Senior Mack Roberson. Who is he? Roberson is not only a student at Pinecrest who partakes in numerous extracurriculars and serves as Command Chief Master Sergeant within AFJROTC, but he is a pilot as well. In AFJROTC, Roberson is responsible for maintaining order over everyone within the corp and regulating the merit and demerit system, a means of rewarding and correcting cadets for their actions. Along with these duties, Roberson also gives his input on the operation of the corp and changes being made. He does all of this while still carrying out his day as a regular, hard-working student.  

 

On Uniform day, a tired Roberson will iron his uniform that he laid out the night before, shave, and put the uniform on, garnering about 45 minutes of his morning. Occasionally, Roberson’s day will start off with morning Leadership Meetings for AFJROTC, requiring his attention for anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour before school. After that, he heads to the rest of his classes for the day. With the average amount of school work and additional AP work, Roberson has his hands full already.

 

When the afternoon rolls around, AFJROTC has many co-curricular activities to keep him occupied, including, but not limited to, Color Guard and Drill Team, Raider Team, and Community Services. This can bring on stress regarding uniform changes, homework, and which extracurriculars he can attend each day. After seeing his participation in Track and Field, Cross Country, NHS, and Speech and Debate, one can fully grasp his busy schedule.

 

However, even with all of those activities, Roberson has been able to volunteer over 200 hours of community service. “My participation in Color Guard and Community Services can sometimes put extra stresses on my day,” Roberson admits. So how does he not collapse under the strain of stress and responsibilities? The answer is easy, Roberson loves what he does. Flying solo, literally, is a great passion of Roberson’s. He was able to take his first solo flight through a Daedalian Scholarship, which paid for his ground schooling and instruction. His involvement in aviation and AFJROTC has largely been influenced by his father, a U.S. Marine. Thanks to him, Roberson has been able to come out of his shell and be who he desires.

“One of the things I love about ROTC is the family that it provides, finding a group of friends within AFJROTC who I could count on was an extremely great experience,” Roberson shares. Even if AFJROTC keeps him extremely busy, Roberson still finds a way to do all of his work and entertain his passions of flying and community service. Balancing all of this is surely commendable.