Alum defies odds, builds military career rooted in resilience
By Gabrielle Russon
Pam Wright keeps a photo of her father, taken before he was killed during the Vietnam War. She was 3 years old then, too young to remember him, but she’s heard the stories — especially about his famous big hugs. Stephen Cohan was just 29 when his helicopter was shot down in 1968.
In her office, Wright also displays another photograph — this one of her son, Jaymes Fowler, a 2004 Beacon College graduate. She can’t help but notice how much her son resembles her father. In their family, military service runs deep.
Fowler’s family tree includes ancestors who fought in the Civil War, World War I and World War II. His grandfather served in Vietnam. His younger brother, T.J., a nuclear engineer specialist, is a U.S. Navy veteran.
The (armed services) force runs strong in this one, too. Fowler is a U.S. Army sergeant stationed at Fort Drum in New York.
Now in his eighth year of service, Fowler is rising through the ranks in a career that defies the odds and proves his doubters wrong.
Growing up, Fowler’s learning disability scrambled the words he heard. He struggled to answer basic questions. Classmates were cruel and unforgiving.
“After they diagnosed him, the psychiatrist that tested him — I’m not going to believe this — says to my face, ‘Jaymes probably will never go to college, and he might not even graduate high school because this disability is so severe,’” Wright said. “I never told him about that. I kept that to myself, and I always encouraged him, ‘Go ahead, give it a try.’ My kids always called me their cheerleader.”
The psychiatrist was wrong. Fowler wasn’t a typical kid. He was tough. Persistent. Determined.
“Jaymes is all about hard work. That’s about the only way to describe him, a hard-working kid,” Frank Silverman, his karate instructor, told the Orlando Sentinel in a 1999 profile when Fowler was 16.
Fowler eventually earned his black belt.
Not only that, he graduated from a respected private high school in Central Florida that supports students with disabilities. He continued to find support and acceptance at Beacon College, where he earned an associate degree in arts and liberal studies.
His independence only grew in Leesburg, his family said.
After college, Fowler hoped to break into the film and video industry. He enjoyed art, music and graphics — and the technical side of production. But after years of working odd jobs and feeling adrift, he began to reconsider his path. Military service, perhaps inevitable given his family’s legacy, began to feel like a viable path. But Fowler worried his learning disability would stand in the way.
Then his younger brother gave him a heart-to-heart talk. It was the push he needed.
“That’s when I decided, ‘You know what? I’m going to try and enlist in the Army, because I need some sort of structure, guidance and stability,’” Fowler said in a recent phone interview, speaking with confidence.
He joined the Army in 2017 — “believe it or not, two weeks before my 35th birthday,” he said. “At that time, 35 was the cutoff age.”
Fowler recently returned from a five-month deployment to Iraq. He came home to his wife, Jodie, and their three dogs — their “fur babies.”
Fowler specializes in culinary operations, helping feed hundreds of soldiers. He oversees training classes and enforces standards and regulations in the dining facility. And when the team is short-staffed, he jumps in to cook.
“I’m the one in charge of setting up training classes and everything on certain standards and regulations and rules and how to do things in the dining facility,” he said.
Fowler is now eligible for promotion to staff sergeant — a milestone that reflects his hard-earned success.
“I have no words for the pride that I have in him,” Wright said.
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