Band of Brothers
Today is just a normal day for me. I wake up, get out of bed, drag a comb across my head and get ready for work. My phone rings and it’s my younger brother Jason saying hi. My brothers, wife Aurora, and my mom are the only people I get daily calls from so to me this is just another phone call. Jason on the other hand just left a hotel at LAX and is on a plane to Ft. Benning, Georgia. Jason is off to BASIC TRAINING! Four months ago, Jason was in college for computer programming just lounging through life. Jason was your average 20 year old kid with no care in the world. Young kids like my brother Jason are very smart and have great ideas; they are also very lazy and have no sense of urgency. The Army has so much to offer these young Americans and can give them the discipline that only the military can instill. The Army also wants their fresh new ideas and new look on our ever changing world. I knew this was the perfect place for my brother just like my older brother Raymond knew for me. My older brother Raymond is a trumpet player for the 62nd Army Band at Ft. Bliss, Texas. He was the first one of us to take that trip to basic training 11 years ago and I followed 2 years after that. All three of us will now be serving simultaneously in different parts of the country. Jason will be the first one of us to serve outside of the Army Band field as a 25B Information Systems Operator. He will be working on computers for the Army and I am sure he will have a successful career and hopefully pass us up in the ranks. I know he is excited and proud to be a part of the Army. When he enlisted I showed him a video of a basic training graduation speech at Ft. Benning. Seeing all of the new graduates and listening to the graduation speech keeps him motivated everyday and we already see the change in him simply by the way he stands! He has a hard road ahead with the days in the muggy Georgia heat and the thousands of push-ups he will do and the hundreds of miles he will run. But he knows at the end he will be a part of the Band of brothers that is the Army. I am very proud of my brother and newest soldier in the Army. …….Private First Class Jason Bermudez

Jason and I Raymond, Jason , and I Look how far we have come!
I am an Army recruiter. I hire men and women for the military and send them off to basic training all the time. In the past year and a half over 80 great Americans have come through me to enlist into the military. All of these brand new soldiers go through the feelings that my family is going through TODAY. Fear, uncertainty, excitement, sadness, and the overwhelming question….WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT! When my future soldiers and their families come to this very day where they have to say goodbye to their husbands, wifes, brothers, sisters, and friends….. I have a normal day. I wake up, get out of bed, drag a comb across my head and get ready for work. I am grateful for this day because it gives me a great connection to the people I hire for the military and especially the families they leave behind when they ship out for basic training. I now feel like I can truly say….I know how you feel on this day.

Raymond and Jason The Brothers in Time Square Jason and me