Some traditions are harder to break than others, especially when it comes to a family's dedication to serving in the military. Children in military families oftentimes take up the same mantle their mothers and fathers did when they become adults themselves, even if they do so along different paths. Amber and Lauren Hamil, 18-year-old twin sisters and recent graduates of Lakes High School in Lakewood, are doing exactly that as they gear up for college with their newly awarded Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) three-year Advanced Designee scholarships.

Amber and Lauren both received the prestigious ROTC Advanced Designee scholarship on May 24 at Lakes High School's Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (AJROTC) Awards Ceremony. Two weeks later, they graduated high school side-by-side. "We were both really happy we got the same scholarship," said Amber. "It was kind of a relief that we both got it, instead of just one of us!" While their ROTC scholarships won't kick in until the young women satisfactorily complete their first year of college, they'll cover over $200,000 in combined tuition costs of the Hamil sisters' undergraduate education.

Lt. Col. Allen E. Patty, one of two Lakes High School AJROTC instructors, presented varying ROTC scholarships to Kenny Andre, Paul Fisher, Amber and Lauren Hamil, and Joshua Porterfield during the AJROTC awards ceremony. "This is the reason I left the university:  to come to high schools and help people figure out how to get this done," explained Patty. "My focus when I came to JROTC ... was to build people's mental and physical readiness to go and pursue these big scholarships for ROTC programs." Patty's counterpart, 1st Sgt. Raul Munoz, played a pivotal role in helping the Lakes High School's AJROTC students submit competitive scholarship packets. "First Sergeant Munoz helped me with the physical training part and he made sure I kept exercising," said Amber.

Throughout her senior year, Amber served as the executive officer of Lakes High School's AJROTC Lancer Battalion. She'll attend Virginia Military Institute (VMI) this fall with the help of her ROTC scholarship, as well as a separate water polo scholarship from VMI to cover the cost of her first year of schooling. "I was really happy because getting this scholarship meant I could go to my number-one school," she said. She hopes to commission to the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Corp after completing her undergraduate education at VMI. "Then I want to do humanitarian aid," she continued.

Lauren, who attended Pierce College in Lakewood for the entirety of her senior year under the Running Start program, will attend Ball State University (BSU) in Indiana this fall. Although she didn't participate in Lakes High School's AJROTC program, she plans to commission to the U.S. Army after completing BSU's nursing program. "I've never participated in AJROTC, but my dad is in the military and he's made a great life for himself," Lauren said. "I thought that maybe I could be successful if I joined the military and made a career for myself after I got out of college."

Along with their daughters' respective moves to Indiana and Virginia, Army Command Sgt. Maj. Mark Hamil and his wife, Susan, will relocate to the East Coast later this year. Command Sgt. Maj. Hamil will also retire from Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) this year after 31 years of service. "We've been raised in the military ... so getting this scholarship and realizing that we're going to be following a similar career path as our dad and his grandfather has brought us a little closer," Lauren shared. "We've bonded over the fact that we're all going to have had a similar career path."