By LESLEY CHRISTIANSON
Staff Writer

For most 17-year-olds, prom is the acme of the high school year. For Hutchinson High School junior Michael Massmann, it was his last chance to share the experience with his classmates.

By this time next year, while area juniors and seniors will be preparing for the special occasion, Massmann will be training at Fort Benning, Ga., as a soldier in the U.S. Army.

“I’d thought about it for years,” Massmann said of his decision to hasten his graduation date and join the military. “Then a recruiter called and it was perfect timing. I pretty much signed over the phone.”

Massmann currently serves in the Minnesota National Guard and trains one weekend a month. This summer, after he completes basic combat training, he’ll begin taking online courses to graduate sooner. Diploma in hand, it’s off to Advanced Individual Training, where he’ll learn infantry skills, graduate and receive his first orders.

Even though his military aptitude test, or the ASVAB, scores could have kept him behind a desk, he opted for the infantry route. And although his first orders are still years away and the future uncertain, Massmann said he’s not afraid to go to Iraq if he must.

“I told the recruiter, ‘Put me in the air or put me on the ground, but don’t put me in an office.’ That’s what you do in your regular job,” he said. “Who else is going to get to go across seas and defend the country?”

For the full story, check out the Tuesday, May 5 print edition of the Leader.

(Lesley Christianson is a staff writer for the Hutchinson Leader.)
christianson@hutchinsonleader.com