MV grad named Soldier of the Year MV grad named Soldier of the Year (August 12, 2005)

By Jenny Baer

Jose Pazmino joined the Army immediately after graduating from Mountain View High School, and hasn't regretted it for a moment.

"It's great. I love the military life," he said.

The 19-year-old Mountain View native says he had aspirations of becoming a soldier for about a year before joining the armed forces, explaining that "I just wanted to see the world and I wanted to be a soldier."

He's done more than that: Recently, Pazmino was named the Installation Management Agency-Europe Soldier of the Year.

The Soldier of the Year contest consisted of various events and was judged by a panel of senior non-commissioned officers. The events included a physical fitness test, a night and day land navigation course, weapon qualification, common task and training and a written exam. Contestants received a certain number of points for each task -- and Pazmino, representing the 233rd Base Support Batillion of Darmstadt, Germany, says he was "not the best at every single event, but I was even all around."

Pazmino attributes his decision to enter the contest to his competitive nature. "I like to win and I like to be the best at everything," he said.

After his victory, Pazmino was featured in the military newspaper Stars and Stripes . "It felt good," he said. "It felt like I got noticed and I liked the popularity. Everybody was so surprised because I hadn't been good in communicating with them because I'm busy at work all the time."

When Pazmino's father, Kleber Pazmino, found out about his son's achievement, "I got really impressed," he said. Originally, he admitted, he was apprehensive about his son's plan to join the military -- Jose had become interested after a recruiting officer visited Mountain View High School and some of his friends expressed their intent to join.

"I did not really agree with [his choice], but it was his decision so whatever he decides to do, I just wish the best for him," Kleber said.

Now Pazmino says he plans to stay in the military for the long haul and "make it a career." The young soldier has not yet been to Iraq but hopes to be stationed there in the future.

"I haven't been to Iraq yet and I want to gain the experience," he said. "It's happening, so I might as well like it."

E-mail Jenny Baer at jbaer@mv-voice.com

E-mail a friend a link to this story.