Egg Harbor Township High School Continues to be a Top Military Recruiting Ground as 26 Recent Graduates Head for Active Duty
Emily Previti, Staff Writer
Press of Atlantic City
July 2, 2010
The goodbyes have started for the 26 Egg Harbor Township High School graduates who will leave this summer for active military duty.
The high school consistently graduates more military recruits than any other in Atlantic County. One reason for that, recruiters say, is that the school is more welcoming to them than others. Others point to economic problems as reasons graduates enlist. But students say their motivations are simpler: They join because of family traditions of military service and patriotism.
Tom McCabe, Jr., 18, sat with his parents in their Kingsley Drive home a few hours before his scheduled departure for training last week. American flags fill the house, where McCabe grew up hearing stories from his father about "the greatest times he ever had" in the Navy. Uncles, cousins and grandfathers on both sides of the family have served in the Air Force, Coast Guard and Navy.
McCabe grew up dreaming of continuing that tradition, and chose the Army.
"I've been told I'm an idiot, that I'm going to die when I go to Afghanistan eventually," McCabe said. "But I don't care what they say because they don't know why I joined ... A lot of people have dreams -- play professional sports, be a teacher, go to an Ivy League school. Mine is to be in the military."
The Army, Navy and Marine Corps have drawn 175 recruits form Atlantic County and parts of neighboring counties so far this year, numbers provided by local recruiters show. The Air Force and Coast Guard did not respond to requests for figures.
Fifteen of 583 graduates of Absegami High School in Galloway Township, or 2.6 percent, and 10 of 419 graduates of Oakcrest High School in Hamilton Township, or 2.4 percent, will go into military service, Greater Egg Harbor Regional High School District Superintendent Steve Ciccariello said. Egg Harbor Township's rate, 4.5 percent of this year's 578 graduates, is almost double.
One Egg Harbor Township recruit, Shannon Engelman, 18, joined the Army to follow in the footsteps of her brother. J.T. Engelman, 24, has finished his six-year commitment with the Navy and is enrolled at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla.
"He's my role model," she said.
Family tradition often is among reasons people give for enlisting, said Ron Caro, a Richard Stockton College professor who will teach a new Veterans Experience course next spring.
Another common explanation: patriotism. The ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the devastation of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks and the continuing threat of other statewide terrorist acts have heightened feelings of patriotism for many.
"There's a sense of, 'Look, we were attacked. It's up close and personal, and I can see. We're going to get justice for his,'" Caro said.
Instant Career
Michael Sanborne, 18, of Northfield, said he will leave August 3 for basic training.
"I think everybody should serve a term in the military, for their country, so I just want to do my part of it," he said.
Sanborne was not surprised to learn he was the sole recruit from Mainland Regional High School in Linwood.
"At Mainland, everyone acts like it's a last-resort type of thing. I'm not sure why. Maybe they don't understand what it could give you, the benefits of it," Sanborne said. "As soon as I'm out of high school, I'm going to have a career, steady pay. I can move out, pay for school."
Sanborne said his parents probably would have paid for college if he had wanted to go right away. He plans to get a degree in criminal justice eventually, but likely will do so online rather than at a traditional campus.
"I joined because it was my primary thing I wanted to do, not because I needed it for anything," he said.
Finances, while not the exclusive motivator in enlistment, do play a role in military service, Caro said.
"I don't know how many high school graduates join the military out of financial hardship, to help their families," he said. "They're ready to leave the nest and live in their own space outside of their parents' influence to work on their identity."
Like Sanborne, McCabe could have afforded college with his parents' help, but was not sold on the idea. Still, the recession heightened his concern about having a job, McCabe said.
"With these down times, (military service) is actually a good option," Caro said. "I wouldn't be surprised if numbers do go up."
They have.
"We're all doing very well with recruitment because the economy is not doing well," Army Sgt. Douglas F. Robbins said.
Role of Recruiter
The military has grown more selective because of that. The Army, for example, requires high school diplomas and stopped accepting General Education Diplomas, or GEDs, as of June 1. And juvenile or petty crimes that may once have been waived now matter more, said Robbins, commander at the local recruiting station in Northfield, which the Army shares with the Navy and Marines.
Robbins attributed his success at Egg Harbor Township to the school being more open to recruiters than other area high schools. But Sanborne, McCabe and Engelman all said the in-school presence of military recruiters did not affect their decision to join.
Terry Charlton, director of guidance at Egg Harbor Township High School said the "long tradition" of service is similar to the way students are drawn to certain colleges based on word of mouth.
"Students follow other students, so the same applies to a military branch," Charlton said.
To get funding under the No Child Left Behind Act, public schools must allow military recruiters access to students.
School districts can, however, withhold student home addresses and phone numbers, which Egg Harbor Township does. Parents can sign forms to opt out of military contacts. Absegami and Oakcrest high schools use those forms.
School counselors sometimes mediate discussions with parents who do not agree with their children's career plans, although Charlton said that has happened to him only once during his career.
Sanborne didn't require a counseling session to win over his parents, who made their opposition known as his commitments to the Army grew more binding.
"My parents don't like it, but they're proud of it," he said. "I'd been telling them from childhood. They just never took it seriously until I started going to the recruiting station and started talking to people."
Caro, a retired Marine captain who joined after college, said he joined the Marines to find the feelings of belonging and teamwork he experienced in his scholastic athletic career. That may apply to Engelman, who has varsity letters in softball and track. She is not used to dodging improvised explosive devices en route to injured soldiers, but that is all in a day's work for an airborne medic, her chosen role.
"My mother always tells me not to let fear stop you from doing what you really want to do," Engelman said.
Goodbyes
As she spoke, her parents and the McCabes stood before Robbins as he dispensed last-minute advice and instructions to family members at the Northfield center for the months-long separation they and their families would enduring during training. After that, they will reunite for two weeks before the young soldiers deploy.
After Robbins finished speaking, the McCabes walked outside and hugged their son goodbye.
As the couple turned away from the recruiting station door, Tom McCabe slung his arm around his wife's shoulders as she wiped away tears.
Carrie McCabe said earlier in the day that she and her husband had hoped their only son would choose the Coast Guard or Navy, options they regarded as safer.
The youngest McCabe stuck with the Army and chose the role of calvary scout, a soldier who scopes out areas ahead of the infantry -- in front of the front lines, in other words.
"It was hard to accept it, but it's his life. He's passionate about it. We thought that would fizzle out, but it grew stronger," Carrie McCabe said. "Once he turned 18, he would have done what he wanted to do and joined anyway, so we had to support him."
She took in a breath, pursed her lips and said with difficulty: "Now it's reality."
Contact Emily Previti: 609-272-7221, EPreviti@pressofac.com
Source: http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/breaking/article_af05e3d8-8591-11df-8b58-001cc4c03286.html.