Daniel Adams joined the Services Academy in 2011 hoping that it would help him achieve his goal of getting into the US Marines.
He participated in all of the Academy courses, physically and mentally pushing himself to get closer to his end goal. In 2012 he worked really hard academically to complete his Level 3 NCEA and he also passed his Regimental Fitness Level (RFL) to get into the Army. Within the Services Academy he gained leadership skills, fitness, discipline, experience in Military Based Camps and drill, all of which ultimately increased his chances of being accepted into the Army.
In 2012 he shared the Services Academy Top Student Trophy by showing all of those qualities which helped him with his enlistment.
Daniel had planned on enlisting either late in 2012 or early in 2013. Initially, because of his academic achievement, his fitness and his leadership qualities, he was recruited as an officer but he declined this as it involved a lot of paperwork and he wanted to be doing the hard yards on the ground. He was then accepted as Artillery in the Army with his Initial Training or Basic starting on February 3 2013. So he stayed till the end of 2012 and went straight into training from here. Our staff caught glimpses of him training at Waiouru while we were there on our Induction and Bushcraft Course. Even though we saw him, we were unable to talk to him or give him some motivation to keep going as they were on strict timings.
For our staff it was a great feeling to see one of our students going through the Basic Course. We were very surprised to see Daniel again when he turned up to the Services Academy in the late afternoon on the 27 June 2013 dressed in his “Diggicam” uniform. He had just “Marched Out” or graduated from finishing his “Basic” 2 days earlier and was home on 5 days leave before his career started with his trade training at Linton. He had wanted to come in and see us before he headed away again to say thanks and give us some insight into his “Basic Training”. He was keen to offer his services to us if we needed someone to speak about “Basic” later on in the year and we were very happy for him to do this.
I myself was very proud of his achievements and let him know that it just gets easier now that his journey has begun. This is one of the reasons we do our jobs, to see our students achieve their goals and reap the rewards in the long run. Well done Daniel Adams and all the best for your new and exciting career.