{"id":11228,"date":"2016-11-22T12:00:23","date_gmt":"2016-11-22T20:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/?p=11228"},"modified":"2016-11-22T12:38:12","modified_gmt":"2016-11-22T20:38:12","slug":"celebrate-veterans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/11228\/campus-life\/celebrate-veterans\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrate Veterans!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Military personnel have humorous stories<\/strong><\/p>\n

This week celebrates veterans from the
\nArmed Forces and focus on their sense of
\nhumor.
\nRecruiter Jean Souffrant, native to
\nthe U.S. territory of Haiti and his family
\nmoved to Brooklyn, N.Y., when he was
\n17. As he stared down the financial beast
\nand the time it takes to finish college (4-8
\nyears) it was hard to justify both the financial
\nand personal costs.
\nA friend encouraged him to meet with
\na local Marine recruiter, which explained
\ntheir process and no-nonsense approach to
\nmilitary life.
\nSouffrant saw very little of himself in
\nthe recruiter and zero sense of humor. As
\nmuch as Brooklyn hardens a young man,
\nthe last thing he needed was more of the
\nsame. He just was not a Jar Head.
\nHe scored high on the Armed Services
\nVocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB).
\nSmart students immediately see benefits
\nin job opportunities and training schools.
\nHis next recruiter was from the Navy:
\na branch notorious for their wild sense
\nof humor, rest and relaxation antics and
\nprank nature. For example, the Navy
\nallows facial beards, something no other
\nbranch allows.
\nEssentially, his life accelerated. His first
\ntours landed him in exotic locations such
\nas Spain, Italy, Dubai, South America,
\nNicaragua, and the Dominican Republic,
\nwhere he built schools and hospitals.
\n\u201cMost people think that being in the
\nmilitary is about going to war. Really, its
\nabout getting a jump start on life\u2026there
\nare no dead-end jobs and instead of only
\nhaving one job that leaves you unable to
\nown a home in your 50\u2019s, you have Plan
\nA, E, B and C,\u201d he said.
\nAlex Flores, 25, an Art Major, ultimately
\nchose school. His mother was Army
\nand his uncles were in the Navy, so originally
\nchose the Reserve Officers\u2019 Training
\nCorps (ROTC) program, while attending
\nBoyton High School.
\nHe enjoyed many aspects of the program
\n\u2013 boot camps; parade marches, hiking,
\nas well as team building and time on
\nthe shooting range.
\n\u201cMy Gunny had a funny singsong,
\n\u2018This is my rifle, this is my gun, this is for
\nshooting, and this is for fun,\u2019\u201d he said.
\nIt would have translated to a great
\ncareer in the military if the Army hadn\u2019t
\nturned him down for being \u201cshort.\u201d
\nSo then he took a closer look at the
\nNavy. Like Souffrant, he found the humor
\nand teamwork appealing and loved
\nthe idea that he could have beard and
\nmustache after boot camp.
\nThings were looking good until they got
\nto his tattoos. At that point, he was asked
\nif he would remove them.
\nThis surprised him because sailors historically
\nhave more tattoos than even Marines.
\nHowever, when it comes to tattoos,
\nFlores said, \u201cMy body is my campus,\u201d so
\nhe turned down the rest of the process.
\nFortunately, his mom always told him,
\n\u201cIf your not doing something, your doing
\nnothing to give your mind improvement.\u201d
\nAfter six years working everything
\nfrom dish-washing to chef, he said, he is
\n\u201ctruly enjoying his art\u201d major at SJCC.
\nHis favorite work involves making tiles
\nand burning them in the kiln. He \u201chopes
\nto have that translate into working with
\nhis uncles in the construction business,\u201d
\nhe said.
\nWould he ever go in if the Navy let him
\nkeep his tattoos? \u201cAbsolutely,\u201d he said.
\nFrancis Anderson, 20, a history major
\npresently is Active Reserve. His biological
\nfather was Army, his adopted father
\nworked for the defense industry, and his
\ncousins are Army, Marines and Navy.
\n\u201cI picked the U.S. Army National
\nGuard because I could stay in California,
\ndo the reserves one weekend a month,
\nhave a regular civilian job and go to
\nschool. Also, there is a financial benefit.
\nIt pays for school, healthcare and dental,\u201d
\nhe said.
\n\u201cI chose the Army because I didn\u2019t
\nwant to travel and be at sea \u2026 I knew I
\nwouldn\u2019t fit in with the Marines.\u201d
\nWhen it comes to humor, he said, \u201cMy
\nSargent, actually, woke up another Sargent
\n\u2013 a heavy sleeper \u2013 and we taped him
\non the wall. Which means that everyone
\ngot extra PT \u2013 seven extra miles of running,
\n20 push-ups and 300 sit-ups. But it
\nwas worth it and wonderful.\u201d
\nUltimately, pranks are definitely funnier
\nwhen they happen to somebody else.
\nAnderson said, \u201cMy favorite prank of all
\ntime, is the midnight prank. Where you
\nwake people up at midnight. They get up;
\nget ready for the day, thinking that it is
\n5 o\u2019clock in the morning. They haven\u2019t
\nlooked at their phone and all the clocks
\nare turned to 5 a.m. Once a cousin got
\nall the way to his job before he realized it
\nwas 1 a.m.\u201d
\nAnderson said the most important
\nthing to remember is, \u201cIt is not at all like
\nthe Call of Duty game, where you get
\ndropped off in the middle of a battlefield.
\nThere is a lot of parent permission before
\ngoing to combat. Also, in a game, you get
\nrevived. You take a life, it takes a toll.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Military personnel have humorous stories This week celebrates veterans from the Armed Forces and focus on their sense of humor. Recruiter Jean Souffrant, native to the U.S. territory of Haiti and his family moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., when he was 17. As he stared down the financial beast and the time it takes to finish…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":502,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"staff_name":[669],"class_list":["post-11228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campus-life","staff_name-daryl-von-dunker"],"yoast_head":"\nCelebrate Veterans! - City College Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/11228\/campus-life\/celebrate-veterans\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Celebrate Veterans! - City College Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Military personnel have humorous stories This week celebrates veterans from the Armed Forces and focus on their sense of humor. Recruiter Jean Souffrant, native to the U.S. territory of Haiti and his family moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., when he was 17. As he stared down the financial beast and the time it takes to finish...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/11228\/campus-life\/celebrate-veterans\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"City College Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SJCityCollegeTimes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-11-22T20:00:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-11-22T20:38:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sjcctimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sjcctimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Escrito por\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\" DARYL VON DUNKER, TIMES STAFF\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Tiempo de lectura\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutos\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Celebrate Veterans! - City College Times","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/11228\/campus-life\/celebrate-veterans\/","og_locale":"es_ES","og_type":"article","og_title":"Celebrate Veterans! - City College Times","og_description":"Military personnel have humorous stories This week celebrates veterans from the Armed Forces and focus on their sense of humor. Recruiter Jean Souffrant, native to the U.S. territory of Haiti and his family moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., when he was 17. As he stared down the financial beast and the time it takes to finish...","og_url":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/11228\/campus-life\/celebrate-veterans\/","og_site_name":"City College Times","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SJCityCollegeTimes","article_published_time":"2016-11-22T20:00:23+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-11-22T20:38:12+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@sjcctimes","twitter_site":"@sjcctimes","twitter_misc":{"Escrito por":" DARYL VON DUNKER, TIMES STAFF","Tiempo de lectura":"4 minutos"}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/502"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11229,"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11228\/revisions\/11229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11228"},{"taxonomy":"staff_name","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/staff_name?post=11228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}