avenues that can be taken to become a soldier.
Last year, he spoke to fifth graders, but this year the fourth graders were his attentive audience. They raised their hands to answer Army related questions and had even asked some of their own.
The class’ teacher, Ms. Haiyama smiled as her students intelligently engaged with their guest speaker.
“They were very interested in learning about the different types of roles in the Army that they could possibly go into,” she said.
Many of the students have family members that serve or have served in the Armed Forces. Some of their parents, grandparents and even great grandparents were identified as current or prior service members.
“I wanted to join at a young age,” Butkus said. “To have a brief understanding of how it all works is probably the biggest thing.”