Parker Casano missed his first two weeks of his senior year at Starkville High School finishing out a summer not many teenagers would sign up for.
The week before his junior year ended, Casano, 17, left Starkville to complete basic training for the Army National Guard in Fort Jackson, South Carolina.
It was an easy decision for the senior as he’s always wanted to be in the military, and it’s one his parents knew was coming. His mother, Elizabeth, said when Parker was 8, he asked her to spray the water hose on his face.
“He said he needed to practice for waterboarding,” Elizabeth recalled. “I was like, ‘No! I don’t know where you learned about that.’ He said, ‘Well I’m going to try out for the Navy SEALS and the Marines and whichever one almost kills me but doesn’t, I’m going to go for them.’ And I told him that’s not how we’re going to do it. So, we’ve known since he was 8 this was a calling for him.”
As Parker grew older, he spent two summers at Extreme Military Challenge, a two- to seven-week summer camp that anyone 13-18 can attend to challenge themselves to a military-like boot camp. It’s there that Parker figured out he did not want to be a Marine or in the Air Force, but he wanted to be in the Army.
“My first year, they had four different platoons with two Army drill sergeants, one Coast Guard drill sergeant and one Marines drill sergeant,” Casano said. “… I ended up getting the Marine drill sergeant for two weeks, and it was hell on earth. I was 14 years old, and it was called ‘Extreme Military Challenge’ for a reason.”
Casano said while he was at basic training over this summer, the biggest challenge was the mental stress despite there being days when he felt he could not physically get out of bed. He did not let either stop him, and he pushed himself to surpass every standard the Army set for new soldiers.
Drill sergeants raised the normal standard and pushed those in basic training to surpass the higher standard to make sure they were the best, Casano said.
“If the normal standard was 90, they wanted us at 150,” Casano said. “They kept telling us they needed 120 percent, not 110, not 100. It was always 120 percent.”
Because Casano missed the end of his junior year and the beginning of his senior year, his friends didn’t want him to miss out on the festivities. A cardboard cutout of Casano’s face floated around the high school to his friends for senior festivities.
“Whenever I was gone for the senior stuff like the parade, all of my friends had the cutout, and they kept waving it around like I was there,” Casano said. “It was pretty cool.”
When Casano graduates high school, he will attend Mississippi State University. But before he begins college he will attend field artillery officer training at Fort Sill in Oklahoma.
Many parents approach Elizabeth to ask if she’s worried about her son, but she said recruiters and the SHS Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps have been a tremendous help. She said she is proud her son wants to fight for the country and has a calling where he knows exactly what he wants to do and enjoys it.
“He still goes to drill every month, and he will have to deploy at some point,” Elizabeth said. “… Whenever I have parents that ask me how could I let my 17-year-old do this, I explain to them that this keeps him from doing everything all immediately where I say bye to him and might see him two years from now. Another thing I tell them is, ‘Do you enjoy your freedom? Because I enjoy my freedom, and someone has to fight for it. Why not my son?’”
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.