Pfc. Sean Jarvis relaxes in his room at his mother’s house, which is decorated with various army posters after returning home from basic training at Fort Benning Ga. (Jon GiffinThe Vicksburg Post)

[11/24/04]This Thanksgiving may be the last Sean Jarvis spends in Vicksburg for a while.

The May graduate of Warren Central High School is one of the Army’s newest soldiers. And between initial training and joining his assigned unit, Pfc. Jarvis is here to tell others what he’s learned so far.

“It’s been great,” he said of nine weeks of basic training and five weeks of training for his job as an infantryman. “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s been a great change.”

Jarvis, 20, is in a program that quickly returns enlistees home to assist recruiters.

It’s not a problem, Jarvis said, because it was his own encounters with friends who had signed up for military service that helped him make up his mind.

“I had a lot of friends coming back from boot camps,” Jarvis said, adding that he was taking basic freshman college classes at Hinds Community College’s Vicksburg campus.

Though he was interested in computers, he “wasn’t doing too well” in his coursework, he said.

He said the Army has changed all that and given him a new focus. His mother agrees.

“He’s kind of living his dream,” said Susan Jarvis, adding quickly that “he knows it’s serious.”

Pfc. Jarvis graduated from basic and infantry training at Fort Benning, Ga.

He reports to his unit in Fort Lewis, Wash., on Dec. 21.

The new soldier, the son of Wendell Jarvis and Susan Jarvis, said his chance of being deployed overseas was about 90 percent or better, but that he did not know when or where he might be deployed.

“It could be Iraq, could be Kuwait,” or elsewhere, he said.

Meanwhile, Susan Jarvis said a lot of the family’s friends, including those from their church, Hawkins United Methodist, wanted to see her son while he was home, meaning it will be a busy holiday.

As a mother, she’s proud.

“He’s living proof the Army can do something good for you if you go in with the right attitude,” she said.

“He didn’t have a clear direction. He does now and he has a real positive goal.”