Print
Email Story
While some Tri-City youth may spend the summer getting a taste of the working world, several groups of youngsters are venturing down a career path.
They don't work in an office or factory, and they don't get a paycheck. They experience discipline and learn how to work as a team. Instead of a summer foray, it's a year-round commitment.
"Basically, they learn what it would be like to have a naval career," said Dana Kiser, who helps run the Columbia Basin Battalion, the Tri-City branch of the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps.
The Tri-Cities is also home to the Columbia River Young Marines, the Tri-City Young Marines and the Tri-Cities Composite Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol.
Military youth service groups offer something many other organizations can't -- a chance to become oriented with a career at an early age.
Even if the kids decide not to enter the military after high school, the core values they gain can be applied to other professions.
"No. 1, it looks good on a job application," said 18-year-old Jason Kimmell, who's been a Columbia Basin Battalion cadet for more than two years. "You know how to follow orders and can do it in a timely manner. You're trustworthy."
Military youth service groups have existed in the Tri-Cities for years. Kiser said the Columbia Basin Battalion was created in the 1980s. The Tri-City Young Marines was started in 1995 and the Columbia River Young Marines, named the nation's top Young Marines unit in the country in 2005-06, followed a few years later.
The Battalion's color guard will be leading today's Grand Old Fourth parade in Pasco. The Tri-City Young Marines also will be in the parade.
Alores Villanueva, unit commander of the Columbia River Young Marines, said uniforms attract younger kids to the unit.
Older teens, however, appreciate the structure offered by the Young Marines, which teaches about the Marines and American history, has an anti-drug message and puts an emphasis on physical fitness.
A group of Battalion cadets will be attending a boot camp in August in Fort Lewis, which requires a physical fitness test. Asked if he was looking forward to boot camp, 16-year-old cadet Kerry Brooks offered an enthusiastic, "Oh, yeah."
Kimmell said the boot camps are more physically demanding than his twice-a-day summer football practices at River View High School.
"We're always on our feet, we're running," he said.
The experience Kimmell has gained from the Sea Cadets runs deeper than marching or boot camps, though.
It's taught him to trust. It's made him a stronger person. It's shown him that limits can be passed and challenges can be overcome.
"I've gone through a lot of tough stuff, and I'm ready for the road ahead," he said.
That's the attitude Kiser is hoping to instill in the Battalion's seven members. She and her husband Scott lead the group through drills and class work during meetings at the Finley Community Center.
They began participating as instructors about a year ago after their 12-year-old son had been involved with the unit for a year. Kiser marvels at the changes she's seen in him since he joined the Sea Cadets.
"It's been really, really good for his self-esteem," she said. "My kid has been military crazy all his life. This provides a safe environment to see if it's something he wants to do."
Neither Kiser nor her husband served in the military but they rely on a Marine Corps Drill and Ceremony Manual and get help from Battalion Unit Commander Warren Zesiger.
Both Young Marines units, on the other hand, have numerous adults running the programs. The 30-member Tri-City Young Marines has eight adults leading it, and the 37-member Columbia River Young Marines has 12.
For more information on the Columbia River Young Marines, call Villanueva at 582-7208 or go to www.crym.org.
For more information on the Tri-City Young Marines, e-mail Jeff Carlyle at CARLYLEJL@aol.com or go to www.tcym.us.
For more information on the Columbia Basin Battalion, call Kiser at 948-1730. And for more information on the Tri-Cities Composite Squadron, go to www.scharold.net/cap/tccs.
