Our Community Salutes is a nonprofit organization that hosts recognition ceremonies for high school graduates who enlist in the military and provides transition services to the enlistees and their families. On Thursday, over 100 Fayetteville graduates were recognized as they took the next step towards enlisting in the U.S. Armed Services.
“The third annual Our Community Salutes ceremony has gone from 93 high students in 2023 to 180 students in 2025,” said retired U.S. Army Colonel John Gobrick, chapter president for Our Community Salutes in Fayetteville.
“This ceremony has exploded in popularity,” Gobrick said. “All branches of the military are represented tonight.”
With encouraging words from U.S. Sens. Tom Tillis and Ted Budd, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and top leaders from all branches of service attending remotely, the enlistees were honored as they stood to take the oath of enlistment.
The Honorable Robert L. Wilkie, the 10th U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs and a Fayetteville native, said that while much had changed in Fayetteville, a constant is the American service coming from the largest military installation in the world at Fort Bragg.
“Nine-tenths of the talons of eagles are from eastern North Carolina, right here,” Wilkie said.
U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sergeant Tomio P. Brown, Sr. who serves as the Command Chief at the 43rd Air Mobility Operation Group at Pope Army Airfield on Fort Bragg, and U.S. Army Major General Todd Hunt, the adjutant general of North Carolina, spoke after Wilkie.
“You are America’s most valuable assets,” Hunt said. “Our nation did not become the greatest in the world by anyone standing down. When you report, you will be tested and challenged, but our freedom and democracy are tested and challenged every single day. You are what America needs right now. I am so proud of what you have done.”
After the speakers and a performance by the 82nd Airborne Division All-American Chorus, the enlistees stood to recite their oath of enlistment. The names of the newly enlisted service members were said aloud as they marched graduation-style across the stage, welcomed into the various branches of service.
Retired U.S. Army Sergeant Ruby Murray, JROTC instructor at SouthView High School, said the ceremony was “simply amazing.”
“This is a collaboration of all high schools and all branches of service,” Murray said. “With everyone, it’s one village serving our great country as we all salute the same flag pole.”
She said that her job, now that she is retired from active duty, is to help provide opportunities to students.
“Training, teaching, coaching and molding is what we do,” Murray said. “The real world is dangerous but also beautiful when you step out on faith and they have great lives ahead. I have two students raising their right hands tonight. It means a lot to see this tonight.”
Elizabeth Ortiz-Leon will be joining the U.S. Navy when she graduates in May from Gray’s Creek High School.
“Navy was my top choice and my ship date is soon,” Ortiz-Leon, 18, said. “I will be going to basic, then to Advanced school. My hope for the moment is to eventually go to Cal Tech or Penn State.”
Ortiz-Leon said that she would like to also get into Officer Candidates School, an intensive program to train Marine Corps officer candidates. When asked what she thought about the OCS ceremony, she said that she missed her little sister’s birthday party to be with her fellow JROTC cadets.
“This is a big step in our career,” she said. “I did my relief last week as the CO [commanding officer] and now I’m hoping to be on a submarine.”
Enlisting in the U.S. Marines Corps, Austin Schindler, 18, said he is more excited than anything to be a marine. He wants to join the infantry before transitioning to the Marine Forces Special Operations Command.
“I think this recognition tonight is great,” the senior at Jack Britt High School said. “I was mainly undecided with what I wanted to do, but then the Marines were calling me.”
When Aleyshia Ricoh, a senior at SandHoke Early College in Raeford, looked at the different branches of service, she chose the U.S. Air Force despite both of her parents being active duty soldiers in the U.S. Army.
“Both of my parents are in the Army and when I talked to them about joining, they suggested the Air Force would be my best path with what I’m looking for as far as a job and developing my skill set,” Ricoh, 18, said.
Ricoh, who is graduating high school with an associate’s degree from Sandhills Community College, said she is hoping that being in the Air Force will eventually lead to a civilian job that pays well, but she was most excited about being a part of the same service as her parents.
Ricoh’s mother, U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Tewid Elechuus who is stationed at Fort Bragg, and her four siblings cheered her on as she shook hands with the speakers and dignitaries on the stage.
“I’m very proud of her,” Elechuus said. “She’s going to serve her country and she’s got a really good plan.”
Elechuus said the entire ceremony was a great honor for the enlisting students.
“This is a morale booster for our younger generation,” Elechuus said. “It’s such a good thing for them to choose to serve in our military. We need them.”
Jami McLaughlin writes for CityView. She can be reached at jmclaughlin@cityviewnc.com or at 910-391-4870.
