The past and present of the United States armed forces came together to honor its future when on May 9 the Lenape Regional High School District held its seventh annual armed services award ceremony.
On that night, 21 seniors from across the district’s four schools and their families gathered as district officials, members of the community and veterans honored them for their decision to enter the armed services, military academies or college ROTC programs after graduation in June.
Superintendent Carol Birnbohm told the seniors that while the event was an opportunity to celebrate their service and sacrifice, she hoped it could also help create a support system where veterans might provide valuable insight for the students and their parents.
“Tonight’s students will have added pressure of being a part of something much bigger than they have every been a part of before … a newfound responsibility understanding that individual decisions now impact their unit, their institution and our country,” Birnbohm said. “Veterans, I’m looking to you to provide insight for our students on how to best handle that new responsibility.”
Students honored at the event included Lenape High School seniors Raymond Backus, Brian Betz, Dillon Gladwell and Cynthia Martinez; Shawnee High School seniors Jeffrey Amisano, Charles Howard V, Zachary Rosen, Daniel Scannell and Joshua Walton; Cherokee High School seniors Kelsey Adam, Atrayo Croly, Conner Cosgrove, Zachary Ellis, Michael Evans, Jose Fraile, Justin Keller, Andrew Kim, Elizur Mitchell and Stephen Scheuren; and Seneca High School seniors Tyler Barton and Alex Funches.
Birnbohm told the students they would soon be joining an elite club that extolls leadership, and while some may spend their entire careers in the armed forces and some may not, they will all share the common thread of being prepared for any obstacle.
“You will be asked to do things you were never asked to do before, and you will learn that you will be able to accomplish much more than you thought you could ever accomplish,” Birnbohm said.
Exemplifying that belief was the evening’s keynote speaker, USMC Maj. Michael Borneo, a Mt. Laurel native and graduate of the Lenape High School class of 1996.
Borneo is assigned as a military advisor to the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Office of Regional Security and Policy, and in the past has deployed aboard ship and ashore eight times to the Middle East, Korean Peninsula, Okinawa and mainland Japan, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and Australia, including four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Borneo said he understood youth and arrogance could be powerful when combined, but hoped the students would make use of information he wished was made more explicitly clear to him at their age.
Borneo said the students would ultimately find themselves in the business of taking and saving lives, and while some would be “closer to the pointy end of the spear” than others, they were all embarking on a career where bad decision can get people killed.
He said those decisions also extend beyond simple combat, as in his 16 years of service, he had lost five marines in training accidents, three to suicide, two to drug overdoses and 12 to off-duty vehicle accidents.
“I don’t say this to scare you, but to encourage you to mentally prepare yourself for the challenges that await,” Borneo said. “As a leader, people will look to you to be the quiet in the storm. Know yourself, and know the resources that are available to help.”
Borneo also stressed accountability to the students, and said he would be remiss if he did not caution them directly on what he said were the most common pitfalls and causes of disciplinary issues in alcohol, drugs and sexual encounters.
While Borneo said no one enters the armed force expecting bad things to happen, when they do happen, there are normally multiple opportunities beforehand where someone could have broken the chain of events.
“It requires awareness and moral courage,” Borneo said. “Instill both of those in yourselves and in those you lead.”
