While we may try to convince ourselves that we do not care about the new gossip running rampant around the school, most of us do. It seems to be a cliché in small towns like our own, where people do not have too much excitement and instead seek to know why their neighbor is so noisy in the morning or who their friends are dating. The kind of gossip that does not get focused on too often is who the new figures are amongst us, and their stories. That is the reason I interviewed Chief Warrant Officer Edwin Bonayon, our new JROTC Senior Army Instructor.
I contacted the Chief and met him in his classroom while his students were out playing kickball. He initially accused me of not having any pants on (I did), but we pushed past that and started to delve into his past.
What compelled you to join the army and how long were you in the armed forces?
“Well, I was in the service for 23 years. I joined July 9th of 2000 and recently got out August 31st of this year. What really compelled me was the family thing. My grandpa was retired in the army, my dad was in the army, and I didn’t really see myself as a college student. So, I knew joining the military was what I was going to do after high school.”
What can you say about your journey in the military? What were some of the most difficult things you had to get through?
“Really, when you initially look at it, I grew up in a super small town. Never experiencing a big town before, that was kind of different and a challenge at first. My first duty station was DC; the most difficult times were probably holidays overseas and that’s really rough when you join. Probably that. I did deploy, but that was nothing too crazy.”
On your page in the school website, it says that you were in the Marine Corps’ Presidential Honor Guard. What can you tell me about that?
“So- What that is, the Presidential Guard is a unit in DC called Eighth & I. What we do is ceremonies and funerals, funerals in Arlington, ceremonies at the Pentagon, ceremonies at the White House. I don’t know if you’ve seen the news where the president’s standing there at the steps of the White House and there’s those guys just standing there for hours, that’s what I did. We called ourselves ceremonial wallpaper, because we stood in the background and didn’t move.”
What would you say was your most interesting encounter in that unit?
“That unit—there’s so many. I was able to meet the president twice, President Bush. I participated in his inauguration. Probably the coolest thing was meeting Muhammad Ali, and I shook his hand. That was all from the military, it was a cool opportunity to do.”
You went from the Marine Corps to the Army; can you tell me about how that happened and how you became a Warrant Officer?
“Yep. So, I transitioned in 2007 to the Army. The reason I transitioned is kind of weird. I have a full sleeve tattoo and the Marine Corps wouldn’t let me join back again since I got out shortly. I tried to join again, but they said I could not. So- I transitioned to the army. The reason I wanted to be a Warrant Officer is because we had a Warrant Officer in our unit who was the go-to guy. If you had any questions, you would ask Chief Wolfe and he knew the answer. I wanted that, the way everyone respected him. I wanted that for myself. I did everything I could to set myself up to become a Warrant Officer.”
What was your profession as a Warrant Officer and what did you like about that job?
“My profession was a 9-20 Alpha which is a property accounting technician or PBO. A property book officer. What I really liked was training the new supply sergeants. You got new supply guys in and my role as a warrant officer was to be a subject matter expert and train the people replacing me down the road. Training supply sergeants to know their job and training them to be a subject matter expert so they could replace me is what I loved.”
The golden question most people here are probably asking, what led you to come out here to Cartersville and become a JROTC instructor?
“I wanted to continue my service to the country in a different way. I knew my time in the military was up. Me and my wife decided I had to retire. I wanted to continue to serve and put the uniform on, and I think a good way of doing that is being a JROTC instructor- I’m just serving in a different capacity. This sounds weird, but the reason we picked Cartersville- or started looking into it, is because my oldest son’s name is Carter and I joked and said, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if Carter lived in Cartersville?’ We were just joking around about it on a Saturday and next thing you know the Jaguars are playing a play-off game against the Chargers I believe, and it showed Trevor Lawrence and Cartersville, Georgia. I said, ‘Oh wait, hey look, is that the same place?’ And so, I called on that Monday to see if that vacancy was legit- and it was, and I started the process.”
What’s one unexpected thing about teaching kids and being a JROTC instructor?
“Man- I guess it’s not unexpected, but teaching kids right, it is completely different trying to teach a 14–18-year-old than it is trying to teach even a 19-year-old soldier. It’s a different mentality, I have to approach it differently, its not really what I’m used to- obviously. But that’s probably the most difficult thing, how to approach students and try to find my rhythm as a teacher.”
What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone who doesn’t really know what they’re gonna do in life?
“You know- do what makes you happy. Obviously I’m gonna push college, a trade school, going straight into the workforce, or the military. Those are really your four options during high school. Kind of try to figure out what they’re going to do with their life or what their interests are and try to help them and point them in the right direction of those four pathways we offer.”
“Alright so- thank you Chief for being with us toda-”
“Wait hold on, why are your pants still off?”
