Where did you serve and what did you do?
Staff and command assignments with the 82nd Airborne, 1st Cav, and 317th Combat Engineers during the Cold War years. Served as the Operations Officer and later as Deputy Commander for Support for the Kuwait Emergency Recovery Office (KERO) during the First Gulf War. Retired in 1997.
How are you #StillServing?
Went into teaching at the middle and high school level after retiring. I did living history presentations to support schools other than my own in addition to our own history classes. I’ve been at my present school for over 15 years. In addition to periodic living history presentations, I organized a military-style Color Guard with high school students that incorporates formal leadership classes and development with opportunities to present the Colors in support of school and community events. This program incorporates many aspects of the Army JROTC program. Our Color Guard also presents a Veterans Day Recognition Program that has been well received by numerous active duty military and Veterans. I also serve as our school’s service academy and ROTC coordinator to help guide students through the challenges associated with getting into the academies or earning ROTC scholarships. Each semester I also present a military film seminar that presents the history and facts behind many of the contemporary military films that students and parents have seen. In addition to the history portion, we discuss applied leadership following each episode.
Why do you do it?
When I started teaching I was amazed at how little young people truly understood about the military and the sacrifices Veterans and their families have made over the years. As I started talking with them about what it really means to serve, I discovered that they wanted to know more, as a result many started talking with family members who had served at various times and when I met those family members they thanked me for getting their son, daughter, grandson, granddaughter, niece or nephew to just listen. Those thank yous helped me realize just how important it was to connect today’s youth with our Veterans and still serving military.