"I just have to say, Thank You, Thank You, Thank You! For even creating this program, before my son (16 yrs.) joined he was extremely troubled, hanging out with the wrong crowd, smoking, drinking, expelled from school 3 years in a row, took a road trip 2500 miles away in the middle of the night at age 15 (barely) with an 18 yr. old I've never approved of, and finally getting into our judicial system. I searched and tried many many ways to help him realize his full potential with little to no success, finally my sister, married to a former National Guardsman, heard about the program from a former co-Guardsman and she passed the info onto me, my son hemmed and hawed, and gave the usual 'I don't know' response, after showing him the web site and him acting so negative about it I waited for him to leave the room (out of site, but not ear shot) & told my husband 'Let's just leave him alone about it, he'd never last anyway', let me tell you he immediately stormed in the room and announced, 'That's it, I'm going!' My son has only been with FLYCA for 7 weeks now, but the change is nothing short of a small miracle in my opinion, his confidence in himself is amazing, he's once again physically fit, and looking to the future, not just the here and now. It is this mothers opinion that every state should have a National Guard Youth ChalleNGe academy. Any parent who is considering this program should try their hardest to convince their son/daughter to give it a try, the first few weeks are the hardest on parents and candidates, but it gets easier. I just can't say enough about the program, or thank you enough!"

Marie