PDA

View Full Version : Childhood friends reunite in the Army



Cruelbreed
07-14-2009, 05:57 PM
Old but interesting story.


Childhood friends reunite in the Army

Drew Holt and Drew Maney will deploy to Iraq together
September 16, 2008 - 7:59 PM
Mona Moore
Daily News
Drew Holt, 23, and Drew Maney, 24, have a lot in common. In addition to sharing a first name, the Shalimar natives attended the same schools, played soccer on the same team and shared the same dream of joining the Army.

After graduating from Choctawhatchee High School one year apart, the longtime friends didn't see much of each other. But that all changed last March.

First Lt. Maney and 2nd Lt. Holt found themselves in the same brigade as part of the 25th Infantry Division at Fort Wainwright, Alaska.

"It was a pretty big coincidence that our paths crossed like that. Pretty awesome," Holt said.

Maney said he was shocked when he learned Holt would join him at Fort Wainwright. When he called the personnel office to arrange to be Holt's sponsor, pick him up at the airport and show him around the base, Maney learned the pair would be in the same unit.

When asked if they planned to make the Army a career, Holt and Maney had the same answer, "Right now, I do."

"Neither of us have deployed," said Maney. "I think we'll get a better feel after deployment."

"As little boys, they played hard on the soccer field and soon will be fighting hard on the battlefield together," said Maney's mother, Cindy.

In a matter of days, Holt and Maney will deploy to Northeast Iraq with the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team.

Both were anxious to leave.

"This is everything we've trained for, the whole reason why people join in the first place," said Holt. "We're ready to go do our job."

"I'm looking forward to doing my part," Maney said.

He and Holt were both interested in the Army at an early age.

With a father and two uncles who served, Maney said the Army was almost a family tradition.

"I think I was probably raised to appreciate a lot of the good qualities the Army has and I wanted to be a part of those," Maney said. "I wanted to travel the world and do a lot of good for our country as well."

"We have a video of Drew, I think when he was 4 or 5," said Cindy. "When his uncle asks him what he wants to be when he grows up, he says, ‘an Army man.' "

"As a little boy, Drew and one of his buddies down the street would play Army - a lot," said Holt's mother, Margaret.

She and her husband do not have a military background.

"We have a lot of very admirable military retirees around here and they most definitely had an influence on him."

"Two people inspired me: Gen. Bill Wolfe and Col. Stan Shaneyfelt. Both are my neighbors," Holt said. "I've wanted to join since my eighth-grade year."

At about the same time the media was saturated with images of Saddam Hussein's statue plummeting to the ground, Holt was reading and memorizing speeches of Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

His mother said MacArthur was not a school assignment. "He did it on his own. That really set fire to (joining the Army)."

Having an old friend at Fort Wainwright has had its advantages. Maney and Holt say they have the same interests and spend a lot of time together. When not hard at work, Holt and Maney camp, rock climb and swim.

"We hang out basically every weekend," Holt said.

The friends also push each other to do well.

"I like hanging around him because his motivation rubs off on me," said Holt.

"He's always got this motivational fire in his eyes. It's good to be around a guy like that," said Maney. "I think we have a lot of the same attitudes toward the Army."

"He's a great guy, probably the greatest guy I've ever met in the military," Holt said of Maney. "He's got the most integrity of anybody I've ever met. Everything I see in him, I try to do myself because he's a real role model for me."

"I think they both have a very, very, very deep sense of honor and duty and single-mindedness," Margaret said. "They really are just a light in this community."

http://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/maney-11186-holt-army.html