Senior looks ahead to service

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Nathan Pence hasn’t graduated from high school yet, but he knows what he’s going to do afterward.

The Seward High senior, who is already a member of the Nebraska National Guard, will be infantry airborne.

He said Veterans Day is a good reminder of what others in service have gone through.

“Just starting out, you get an appreciation of what they’ve done. The sacrifices I understand a little more,” he said.

As a new serviceman, he has a new perspective.

“That makes it important to me,” he said. “What they’ve gone through and the risk – I’m really grateful.”

Pence said his grandfather, Greg Matulka, was a big influence in his decision.

“He taught me a lot about work ethic,” Pence said. “I looked up to him.”

Matulka, who served in the Air Force, used to give Pence wooden guns to play with, and he would play army.

“I wanted to serve my country and my community,” Pence said.

The military will give him that opportunity. Pence already completed basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, last summer. He said he liked Georgia but not the heat, humidity or ants.

He always planned to graduate early and will finish high school in December. Next summer, Pence will go to Advanced Individual Training where he will train to become airborne.

“My recruiter talked me into it,” he said.

After AIT at Fort Benning, Pence plans to come back to Seward and attend Southeast Community College in its diesel technology program.

He originally signed up as an infantryman.

“Infantry you blow stuff up. Airborne you jump out of planes,” Pence said. “I knew it would not be a cakewalk.”

Airborne will definitely be out of Pence’s comfort zone.

“I’m scared of heights,” he said.

He said he knows jumping will take a toll on his body which is why he wants to do it while he’s young. He’s already dealt with football injuries – a high ankle sprain and tendonosis, caused by chronic overuse of a tendon, in his knee.

He said his time in athletics will help as he moves into the military.

“Coaches put you through stuff you don’t want to do,” he said. “That helps build you as a person.”

Pence has played football and basketball and competed in track and field and swimming.

“Different sports have different bonuses,” he said.

A four-year term will start Pence’s National Guard service. He’ll be available for two years after that for potential call-up. Even though he’s only 17, Pence is already thinking long term.

If he stays in the Guard for 20 years, he can retire at age 37, he said. Then he can embark on a second career.

Being in the military also allows Pence to use the G.I. Bill for college. With his high score on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, he said, he’ll be paid to go to college.

He’ll have a little break, though. After his December graduation, Pence said he plans to work until he reports for AIT. He said he hopes he can do AIT before the heat of the Georgia summer.

In his final semester of high school, Pence had just one required class – English. He decided to take welding and small engines for hands-on experience, as well as a nutrition and wellness class.

“I want to be smart with what I put in my body,” he said.

He learned some of that during basic training, as well.

Pence is the son of Angie Pence and Kenny Pence of Seward. He has a cousin who’s in the National Guard already, and he said some of his family thinks he’s crazy to join the military.

But he thinks his grandpa would be proud.