My 10-year anniversary writing this column has prompted a look back at some interesting stories, which I thought I’d share with you. This column originally ran April 16, 2003.
War and sport are very similar. One can prepare you for the other. One, of course, is more grueling and dangerous than the other. Both are about sacrifice.
Hopefully, OPRF volleyball player Josh Johns will never experience the kind of kills that take place in war, only the kills he sets up for his fellow volleyball teammates. Johns is a member of the National Guard, a proud but shy member of America’s trusty part-time protectors. He currently also plays middle back for the Huskies, a position that requires unselfishness.
For this kid, or — at the age of 19 and in the midst of learning how to defend, protect and serve our country — this man, his journey began after Sept. 11th. You know the Sept. 11 I’m referring to.
“The events of that day were very influential to me,” Johns told me early last week. “But I didn’t join just on account of what happened that day. I joined to pay for college and I joined for the experience. I joined because I just want to help out.”
A friend of his, now fellow guardsman, Victoria Peerise, 17, introduced Johns to the local recruiter. Only briefly did he ponder whether to sign up. As young as he is, Johns already shows certain traits of a soldier. He’s fearless, team oriented, knows basic survival skills, and is a “rule follower.” Johns also knows how to shoot a rifle, if that at all matters.
His fearlessness derives from his need to be challenged. Johns thrives on challenges, and his size (a proud 5 feet, 5-inches, 130 pounds) requires it. He has learned the importance of team unity from his years of playing volleyball and soccer (he played forward on OPRF’s varsity soccer team this year).
“In the Guard, you are supposed to be working together, and that’s what you do in sports. I am accustomed to that with my athletic background,” he said. And that was it as far as the succinct full sentences I could get out of Johns. His friends refer to him as “the quiet one,” and the label, I can testify, applies.
As a young kid in the Boy Scouts, Johns picked up several survival skills. If one slips his mind, he can always ask his stepfather, Daniel, who works for the Boy Scouts organization — or why not his mother, Bonnie, a nurse.
It won’t take Johns long to get used to the military’s M-9 or M-16 rifles. He’s been hunting with his dad, Kevin, since the age of 12. The blast from a 20- or 12-gauge can be quite an education.
He’s a soldier in the making.
So for almost a year now, one weekend each month, Johns hops into his ride, a Mazda Protégé that he plans to “soop-up” someday, and drives to the National Guard armory in Chicago for extensive physical and mental training. Beginning June 18, the day Johns reports to Fort Leonard Wood for the “real” basic training, he’ll be a soldier, at least until 2009. Neither the current wars nor future wars have deterred or will deter Johns’ decision.
“I made the right choice,” he deadpanned when asked if the war in Iraq at all had an effect on his decision.
It worried me a bit that Johns wasn’t quite sure what state Fort Leonard Wood was in. But he obviously has a lot on his mind.
“Is the war on your mind, Josh?”
“No, school work, volleyball, and my girlfriend, who’s mad at me.”
Good, because those are things that should be on your mind — now and hopefully after June 18.
Contact: bspencer@wjinc.com
