Brianna Fritzinger of Germansville will ship out June 17 to begin 10 weeks of basic training as a member of the Army National Guard at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.

A junior at Northwestern Lehigh High School, Fritzinger said training was initially canceled due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which would mean juniors like her who are doing a split-option contract would take basic training next summer.

She said the Army National Guard, however, was allowing only 200 members nationally to attend boot camp in a lottery-type system, and she had been marked as a “primary candidate to go.”

Although she did not initially know if she would be selected as one of the 200 recruits, shortly after speaking with The Press on June 4, Fritzinger learned she would be one of just two guard members from Pennsylvania to ship out this summer.

Fritzinger was asked why she wanted to join the National Guard.

She said she wanted to be a leader and highlighted her leadership roles as a member of the school student council and debate team, in addition to having completed leadership programs including the Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership seminar, for which she received an award - one of only two students per district - for demonstrating leadership skills.

In addition, Fritzinger said she enjoys helping members of the community.

“I always volunteer because I really like to help people out,” Fritzinger said, adding she received a Congressional Award from Congresswoman Susan Wild, D-7th, for completing more than 100 hours of community service.

“I’ve always wanted to help people. I always wanted to be a leader and I knew after high school - and during high school - taking a step further, the military would provide me the ability to do so.”

She sat down with her recruiter last year for an interview.

“I knew back in September I wanted to enlist,” Fritzinger said.

She was sworn in seven months later - in April - in Harrisburg.

According to the National Guard website, basic training is a 10-week program broken into three phases - Red, White and Blue - which teach recruits a multitude of skills including the basics of soldiering, the Army’s Core Values, traditions and ethics, navigation, weapon maintenance and marksmanship, tactics, leadership and self-discipline, and strenuous physical fitness training.

Basic training concludes with one week of field training and a 15-kilometer march before graduating as a National Guard soldier.

“In those phases you get to rappel off a 50-foot tower which I think is really cool. They make you go through the obstacle courses, climbing ropes, bear crawling underneath barbed wire … It’s pretty intense,” Fritzinger said, adding she looked forward to the challenges.

To prepare for basic training, Fritzinger has been completing online drills - instead of in-person at the Kutztown Armory, which is impossible at this time due to COVID-19.

She has been reviewing standard military bearing, military time, military code, proper posture and map reading.

“It’s nice because not only do we get to learn things, to help us get ready for basic training, but we also get paid for it, too,” Fritzinger said.

After completing 10 weeks of Basic Combat Training, Fritzinger will return to Northwestern Lehigh to complete her senior year before leaving next summer for 10 weeks of Advanced Individual Training in Texas.

“AIT helps get you prepared for your job,” she said, noting her AIT will teach the necessary skills to fulfill her intended Military Occupational Specialty 31 Bravo, Military Police.

Looking forward, Fritzinger has her sights set on an officer’s commission.

“I’m actually trying to use the National Guard as a steppingstone because I’m trying to apply to West Point, the United States Military Academy,” she said. “There’s a whole different application process if you’re already in the military.

“So, by already being in the National Guard, I kind of have more as an applicant than others.”

Fritzinger is not the first member in her family to enter the service.

Her cousin, Matthew Haldeman, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and her grandfather served in the Army during World War II.

The daughter of Tanya and William Fritzinger, Brianna has a sister, Layla Solt, a 2012 graduate of Northwestern Lehigh.

“We are, of course as parents, extremely proud of Brianna and all she has accomplished in school and now continuing her journey through being in the National Guard,” Tanya Fritzinger said about her daughter’s present and future endeavors.

“Brianna is just well-rounded, and for someone her age she has a great head on her shoulders, she knows the direction in which she wants to go; and let me tell you, she’s a kid who really pushes herself to get there and succeed.”