Staff Sgt. Aaron Pierce at Greylock

Staff Sgt. Aaron Pierce at Greylock

On Tuesday, April 12, Army Staff Sergeant Aaron Pierce visited Mt. Greylock to talk with students about possible careers in the military. He said that “I scheduled to do a presentation for all students that were interested in any sort of information about the military, obviously army specific because I’m from the army but I do have experience in the air force.” Pierce enforced that in addition to the combat roles, the Army has many non-combat jobs: “It is true we have combat units, if somebody wants adventure and to have action and adventure and jump out of planes, helicopters and go do all kinds of cool crazy stuff. But the Army is a completely self sustaining organization and a lot of people don’t realize that we are designed so that without any sort of outside support at all we can complete our mission; we can do everything that we need to do including supporting those people. So we have a field in everything. We have paralegals, we have doctors, we have veterinarians, and veterinary assistants, and veterinary food inspectors, dentists, dental assistants, lab technicians.” Pierce also stressed the importance of a high school education: “There is a fair number of students who do not put enough gravity on high school that they should. It really is a huge game changer in your life and some people think if they suck at high school I’ll just go and join the military like some sort of backup plan, but the military is a competitive hiring business like any other business out there. We’re looking for the best and the brightest.” Discussing his intentions in addition to those of the Army, he stated that “We want to be there for the community and we want to help students first and foremost,” and that “I want to make sure that if you want to go to college and you want to do something fantastic with your life, here’s what I can do to help you go to college and do something fantastic.”