Each quarter we will feature a story about our Parchment alumni here.

By Dave Person

Seven years after graduating from Parchment High School, Carter Maxey is living the life in Hawaii.

But it’s not the life of a beach bum or a surfer dude, to which many might aspire.

Maxey, 25, is a platoon leader in the Army’s 25th Infantry Division, assigned to the 3rd Mobile Brigade Combat Team, 2-35 Infantry Battalion, Apache Company.

If you knew him in high school, where he played football and hockey, ran cross-country and track, and studied at the Kalamazoo Area Math and Science Center as well as at Parchment, you know it is not in his nature to lie on the beach catching rays.

“My job as a platoon leader reflects the same lifestyle I had in high school — busy, nonstop, always doing something,” he says. “I’m not only responsible for myself, but for the lives of 30 to 40 men and their families.”

That’s not to say he hasn’t been able to enjoy some of the perks of the island of Oahu, where he has been stationed for the last 16 months.

“I’m never not a platoon leader for my guys, but when I do step away from the Army, you can still find me playing hockey at the only rink in Hawaii, surfing the waves on the North Shore, climbing cliffs on the South Shore, snorkeling reefs, running along coastlines and occasionally drawing on the side,” he says.

Maxey and his older siblings, Phillip and Megan, and younger sister, Rachel, all went through elementary, middle and high school in Parchment; their mother, Kelly, is currently a secretary at North Elementary.

“Between sports and my family’s deep ties to the community, there was rarely a moment when I wasn’t involved in something,” he says of his teen years.

It was his sister Megan, who was in the ROTC program at Western Michigan University, who got Maxey thinking about interviewing for an Army scholarship, convincing him it was “basically like a sport.”

“I must have done something right in that interview because the Army offered to pay my full tuition to any university in the United States that accepted me,” he says. “My only commitment was to serve four years after college graduation.”

Maxey chose Michigan Technological University, from which he graduated in April 2023 with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering.

“That same day, I was commissioned into the U.S. Army as a second lieutenant,” he says. “Shortly after, I was thrown into life as an infantryman. From June 2023 to May 2024, I lived in Columbus, Georgia, learning how to effectively lead a rifle platoon in basic war-fighting operations.”

In November 2023, he graduated from the Infantry Basic Officer Leadership Course and in March 2024 from Ranger School.

He was assigned to Schofield Barracks in Oahu in May 2024.

“This island has been my home ever since, and it’s where I’ve worked to apply my past experiences to shape the best leadership I can for the men I lead today,” he says.

Many of those past experiences resulted from his time at Parchment High School.

“If I had to point to someone who most influenced my mindset, leadership and success, it would be Coach Wayne Hinton,” he says. “His integrity is unbreakable, and his ability to develop everybody around him into respectable members of the community is unmatched.

“I strive every day to emulate the level of influence, professionalism and leadership he brought as a teacher, coach, mentor and member of the Parchment community. My friends and I still talk about him and hope to make a similar positive impact in our own communities.”

“The most important lesson I’ve learned, time and time again, is that ‘it is never about you,’”

Maxey says.

He attributes what he learned to the influence of his family while growing up, the sports he played, his teachers, classmates, and friends at KAMSC and in college, and his leaders and peers during ROTC and IBOLC training.

But it wasn’t until Ranger School, he says, that an instructor put it into words for him:

“It is never about you. It has never been about you. And it will never be about you. It has always been about everyone else around you.”

Maxey says he is available if anyone wants to reach out with questions about the Army, infantry or Michigan Tech at (269) 568-8875 or cmaxey@mtu.edu.