Photo By Staff Sgt. Jon Soles | Spc. Alvaro Morales, a parachute rigger assigned to the 824th Quartermaster Company,...... read more read more
FORT BRAGG, N.C. – When Spc. Alvaro Morales graduated from the Warrior Leader’s Course here and walked across the street to his home unit, he never expected to be in the Army’s rigorous Pathfinder School the very next day. But that’s exactly what happened, and the next two weeks of his life proved to be as challenging as they were unexpected.
Morales, a 23-year-old parachute rigger and native of Gastonia, N.C., assigned to the 824th Quartermaster Company, 362nd Quartermaster Battalion, 207th Regional Support Group, began his journey to Pathfinder school with only a duffel bag and his WLC graduation certificate in his hand.
As he walked into his unit he met Capt. Ted Mataxis, company commander, 824th QM Company. As it happens, a slot had come open at the last minute in the Pathfinder School and Mataxis was looking to fill it quick.
“I had no lodging, no vehicle, nowhere to go, nothing to do,” Morales said. “My commander asked me, ‘What are you doing tomorrow?’”
When Morales was offered the Pathfinder School the next day, he didn’t think twice.
“For my commander to tell me there is a slot in Pathfinder and consider me for it, told me that I had to pass it,” Morales said. “He was telling me to step up to a challenge.”
Morales’ agenda changed overnight and he found himself in the academically intense Pathfinder course. He said few people in the course got more than three for four hours of sleep a night, due to the enormous amount of memorization and studying required to pass.
“My mind was overwhelmed by the information, the equations, the mathematics,” he said. “I’ve taken some tough classes in college, but none compared to Pathfinder.”
Despite the long hours and challenging curriculum he was determined to graduate the course, to prove to himself he could do it, and also so he wouldn’t let his commander down.
“If you want something you have to work for it,” Morales said. “And I wanted that torch.”
Morales made it through the academic portion of the course, and then he made it through the field exercises of preparing aircraft and helicopter landing zones. Just two-weeks after arriving he was standing at attention at his graduation ceremony.
“At the graduation ceremony, they told us the story of the pathfinders and that passing the course made us part of that story,” Morales said. “I was filled with enormous pride.”
The Pathfinder badge on Morales’ uniform fits neatly between his airborne jump wings and his Rigger badge. But he’s not done yet. Although a full-time student at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte studying sports medicine, his real motivation is driven by the Army Reserve, and he’s already looking forward to his next challenge: The Air Assault course.
| Date Taken: | 05.04.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 05.22.2013 13:14 |
| Story ID: | 107369 |
| Location: | FORT BRAGG, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Hometown: | GASTONIA, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 2,125 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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