Where did you serve and what did you do?

I served in the United States Navy from 1995 to 2007 as a Yeoman. Iraq War Veteran while deployed on the USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CVN 72). I started with NMCB4 Seabee Battalion out of Port Hueneme Ca. I then worked with COMUSNAVSO out of Puerto Rico. After serving on the Lincoln, my last duty station was running the Testing section for the Seattle MEPS.

How are you Still Serving?

I am currently the Service Officer for VFW Post 2337 in Clearlake. I am the President of the Lake County United Veterans Council which is a collaboration of all the Veterans organizations, making it one voice for our local area. I am the DAV Chapter 83 President as well as a board member on Congressman Mike Thompsons Advisory Committee. I am also the president of our local Vet Connect / Stand Down group that is currently coordinating a Stand Down for this September. My every day job is working as a Consolidated Veterans Representative (Combined DVOP and LVER) for the state of California helping Veterans find employment.

Why do you do it?

When I got of the Navy, I was lost and had no idea what I was going to do. After bouncing around from a couple of different jobs I was able to land with EDD helping Veterans find employment and homeless Veterans get into housing. Living in a rural area we don’t have the resources that are available in the big cities and it has become my passion to change that for my local area.