As most people already know, our school systems are in serious need of some overhauling.  The same can be said for the Edgewood Independent School District in San Antonio, Texas.  This school which is the Memorial High School is filled with inner city students and might be what you call a hard school to go to.  Most students are living in poverty ridden conditions and some students are in gangs or on drugs or just in a really hard situation.  The bright spot of this school was without question the Army ROTC program under the direction of LTC Luna, SFC Brooks, and SFC Soto. To quickly show the character of these retired Army soldiers and now educators, the young man shown below in the wheelchair was struck by a car while skateboarding and still wants to be in the program so they made him and Honorary Corporal and told him once he can walk he can fully participate in all events.  Now that is inspiring in itself. This program is giving these young men and women the opportunity to see that they don't have to follow in the same footsteps of the friends and family members and that they have all the opportunities to succeed and flourish.  This unit was awarded the Honor Unit with Distinction which is the highest award given to High School ROTC programs by the United States Army.  This unit repeatedly excels in every competition that they compete in as well as doing other projects such as community service to help clean up poverty ridden sections of San Antonio.  These students such as SSG Castoreno, CPT Aguilar, and 1SG Palomares are getting the direction and encouragement that they need to be successful after high school no matter what direction they decide to move in whether it be joining the military forces or going to college.  We as United States Army soldiers love the challenge of being put into rough situations and being able to turn those situations around and make them better.  The same applies to these awesome teachers, leaders, and mentors at Memorial High School.  I salute you gentlemen for you prior service and your hard work and dedication to making these students not just another statistic but successful and respectable young men and women in today's society.  I hope I was able to impact them as much as you and your students were able to impact me.  It was an honor and a pleasure to meet all of you and have to opportunity to tell you from a different prospective that it is the soul of a person and the determination to succeed that will ultimately get you to realize that you can achieve all of your dreams and goals no matter where you come from or what situation you are put into. They also presented me with a Certificate of Achievement for coming out to their school and speaking to their students. Thank you very much for that. If you would like to read more about the program and what all it's involved in you can go online and type in www.eisd.net to find out how young people in the worst school district in San Antonio and possibly the state are making a difference in their school and their community.  I'd like to thank my boss Mr. Beck for sending me to these types of places for this is what pushes me to continue to motivate and teach not only my soldiers in the Army but people across the country in various city's and town's.

Sincerely,

    DS Grabener, Derrick D.