Jakob Aggers and Ryan Eells were good friends Lewis-Palmer Middle School but drifted apart once the two moved on to different high schools.

The friendship rekindled a couple of years later under the most unlikely of circumstances when they recognized each other a joint Reserve Officers Training Corps event two years ago in the Washington, D.C., area. Both participated in a joint physical training exercise – Aggers as a Navy ROTC cadet at George Washington University and Eells as an Army ROTC cadet at Georgetown University – for ROTC cadets at Washington area universities.

Aggers and Eells knew each other as members of St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Monument but the friendship blossomed while they were in a middle-school Spanish class. However, Aggers attended Lewis-Palmer High School, where he played hockey, and Eells attended Palmer Ridge High School, where he played lacrosse. After graduating from high school, both ended up in ROTC programs at universities in the Washington area.

They didn’t see each other their freshman year since classes were conducted online, but at the first joint training exercise of their sophomore year, Aggers recognized Eells’s voice. Eells said Aggers looked familiar but didn’t immediately recognize his middle-school friend.

“I recognized the face, but I couldn’t figure out why I was seeing him in Washington, then I realized he was my hometown friend,” Eells said. “After that we resumed our friendship – we would typically meet in the pub at Catholic University (of America, where he is a student) to hang out as friends.”

Eells was destined to end up in the military – his brother and brother-in-law are both Air Force Academy graduates and both grandfathers served in the Air Force. Likewise, Aggers was influenced to join the Marine Corps by his club and high school hockey coaches who had been in the military and his grandfathers were in the Marine Corps and Air Force. Both Eells and Aggers received ROTC scholarship offers and enrolled in Washington area universities.

When I heard his voice, I said ‘no way’,” Aggers described his reaction to the unlikely meeting. “Neither of us knew the other had gone into ROTC at schools in the Washington area,” more than 1,600 miles east of their Monument homes.

As seniors, both men now are commanding the Washington area ROTC battalions of more than 100 cadets with Eells in charge of the Army battalion and Aggers in charge of the Navy battalion. Eells said they meet frequently to come up with ideas for the battalions to compete.

After serving as editor of his high school newspaper, Aggers is majoring in journalism. Eells is majoring in political science at Catholic University of America and had planned to go to law school and become a lawyer in the Army’s Judge Advocate General Corps but decided during his sophomore year to “become a regular soldier” instead. His ROTC training happens at Georgetown University since Catholic University doesn’t have a ROTC program.

After graduation, Eels will head to flight school at Fort Rucker in Alabama to become a helicopter pilot, while Aggers will head to The Basic School at the Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia for training to become an infantry officer.

Both men credit growing up in Monument as a key to their military and academic success.

“I’m thankful for what the community gave me – a culture of high achievement that came from a good family and good mentors that helped get me to where I am today,” Aggers said.

“It seems like this is one of those things where the odds of this happening are very small. I take a lot of pride in growing up in the small town of Monument. I wanted to represent the town well. I credit our success to growing up in Monument,” Eells said. “You have a couple of Colorado kids who have done well for themselves by pushing themselves beyond their comfort zone. Obviously, we did that by going to school far away. I felt that God pushed me to do this.”

Jakob Aggers, left, and Ryan Eells pose in front of the National Mall Reflecting Pool with the Washington Monument in the background.

Courtesy Photo

Jakob Aggers, left, and Ryan Eells pose in front of the National Mall Reflecting Pool with the Washington Monument in the background.

Courtesy Photo