Multimedia: Six in Uniform

The recruits

A local soldier and five recruits explain why they've chosen a life in uniform.
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Four recruits join military ranks
Staff Sgt. Lee Lewis, U.S. Army
Michelle Christopher, Army recruit

Photo by James Lee
Special to The Star

With his long hair and hulking, hunched shoulders, Adrian Castaneda looks more ready-made for playing a mean bass in a speed metal band than putting on a uniform.

Photo by James Lee
Special to The Star

By signing up early, Adrian Castaneda qualified for $1,000 a month before shipping out.

Photo by James Lee
Special to The Star

"I've always wanted to be in the military, since I was a little kid," he said. He enlisted in the Army in January and will head to basic training in August.

Dressed in a black "Army Strong" T-shirt and red shorts, Adrian Castaneda bellowed out a cadence with about 10 other "future soldiers" in an empty alley behind the Oxnard Armed Forces Career Center in a strip mall.

He'd been doing push-ups, wind sprints, a shuffle run and jumping jacks for the past hour, and he looked stressed.

As the group finished the last cadence of stretches, the 18-year-old, who was on the cusp of graduating from Oxnard High School, gasped for breath, burped and then raised his hand.

"Castaneda?"

"Sgt. Rush, can I go in and throw up?" he asked.

Later, standing by his new Harley-Davidson with his curtain of shoe polish black hair hanging down below his chin, Castaneda explained that he's usually at the front of the pack.

He made the mistake of taking a nap after school, waking up with only a few minutes to spare and wolfing down a couple slices of pizza before showing up for the weekly physical training.

For six months he'd been prepping himself to head off to basic training. On his Web page he refers to himself as "(Expletive) Private Castaneda."

"I've always wanted to be in the military, since I was a little kid," Castaneda said a few weeks before graduating.

With his long hair and hulking, hunched shoulders, Castaneda looked more ready-made for playing a mean bass in a punk or speed metal band than putting on a uniform.

At school, few of his classmates could fathom his decision, and he'd had teachers tell him he'd made a mistake.

"My teachers are really down on it. They're saying, Oh you're going to get killed or maimed,' " he said.

"But this is what I want to do; the Army's a good choice for me."

His parents were initially shocked by his decision but have come to support him.

"They're glad I'm doing something important," he said. "I think I'm one of the few people (from school) who are actually leaving the state when high school's over."

Apart from a short trip to Mexico, Castaneda hasn't been far from home.

"I'm nervous and excited and happy," he said. "I'm mostly nervous because I've never left Oxnard. I don't know what that's going to be like."

Though he's smart and has a goal of eventually teaching history in high school while being a motorcycle mechanic on the side, Castaneda said his grades left him with few options as promising as the military.

By signing up early he qualified for $1,000 a month before shipping out. That will be added to his $5,000 enlistment bonus.

Asked what he plans to do with what will be $13,000 by the time he heads out to basic training in August, Castaneda said, "You're looking at it," pointing to the new but slightly dented Harley he bought back in January after signing his enlistment papers.

He was in an accident not long after buying the bike and broke both wrists but was up and running a few weeks later.

He decided to sign up for a combat-related job. Although all who sign up must assume that there is a chance they could wind up in combat, many of the jobs offered by the Army are meant to be support positions.

Castaneda wanted to drive a tank.

"Yeah, I'm probably going to Iraq, but that's my choice," he said. "I don't have a problem with that."