US Coast Guard recruiters make foray in NMI schools

U.S. Coast Guard recruiters are currently on island to persuade eligible applicants to join the only military organization within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

USCG recruiters visited Kagman High School yesterday and will be swinging by Marianas High School, Saipan Southern High School, Mount Carmel School, and Grace Christian Academy as part of their recruitment drive from Sept. 19 to 22.

Petty Officer First Class Mark Prijic and Lt. Jonathan R. Girot spoke to 165 Kagman High School seniors and several juniors yesterday about the Coast Guard.

Prijic said he joined the Coast Guard because of the influence his sister who was an information system technician of the Coast Guard. He shared with students that the Coast Guard performs 11 official missions, all of which safeguard the United States’ maritime interests and environment around the world.

Girot, who is also a Coast Guard enforcement division chief, told the students that he shifted majors three times in college because he was looking to do something worthwhile.

When he joined the Coast Guard, he said this opened a lot of opportunities for him as it allowed him to travel and his first deployment was in the Caribbean and South America.

According to Kagman High School senior counselor Valerie Deleon Guerrero-Quitano, this was the first time that the Coast Guard visited Saipan for recruitment because it has always been just the U.S. Army and U.S. Marines that would come.

“It’s really important for them to see these kinds of presentation because it opens their eyes to different opportunities. Right now we have different branches coming in to meet with our students to entice them to join,” she said.

“We have been conducting several outreach to our students because come November, the seniors and juniors will be taking the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test,” she added.

The Marine Corps is set to come next week and the Army is expected to come in October.

“In October, we would be having the U.S. Army to explain what the ASVAB is all about and the different battery tests that the U.S. Army has to help students reach their goals and potential in serving in the military,” said Quitano.

“I, for one, joined the military and after six years of service, I came back. Now that I am a counselor, I do push my students because coming out of high school I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do then. I ended up joining the U.S. Army and it actually opened my eyes to see the different occupations that are out there, not just what I see here on island,” she added.

According to Quitano, among Kagman senior students, 50 percent want to go to a university, 40 percent want to go to the military, and 10 percent are still unsure.

“I tell the students that some of them may not be interested right now but later, especially when it’s closer to graduation, that is when they are going to start wondering what they are going to do,” she said.

“I am hoping that I could actually persuade the students to be pro-active. Some students say college is not for them, military is not for them, but I encourage them and say ‘just do something.’ It doesn’t matter what it is you do but find yourself and do something,” she added.

For those who have graduated high school or would like more time with USCG recruiters Prijic and Girot, they will be posted at the Saipan Mayor’s Office, Beach Road, from 1pm to 5pm each afternoon this week. Visit gocoastguard.com to know more.