Wright State had billed the night as the Stars, Stripes, Flight Classic and as Raiders’ athletics director Joylynn Brown had aptly explained: “This is more than a basketball game. It’s an event to celebrate the relationship between the United States Air Force and the Dayton region.”
And that’s why, after the recruits took the oath of enlistment — formally declaring their commitment to support and defend the Constitution of the United States — they drew the loudest cheers and most heartfelt applause of the night.
“At first it was kind of nerve-racking standing out there, but then, seeing all the people stand up and support you, it kind of slowed everything down for me,” said the 20-year-old Parthemore. “It calmed me down and made me see what I’m doing is going to be great and all these people are for it.”
His dad — retired Tech Sgt. Jeremy Parthemore — spent 20 years in the USAF Security Forces and had seven deployments that included three tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.
“I remember when (Trevor) was growing up — he was maybe six — he wanted to be like Dad and dressed up for Halloween in a costume that was actually the same gear that I wore to work,” Jeremy said.
As Trevor stood at center court, his trick or treat fantasy of long ago was now fully eclipsed by a reality that was even more magical:
“It hit me that I’m not only carrying on the legacy of my last name, but I’m also fulfilling my own legacy.”
‘Those people are heroes’
Rhinehart and Taylor — both who have grandfathers who had careers in the Air Force ― have similar thoughts.
“It is a family thing,” said the 19-year-old Rhinehart, who now lives in Fairborn with her grandfather, Cecil Rhinehart. “My grandad was in the Air Force for like 26 years and he kind of inspired me
“I’ve always seen people who serve their country as honorable people. As someone to look up to. To me, the title of being a soldier means something. You are fighting for your country. You are serving your country. To me, those people are heroes.”
While you do for others in the service, you also get plenty in return, said Taylor.
“She was an active and popular student at Wayne,” said Madison’s mom, Kenya Taylor, who’s also quite active, serving on numerous civic and professional boards in the Miami Valley.
“She’s also a real spitfire ... and can be quite a handful.
“It’s just that her light shines so bright.”
Sometimes, Madison admitted, that light had a moth-to-flame effect. After a successful volleyball career at Wayne, she said she was kicked off the team for her verbal outspokenness with a coach she had known a long time and would continue to play for in club volleyball.
The exile shocked her and served as a wake-up call.
“I realized I needed some discipline and direction and respect,” she said in candid introspection, especially for an 18-year-old. “I realized I didn’t always have to always ask ‘Why?’ Instead, I could just do it.
“My dad was always in my ear too and he’d give me the harsh truth. He said if you don’t make the right moves, you might end up like this person or that one: You’d never leave Huber Heights, you’d end up pregnant and you’d be forced to step back on some of the dreams you had.”
It was her mom, who was especially supportive of the military idea.
Kenya had grown up in a military family. Her father, retired MSgt. Dale McCoy, was in the Air Force for 24 years.
“I was born in Wichita Falls, Texas and grew up in Albuquerque, N.M.,” she said. “I spent my high school years in Wiesbaden, Germany. I ran track there, so I traveled around the country. I was there during several historical events: the (Berlin) Wall coming down; the Gulf War. It was quite an education.
“I’m proud of (Madison) for making the decision and sticking to it. I think she’ll experience so much and grow, too.”
Cecil Rhinehart , Akiaya’s grandfather, said that’s what happened to him when he joined the Air Force some 61 years ago:
“I grew up in Beckley, West Virginia, and I wasn’t gonna work in no daggum coal mine like everybody else. My oldest brother was in World War II and when he got out, he worked in a coal mine and was killed.”
After he got out of high school, Cecil followed an older brother to Massachusetts to work at a foundry, but quit soon after: “It reminded me of my dad coming out of the coal mine, covered in soot.
“I said, ‘Noooo buddy! That’s not me!’ “But I couldn’t just come back home. I was one of 19 kids and I ain’t talking about no half-brothers and half-sisters. And there were some grandkids living there, too. I couldn’t just be another mouth to feed. I had to go find something.
“The day I got back from Massachusetts I went down to the recruiter’s office and signed up for the Air Force.
“It turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made. Without a doubt, I’d do it all over again. I enjoyed every bit of the trials and tribulations.”
He saw the world and when he finally came out of the service in the late 1980s, he landed a civil service job that he held for 20 years at WPAFB. Jeremy Parthemore had similar thoughts on his service career:
“It gave me a little more guidance; a little more responsibility. The Air Force made me a better man than the one I was when I first came in.”
‘Something that’s bigger than you’
When Rhinehart qualified for the state wrestling tournament last March, everyone at Fairborn rallied around her.
It was because of her accomplishments on the mat and the impressive record she’d built, but even more so it was for the way she had transformed herself.
At the start of her junior year, she said she weighed 250 pounds and had little self-confidence.
“I saw a poster about girls’ wrestling and just decided to do it,” she said. “It kind of came out of nowhere for me.
“At first my stamina was horrible. I’d get tired easily. But as I started to lose weight, the coaches started helping me more and I learned wrestling techniques and became smarter as a wrestler.”
By her senior season she was becoming one of the best heavyweights in the state. Although she had gained confidence and bolstered her ego, she had lost so much weight that there were times she was close to not making the minimum weight for the heavyweight class.
When she headed off to the state tournament, the Fairborn police gave her and her family a celebratory escort from the high school to I-70 for their trip to Columbus.
Now that she’s headed to the Air Force, her send-off is a little different.
She, Taylor and Parthemore — whose mother Jennifer came in from Colorado to watch his Nutter Center ceremony — all say their families are proud of them, they said people their age have varied responses.
Rhinehart said her friends respect her for her decision and commitment — “some of them tell me they’re proud of me,” — but many can’t fathom following suit.
“Mostly they just joke with me,” she said with a laugh. “They’ll stand at attention and salute me or say stuff like: ‘Thank you for your service’ or ‘See you on the front lines.’”
Taylor said her former basketball coach called to congratulate her and tell her how proud he was of her. And she said she has a friend who’s going through basic training in the U.S. Army who has given her advice and support.
“A lot of my friends when I brought it up , they were like, ‘That’s crazy! That would be my last thing in the world I want to do.’”
Parthemore said he’s heard the same response: “But I think a lot of it is that people don’t really understand it. They say it’s not for them, but I want to help them see how it could be. There are so many opportunities that come with it.”
He talked about the way you can be trained in a field you might later work in outside the military and how the G.I. bill provides you with an education.
Until he reports in mid-March, he’s working at a company that rents construction equipment. Once in the Air Force, he plans to pursue a career in cyber defense operations.
Taylor, who currently works at a tanning salon, said she’s scheduled to report to the Air Force in February. She hopes to go into the aerospace medical field.
Rhinehart, who reports Jan. 28, wants to serve in the security forces.
Each of the three believes some of the lessons learned in their sports participation in high school will help them in the Air Force.
“The discipline you learned, the maturity and the fitness, all that should help you,” Rhinehart said.
Parthemore added things like “being part of a team” and “learning accountability.”
He said he thinks it would benefit everyone to at least give the service a shot; that it might provide them with a career or, “if the service isn’t a good fit for them,” they could get out and have the skills they learned while they served their country.
“Either way you would get a chance to take your individual self and put it toward a greater purpose,” he said. “You’d be putting it toward something that’s bigger than you.”
He said that it doesn’t just lift you, it lifts everybody.
It’s thinking like that that brought him, Taylor and Rhinehart, along with nine compatriots, to midcourt at the Nutter Center at a recent game and why the crowd of nearly 10,000 all stood and gave them the loudest cheers and most heartfelt applause of the night.
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