82nd Airborne Division names its 2024 Junior Paratroopers of the Year
FORT LIBERTY —The 82nd Airborne Division named its junior paratroopers of the year Tuesday, this year expanding to include three winners.
The winner in the elementary category for ages 5-10 was Aspynn Forsman, while Michael Adame was named in the middle school category for ages 11-13 and Lucas Delapena was the recipient in the high school category for ages 14-18.
The parents of all three junior paratroopers serve in the division.
A board of senior leaders from the division and civilian organizations chose the winners based on the child's "resiliency, contribution to the unit or community, and extracurricular involvement while facing the challenges of military family life,” a news release stated.
Maj. Gen. J. Patrick "Pat" Work, the division's commander, told Tuesday’s crowd that military service is a “family business.”
“We enlist the soldiers, but we reenlist the families,” he said. “None of these young people asked for this, yet they handle it so marvelously.”
The winners
Command Sgt. Maj. Randolph Delapena, the division's senior enlisted leader, is the father of high-school winner Lucas.
Following Tuesday’s ceremony, 14-year-old Lucas said his father’s 27-year military career has spanned his whole life.
In his nomination packet, Lucas described military children as resilient.
“I feel it helps to be resilient in the military or as a military child because you have to move a lot and you change environments everywhere … You have to kind of adjust to your surroundings,” he said after the ceremony.
Lucas said he tries to remain active while his father is deployed.
He is a member of his school’s color guard and drill team, has held several leadership positions in Boy Scouts and hopes to attend the Air Force Academy after high school to become an Air Force officer.
He said he remembers moving at least six times for his father's military career and his advice for other military children is to maintain friendships and remain in contact.
He said that despite moving, he remained friends with a classmate from elementary school, and the two now attend school together near Fort Liberty.
Maj. Victoria Adame is the mother of middle-school winner Michael.
According to his nomination packet, he is in his school’s academic intellectual program, is first chair violin in the school orchestra and is in the Fayetteville Junior Symphony Orchestra.
Michael, 13, has also been a competitive gymnast since 2019 and earned a spot at the Eastern National Championship this year.
He described military children as polite.
“A military child is disciplined and can use their manners,” Michael said after Tuesday’s ceremony.
Aspynn, winner in the elementary category, was not immediately available for comment after Tuesday’s ceremony. Her father is 1st Sgt. Cody Forsman.
In addition to also competing in gymnastics, she spends her spare time helping her mother at Soldier and Family Readiness Group meetings make baskets for single soldiers during the holidays and for families with newborns , according to her nomination form.
Other nominees
Other nominees from the elementary category were: Grace Burton, Alexander Christian, Zoey Essex, Jesiah Goodman, McKenna Haas, Tanner Holland, Victoria Moore, Javious Morales, John Lewis O'Connor, Katherine Reider, Liam Robb, Joshua Sulpizio and Noah Sulpizio.
Other nominees from the middle school category were: Kaleb Crimmins, Emily Essex, Lana Ibrahim, Colt Means, Bentley Moore, Annaleise Ramsey, Mikah Ramos and Aiden Robb.
Other nominees from the high school category were: Saniyah Childs, Ian Gibson, Xavyer Jarquin, Angelina Kimbell, Aiden Marshall, Pierson Moore, Kristian-Lee Pichardo, Dominic Sulpizio, Oliviah Sulpizio and Tobias Valentine.
Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: 82nd Airborne Division names 2024 Junior Paratroopers of Year
