Still serving with 14+ years experience from Machine Gunner to PSG, Senior Jumpmaster to NCO Academy Instructor, and now at the US Embassy, Guatemala.
I prefer the cold because it brings back more fond memories of time spent with people than in hot conditions. Transcript: "So I've done both Afghanistan in the summer, but then also Fort Drum, New York, which is upstate New York, and then J-Bear, Alaska, which is just outside of Anchorage, Alaska, was obviously the cold ones. I would say I prefer the cold. And I just say this because both really suck, but my memories of time spent with, in those moments with those people, it was a lot more fun in the cold than in the heat. And maybe there's a little bit there too with Afghanistan. Granted, I was airborne infantry there as well. So that's a little bit of a different flavor of time during a deployment like that, but definitely the cold, just because of some of the memories I have sharing with people that were cold during training and situations and stuff like that."
I'm an expert in military topics and am excited to answer any questions you have about joining the military, leadership styles, mental health, PTSD, TBI, and my experience in combat in Afghanistan. Transcript: "I'm really excited to answer any and all questions. You guys have about the military or that relates to it, everything from people that are looking to join the military and help them with finding their own path for what the military is, and what they can get out of it as well as what they're going to put into it. Other things, such as leadership styles. I'm a huge fan of active leadership and servant leadership. I actually wrote some curriculum for the United. States, Army's, non-commissioned officer Academy program for Servant leadership. So, that's a huge topic for me. And then some other things I'd like to get into to our kind of mental health, specifically with PTSD, and TBI eyes. Some of the things that I've been through in combat in Afghanistan and just any questions that you guys have, I'm really open to anything you guys have and I will answer them, honestly, and truthfully. And with the most knowledge that I can for you guys."
My advice to my younger self would be to have patience and trust the process of the journey, instead of just trying to find the end result. Transcript: "One piece of advice that I would give my younger self is patience. I always like finding the end result. It's still something that I struggle with today, but trusting the process, opening up to learning and growing from those processes, and the actual journey from start to finish, instead of just trying to get straight to the finish, would definitely be for my younger self to help me even now today, would be definitely patience."
Success is defined by continually bettering yourself in all aspects of your life, and the only measure should be against yourself. Transcript: "What is your definition of success and how do you measure it? So everyone will go into the whole, you know, building goals, setting goals, smart goals, all this stuff, which is great. I do it, especially for cycling and kind of where I'm at professionally. But I would say for me, the biggest one is coming from a place where when you go to sleep that night, you have become spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally, and professionally better in at least one or two of those areas a day. So you can continue to grow and your only measurement of success you should have to me personally is against yourself, right? I can't compare people to who they are because they have things and don't have things that I do or I don't, right? So continuing to better yourself every day and not taking a step back is my definition of success."
Two years ago, I found out my fiance was cheating on me and had to do a lot of soul searching to figure out who I was and be okay with being alone before starting another relationship. Transcript: "So, what characterized the period of your life where you experienced the most personal growth? Have to say about two years ago, I was supposed to get married and found out that I was being emotionally and possibly cheated on by my fiance about three months before the wedding and obviously called it off. I had to do a lot of soul searching within myself to define who I was and come to grips with ensuring that I could be okay being alone before starting a relationship again. It's helped me out quite a bit."
My process for approaching major decisions is to collect facts, discuss the situation with people I trust, and come up with a few different options before making a decision. I also continuously reassess as I'm going through the decision-making process. Transcript: "So, what is your process for approaching major decisions in your life? I used to be very quick. I used to be someone who immediately would react rather than sit back and wait. My process now is to try to understand what's going on before I make a decision. Granted in the military, especially my job that I used to have as an airborne infantryman, you can't really sit there and collect all the evidence or anything like that. But with major decisions in my life, I like to gather facts. I like to sit in my emotions with it and then come out of those emotions and have a discussion with the people that are closest to me. So not just friends and family, but also mentors. And I highly recommend everyone have at least one or two mentors, maybe a professional one and a personal one that they can reach out to all the time to help them kind of talk through things, ask questions, or have a different viewpoint that you wouldn't. Once I process those things, I normally collect between two to four outcomes or ways to do that major decision and the outcome that I want. I go from there and I continue to reassess as I'm going through that process and that decision."