Where did you serve and what did you do?

I served in the United States Navy as a Cryptologic Technician assigned to the Naval Security Group aboard USS Nimitz during the early 1980s. I worked 12-hour night shifts supporting operations and intelligence functions in secure environments critical to carrier strike group missions.

During my time aboard Nimitz, I supported operations during pivotal Cold War events, including freedom-of-navigation operations in the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Sidra. While deployed, our carrier air wing engaged Libyan fighter aircraft in August 1981, marking the first U.S. air-to-air combat victories since Vietnam. I was also aboard during sustained high-tempo operations that followed, when the ship remained on heightened alert in a volatile region.

These deployments occurred against the backdrop of escalating instability in the Middle East, including events leading up to the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing, for which I was awarded the Navy Expeditionary Medal. My role placed me within Operations alongside other mission-critical watch standers, where accuracy, discretion, and constant readiness were essential to decisions that carried strategic and global consequences.

How are you Still Serving?

Since leaving active duty, I have continued to serve through a civilian career in information technology, with more than 15 years dedicated to supporting organizations focused on service member and veteran health, recovery, and readiness. My work has supported multiple Department of Defense Centers of Excellence, including the Traumatic Brain Injury Center of Excellence (TBICoE), Psychological Health Center of Excellence (PHCoE), Vision Center of Excellence (VCE), Hearing Center of Excellence (HCE), and the Extremity Trauma and Amputation Center of Excellence (EACE).

In these roles, I help ensure that critical systems, data, and infrastructure remain reliable for the clinicians, researchers, and leaders responsible for improving long-term outcomes for wounded, ill, and injured service members. I am also a lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and remain engaged in supporting fellow veterans and my community, often in quiet, behind-the-scenes ways.

Why do you do it?

I do it because the work of the Centers of Excellence ensures that today’s service members and veterans don’t have to carry the long-term effects of service without understanding, data, or support. By strengthening the systems behind traumatic brain injury, psychological health, vision, hearing, and extremity trauma care, these centers help turn individual experience into institutional knowledge. Supporting that mission means helping ensure lessons are captured, care is improved, and those who follow are better supported than earlier generations were.