{"id":27718,"date":"2020-11-30T15:21:01","date_gmt":"2020-11-30T15:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/11\/30\/blood-sisters-and-sisters-in-arms-2-sets-of-sisters-graduate-marine-boot-camp-together\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T21:03:44","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T21:03:44","slug":"blood-sisters-and-sisters-in-arms-2-sets-of-sisters-graduate-marine-boot-camp-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2020\/11\/30\/blood-sisters-and-sisters-in-arms-2-sets-of-sisters-graduate-marine-boot-camp-together\/","title":{"rendered":"Blood sisters and sisters in arms: 2 sets of sisters graduate Marine boot camp together"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For many Marine recruits, the comrades they endure boot camp with are quickly seen as brothers or sisters in arms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for five new Marines, the sisterhood was more than metaphorical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In early November<\/a> two sets of sisters \u2015 Ashley and Amber Valentine, along with Maria, Vanessa and Melissa Placido Jaramillo \u2015 graduated from Marine Corps Boot Camp at Parris Island<\/a>, South Carolina, alongside each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sisters pushed each other through the hard times of boot camp<\/a> and motivated each other to perform to the best of their ability.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/atype-video-jwplayer>
Pfc. Ashley Valentine discusses her experiences during recruit training along side her sister, Amber Valentine, aboard Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

For Pfc. Ashley Valentine, a 19-year-old from Manassas, Virginia, her path to the Corps started when she was just 12 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I was 12, I had both my uncle and my grandpa die six months in between each other,\u201d Valentine said in a video posted on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her grandfather was a Marine Corps veteran, Valentine said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThree days before my grandpa passed away, I promised him that I was going to become a Marine and when he died, I made that my life\u2019s mission,\u201d Valentine said in the video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hard part was getting her sister to join.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new Pfc. Amber Valentine, 22, was \u201cnot really a military person,\u201d according to her sister. But, one day roughly three months after Ashley Valentine was in the Marine Corps poolee program waiting to be shipped to boot camp, she was able to convince her sister to come to a function.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter talking with the recruiter about how it would impact my life, I was committed,\u201d Amber Valentine said in a Marine Corps press release. \u201cI was ready to go no matter what.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amber Valentine said, \u201cI felt kind of shocked she was in for the ride.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Placido Jaramillo sisters, natives of Panama who immigrated at a young age to the U.S., made a pact at a young age to all join the military together, according to a Marine Corps press release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pfc. Maria Placido Jaramillo was the driving force among the sisters to join the Corps, inspired to join after watching the 2003 action movie \u201cTears of the Sun,\u201d according to the news release.<\/p>\n\n\n\t