Story and photo by Rachael Tolliver

She said she didn't have goals, discipline or ambition, and "nobody could make me do anything." But that all changed when Sgt. Ginny Weaver, who is originally from Queens, N.Y., stopped by an Army recruiter's office.

Now she is a noncommissioned officer in charge of supply for the 764th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson Colo., and has what she calls "marketable job skills" that she feels she will be able to use later in life, and said she loves her job.

"The Army has given me a (marketable) job, and now I have goals—I had no goals before I joined the Army," she recalled. "In high school I didn't know what I wanted to do or what I wanted to be—now I do. Now I know when to talk, when to bite my tongue, and what to do to get something done."

The job she performs daily includes making sure the property book—everything assigned to the company—is accounted for, and that the condition of the equipment signed out to soldiers is the same when it is returned. She turns in equipment the company doesn't use or that's obsolete so it's no longer in the unit's inventory, orders various supplies, and signs for equipment from other units.

Depending on the unit to which a supply NCO is assigned, the property book can be worth millions of dollars—a huge responsibility.

"I love my job—it involves lots of paperwork and I like paperwork. Sometimes it can be frustrating, but as long as I keep it in order, I'm good," she explained "Being a supply sergeant is different depending on what MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) you are in. Ordering office supplies is all the same as a supply NCO. The difference comes when you are ordering unit specific stuff, like ordering equipment and gear for EOD specific tasks (verses an armor unit)."

The Army has also helped Weaver get a college education as well as gain leadership and organization skills.

"I am enrolled in college for business administration—I picked it because of my current MOS so when I do become a civilian, I know that part too," she said. "For example, I can get a job in anything dealing with receiving, (purchasing) or with warehouse-distribution jobs."

She added that in addition to the skills she gained in the Army she also gained respect from her family. Not only are her parents proud of her, they actually moved from Queens to Colorado, and said that they like the mountains and the view from their house.

"(Given the chance) I would tell all the (students) in my high school about all the different jobs they could do in the Army," she said of Army opportunities. "And they get good benefits—they get paid for all the days (of the year), you get paid leave, four-day weekends, and health benefits for soldiers and families, not to mention the experience of meeting different people."

Weaver's long-term goal is to stay in supply, progress in rank, and retire as a first sergeant.

But she said that anyone interested in the military can make the Army into the experience they want.

"The most awesome NCO I had (so far) told me, as a private, to not judge my first enlistment as 'this is what it is all like.' I kept telling him I wanted out—it was my first time away from my family, on my own, (and all that)," she recalled.

"He told me to take it all for the advantages it offered. Take it day by day, and that not all days will be great. But you can make them great, and I have."