Where did you serve and what did you do?
10 years Navy, OS2 (SW): USS Blue Ridge (6 yrs), Dockmaster at Yokosuka, Japan Port Ops (2 yrs), Military Police at Groton Submarine Base (2 yrs)
How are you #StillServing?
After returning home in 2001, I responded to the World Trade Center on Sept. 11th in the hours after the attacks working in the triage site just north of Ground Zero. Soon after (October 4th) I founded Training For Life, Inc., (www.trainingforlife.org), a not-for-profit, 501c3. Our mission is “Empowering Individuals & Communities Through Education & Training, thereby Increasing the Quantity & Quality of Life”.
In the past 2+ decades, we have trained more than 1 million people in various emergency preparedness skills, placed AEDs from NY to Nigeria, helped create the first ever Heart Association training center in the Caribbean Basin, and support the day to day efforts of nearly 100 AHA Instructors in their ongoing efforts to “Strengthen the Chain of Survival”.
In May of this year, I traveled to the Pine Ridge and Standing Rock reservations, working with local organizations, to pilot our “HeartSafe Nations” program by placing AED and creating CPR/AED & First Aid Instructors capable of conducting ongoing low cost/no cost training in those underserved communities.
We have an identical program we wish to launch in VFW & AL Posts called “HeartSafe Heroes”.
Why do you do it?
Honestly, because it is what I do; it is who I am. Since enlisting at 17, I have served and will continue to be of service to this country and beyond.