Given option, Purser chose harder path
By Trisha Weber
Staff writer
Right before graduation, 2nd Lt. Justin Purser had to confess his secret.
His superiors at the Leader Development & Assessment Course last year needed to know if his mother would be there for the ceremony—so he had to tell them that she is a one-star general.
“It’s a big reputation to live up to,” said Purser, a squad tactical officer for Co. E 2/321st IET. “Having a parent who is a one-star is always a talking point. I try to keep it to myself unless it’s necessary for people to know.”
Purser has always lived under some big shadows, but he doesn’t want them to define him.
2nd Lt. Purser helps a Echo Co. Cadet during a rapelling exercise. Photo by Jeff Sainlar
His sister was near the top of her class at William & Mary in Virginia, where she was also the ROTC battalion commander. His father was a lieutenant colonel and retired commander of the Armor Captain’s Career Course at Fort Knox. And his mother holds the highest rank in the family as a brigadier general.
“I hate being put in a position where people would think I would use her rank to get what I wanted,” he said. “She respected the fact that I wanted to keep her rank out of my development.”
His parents now reside in Norfolk, Va., although his mom is currently working in Washington, D.C., as the deputy chief of the Army Reserves. His older sister is a first lieutenant currently deployed in Baghdad.
Despite their enormous shadows, Purser has been standing his ground among his well-accomplished family.
After his sophomore internship in Washington, D.C., working in the Pentagon for the White House Liaison Office, Purser enlisted in the Army to attend basic training at Fort Benning, Ga.
Although he said he had always planned to go to basic, working with the Department of Defense gave him the inside knowledge on the political side of the military and its top leaders.
“It motivated me to go to basic, which definitely gave me a step above my peers,” he said. “I had that formal mentality of what a lower enlisted is. Once I became a lieutenant, I had that background.”
Basic training is mainly for those who go into the Army as enlisted, usually without a college background. They learn the ins and outs of the Army, which Cadets in ROTC learn over the course of their college career.
The difference between himself and Cadets who hadn’t gone through the training was undeniable, he said.
Before ever beginning the ROTC program he could complete a ruck march, recite the Soldier’s Creed and had learned the formalities of the Army uniform.
“A lot of them didn’t know that stuff as well as I did,” Purser said. “I was able to mentor a lot of my peers who had no prior knowledge.”
Second Lt. Jordan Shontz, a STO for Echo Co., said Purser takes it very seriously when he finds a teaching moment with Cadets.
During a conversation Shontz was having with a Cadet, the young man was saying things like “yea” and “man.” Purser overheard the improper dialogue and immediately took action.
“He stopped him right there and told him the correct way to address a lieutenant,” Shontz said. “He’s laid-back, but he is very concerned with reinforcing standards in conduct, and professionalism in Cadets.”
