Onward March: Looking Towards a Future in the Military
Firestone and his mother Amy at an airshow.
December 21, 2015
At the age of four, junior RJ Firestone fired his first gunshot. An M4 carbine to be exact.
Since he was young, the military has played a significant role in Firestone’s life. Whether it was his mother sitting him on her lap and recounting tales of Firestone’s grandfather in World War II, or spending time with his father’s old military buddies, the military was always present.
“The first time I have ever shot [a gun] was when I was four years old and it was with my dad at the NRA headquarters range,” Firestone said. “[I] would sit on his lap and we had a M4 carbine, that’s the main battle rifle of the U.S., and the stock would go into his shoulder and I would be on his lap and aim.”
Firestone can not point to one specific moment where he fell in love with the military, but by the time he was five years old, he “just knew” that the military would somehow play a part in his future.
As Firestone grew older, his passion for the military grew with him. Firestone has visited a Military tank farm, and has attended military events like the U.S. Air Force’s air show at Joint Base Andrews. Firestone has shared his passion with his friend junior Eli Zajicek, who joined Firestone at the the air show at Joint Base Andrews this past summer. Zajicek described Firestone as “very patriotic,” and described the airshow as “the most patriotic thing I have ever seen.”
Firestone hopes to turn his passion for the into a career. Following high school, Firestone wants to join the United States Military through the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). This college-based officer training program allows college students to gain the experiences necessary to become a Military officer through participating in their college’s ROTC club. The club offers students a mentorship with experienced officers, as well as basic physical training component. Involvement in the ROTC club helps college students to graduate their school with the Military rank of an officer — a rank higher than the average U.S. soldier.
With the help of the ROTC program, Firestone hopes to join a combat unit where he would serve on the front line. After retiring from active duty, Firestone’s goal is to become an engineer in United States Army organizations like the Signal Corps or Cyber Corps, which focus on communication. While Firestone’s mother, Amy Z. Firestone, is aware of the risks that a future in the military presents, she said that she still wants her son to follow his dream.
“I want my son to follow his heart,” Firestone wrote in an email. “I’ve seen too many people make their lives miserable trying to do what their parents want or what they think their parents want, and their heart isn’t in it. I want RJ to choose a path that makes him happy–and that his happiness makes the world a better place.”
Firestone’s determination and drive to make his dream a reality has not been lost on Zajicek, who has seen Firestone’s love for the Military play out in his day-to-day life.
“This can be seen in things like studying for a test, but most of all I see it through his hard work and passion in his workouts,” Zajicek said. “ … He wipes the smirk off his face and does nothing but express concentration and seriousness.”
Firestone knows that the future he has chosen will not be easy, but he plans to continue marching down the military path that he started on when he was five-years-old. That same four-year-old boy, who so many years ago, sat on his father’s lap to shoot a gun, is now planning to make the transition into a soldier.
“I also feel like I owe it to America,” Firestone said. “It is weird to explain. I feel like I owe it because America has given me so much, so many things, so many opportunities, so many things to do–I feel like I should help other people have that ability. It is engraved in me that the soldiers, they help provide the lifestyle that gave me the right to vote, that gave me freedom of speech [and] freedom of religion … I want to secure that for other people too.”
