‘Hardwiring Happiness’: Laughlin Starts Future Early With National Guard
JROTC Executive Officer Austin Laughlin salutes the inspector at the JROTC inspection Dec. 9. The inspection is usually in April. In spite of the early date the group met requirements with a satisfactory score.
Austin Laughlin runs through the woods with a 60 lb. bag on his back, all strapped in and secure, with more people in the same uniform running behind him. Everything is going as planned until something changes. A member of his platoon stumbles down a slanted path into the trees and grass after one backpack strap comes undone and all the weight of the bag shifts as it falls to one side. Austin and the other teammates yell over their shoulders to see if he’s okay. Austin is on a ruck march in the middle of Army Basic Combat Training. It’s funny when other platoon members endure this kind of fall, but for his team, not so much.
That was last summer. Last summer spent in basic training after Laughlin joined the Army National Guard his junior year.
Since Laughlin was a young boy he knew he wanted to be in the military; he felt like it would be a fulfilling job that would give him a sense of service and happiness. A job where he could help other people while still making a living.
“I felt like it was something that was tough enough to always be challenging,” Laughlin said.
Although Austin’s parents wanted him to go to college, he felt like he needed to do what was best for him. He decided to do both through the Split Training Option Program which is only available through the Army National Guard.
The program will put him on the same level as everybody else in order to go to college once he graduates but having already completed the basic combat assignments most students who join the military do after high school.
“I’ve always wanted to go active duty and be an active duty soldier,” Laughlin said. “I wanted to see what it took to become a real soldier because that’s the title you earn when you complete basic combat training.”
After completing his junior year of high school, Austin shipped out to Army Basic Combat Training on June 9, 2014.
“I really underestimated it,” Laughlin said. “I was nervous and afraid, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t.”
Austin’s first week at basic training was called “Reception Battalion.” That’s when he received all of his equipment, took care of medical documents and had tests done so he could go through training.
“It all starts with taking the ASVAB here. Then you have be approved at MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station),” Laughlin said. “After that you go to basic training and they check you again.”
After the first week, the drill sergeants took Austin to his company where he met his team and began to work and train with them for nine weeks.
“After you get everything you need, they take you to your company,” Laughlin said. “So you start out at a different place than when you finish.”
After those nine weeks, there was one week called “Recovery” which was meant for helping soldiers’ bodies and minds rest while they are also getting ready to go home.
“Your body is pretty much not what it was when you showed up,” Laughlin said. “You also have to clean everything and turn it back in so you can leave.”
The 10 weeks of being away in a new state with strangers is meant to strengthen a soldier’s ability to work as a team by forcing them to work as if they’ve known each other their whole lives. Laughlin said believing that God is in control is what helped him the most through all of the stress, struggle and hard work.
“The cool thing about it, if you believe this, is God never leaves you, so you don’t have to have a time when you’re quiet, or a time when you bend down and pray, you can talk to him in your mind and in your heart at any time,” Laughlin said.
Laughlin said another thing that comes from being in a group with new people is learning how to be more patient and understanding, so that he knew how to focus on his team.
“Do your best to be patient with people, especially if they don’t know what they’re doing; do your best to teach them and not get upset with them,” Laughlin said. “ I learned to not worry about myself and put my efforts into the team.”
Austin believes that without the military and their efforts and teamwork, America would not be as great of a country as it is today.
“Not a lot of people believe that; they think we’re just bullies who go out and pick on other people and take their stuff,” Laughlin said. “In every group of people there’s one bad person, and it’s not because they’re born bad it’s because they choose to do bad things.”
Laughlin said people look at the bad things instead of the good and get so wrapped up in the bad that they put a title on the whole group.
Laughlin got back to Wichita Falls the Saturday before the first day of his senior year, but spending his entire summer in basic training with people who will become life long friends was something that overall he said he enjoyed.
“Everyone wants to be happy. That’s just hardwired in to everyone that’s lived ever,” Laughlin said. “And I, like other people, get happiness from seeing other people be happy, so if I can do something based upon my skills and abilities, to give someone the opportunity to be happy, they’re going to be super happy. I think that’s one of the biggest things that not a lot of people can do.”
Austin sees being in the military as a way to help people and defend the freedom that he believes a lot of people take for granted.
“People feel happy because they’re free. They have the freedom to do whatever they want to do with their lives,” Laughlin said. “If I can use my freedom to go off and do something they can’t so that they can have freedom, they’re gonna be super happy, and life’s too short to not feel happy.”
