Pvt. (PV2) Andrew J. Lansing, from Charlie Troop, 3rd Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, and a 2007-08 Pinellas County Schools GED graduate, recently earned the Army Commendation Medal with Valor and a Purple Heart. While serving his first month in Afghanistan.
Lansing’s platoon was conducting a mounted patrol when they encountered an enemy ambush. Lansing quickly dismounted his vehicle in direct enemy fire to rescue two casualties and move them to safety.
Lansing, now 18 years old, was a member of the St. Petersburg High School Marching Band from 2006-08 as a trombone player. He dropped out of high school in 2008, but enrolled in the school district’s GED program at St. Petersburg High School/Tomlinson Adult Learning Center and earned his GED in the 2007-08 school year prior to enlisting in the Army.
Lansing, who has been in the Army since June 2008, has now been accepted into the Army Ranger School and will begin his training when he returns from Afghanistan.
His mother, Samantha Sturgeon, said, “Andrew is talking about going to college and becoming a teacher. He would like to share his experiences and maybe keep kids, like him, in school.”
Tomlinson Adult Learning Center, 296 Mirror Lake Dr. N, St. Petersburg, has been continuously serving the educational needs of the community for almost 100 years. The school offers a variety of day and evening classes to students that are age 16 and older and provides a quality learning environment that strives to meet the educational needs of the community.
Tomlinson is fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).
For more information, call Quethlyn White, Tomlinson Adult Learning Center GED Instructor, at 727-638-1584 or Debby VanderWoude, director, at 727-893-2723.
