Our Precious Freedoms: Alexander Figueroa

Braden River High Army instructor Alexander Figueroa is a career military soldier. His wife, Wilma, was an Army staff sergeant, and his daughters, Dominique and Victoria, are military as well. He now helps his junior ROTC students understand their freedoms and the importance of protecting them.

"In JROTC, I see myself as being all I can be to serve people. It's not work for me, but it's me giving back. When I got ready to retire from the military, I prayed. This is all I know. My future ... where do I need to be? Should I teach, coach, lead? I want to give back to the community in the best way I can. I felt I was anointed in my calling. What a better way to give back than teaching and mentoring our youth?

"Every morning, our students read the Cadet Creed. It's about who they are and what being a cadet is all about. It's about their responsibilities and it's about understanding the values we instill in them. It tells them to live it. It's a mission statement that empowers our students to become better students. We teach government as it's related to the U.S. Constitution and their natural rights. Sometimes we don't appreciate civil liberties we have. In the classroom, I tell them, they have books, and backpacks, and other things their parents have provided for them. There are countries where students don't have those things, or they don't even have the opportunity to be educated. Or they don't have lights, or air conditioning. Then I tell them stories of what I have seen. They don't understand oppression in Afghanistan. As veterans, we understand the things they have yet to experience.

"We also look at all those things in the preamble of the U.S. Constitution. If we live by that and understand what it means, and it's so powerful, that's the fabric of who we should be. We go through the preamble and they recite it, then break it down into what it really means. Then I say to them, 'I want you to write your own preamble, utilizing this preamble as a guide."

"In Iraq, I was with a field artillery company that was transformed into a rifle infantry company. We did maneuvering and searches, looking for different entities. I was in a rocket launching unit. From the beginning of Desert Storm, I was a squad leader. During that time, we were all mission focused. We were ensuring guys were trained to do their job. I had a platoon sergeant, someone who is grooming you, get killed in Iraqi Freedom 2 by a bomb. Your dream is to bring everyone back (to the U.S.). But you need to be mindful the enemy has a vote, too. You need to be prepared for the outcome." 

"When you get home, you know we become what we think about. Our training affects our habits and affects who we are. If you can control your thoughts, you can control your behavior. Transformation never comes from the outside in, but from the inside out. Ultimately, we have to choose. We never can be free from it. How do we manage and control it? You can never erase the memories, but you can better manage the results."

"Everybody has a journey and I have a sense of gratitude for being able to serve. It's going to be unique to everyone ... who they are in transforming to what they will become. I am a better human being, not only from serving, but experiencing things I was able to do as service member. For me, part of the fabric of who we are in serving is knowing we are making a difference in protecting our freedoms. I knew we were helping our neighbors remain free from oppression.

"I've been twice to Iraq, the Philippines, Australia, Japan. I've been on six deployments. If you are talking about life in general, you go places where you learn to appreciate the liberties we do have. Our freedom comes natural to us. Depending on a person's cultural background, that is not always the case. I always celebrate that we are one body in our nation."

"Dad was a World War II veteran and part of the Korean War. He was a staff sergeant. He passed this past September at 93. He was married to my mom 55 years. He loved people and he embraced the goodness of life he was given here on Earth. He grew up in Puerto Rico during the Depression. I read his memoirs and he had cancer in his early 70s, but overcame it. He wrote down his whole history. It was powerful. He was an executive chef who worked 15 hours a day and on weekends he spent time with us, his five boys and my two step-sisters. He was about treating people right and caring for people. Growing up, I watched Army movies, that was the nature of his background. Me joining the service was a no-brainer. I loved the successes of the heroes that had been portrayed in those movies. I wanted to be a part of history based on what I saw. Going to foreign countries and caring for the oppressed resonates with me. I joined the Army when I graduated from Red Hook (N.Y.) High School and I was in the Army 26 years. I was born in the Bronx."