I took my first paying job as a janitor helper after school when I was 13, under a work program for low-income families. I would sweep up and empty trash after middle school, 2 hours per day. I began working as a block mason’s apprentice in the summers, and mowing
yards in the evening with my grandpa the following year. Everything I earned went to my Mom. She was always thankful, wishing I did not have to work so hard, but never saying a bad word about the lack of support from my father.
Time moved on, and I was suddenly a high school graduate. I ran a drywall hanging crew. It was summer, and the work was good, but never satisfying or meaningful. For reasons I still do not understand, my father began pushing the Coast Guard on me. I suppose it was a past dream of his. After some thoughtful consideration, I joined the Marine Corps Reserves instead, and left for basic training immediately.
In 1981, looking around the squad bay at Parris Island, South Carolina, I saw diverse people working toward a common goal in an often hellish environment. Our reasons for being there varied as much as the people themselves; family honor, lack of employable skills, to escape jail time for petty crimes. Whatever the reason, I saw us become accepting of each other, helping each other to become a cohesive group. It was here I learned the meaning of the Marine Corps Motto, Semper Fidelis, always faithful. Faithful to your country, your Corps, to your family, your brother, your friend. I was changed there on those training fields, to become something I could never have imagined back in Tennessee, a member of a unique team.
Fast-forward to 1986, and I found the Reservist life becoming less desirable. I loved the weekend drills and my job as a diesel mechanic, but it was not enough to make a life for myself and young wife. After talking to some people during a visit to an Air Force base, I enlisted in the United States Air Force in September. I became a Security Forces member, a military policeman, and it made all the difference.
Twenty years passed in the blink of an eye, filled with visions of people I met, places I saw, and things I did. Arrests made, fights broken up, watching people pull their lives back together. Troops I worked with, and came to lead, the weapons and loads I carried, the tools, machinery, and equipment I was entrusted with. Lives saved, changed, and sometimes lost. Friends coming, leaving, but managing to stay in touch to this day. Deployments to Panama, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and training for war in Arkansas, Nevada, and North Carolina.
I was a skilled marksman with all assigned weapons, my preference being the M-60 machinegun. I eagerly shouldered the additional weight of the combat weapons load, consisting of a spare barrel, tripod, and additional ammo above the normal deployment gear to feed that 23- pound beast. Several of those deployments saw me jumping from the back of a slow taxiing C- 130 during a combat offload with this gear. This ultimately lead me to retire in 2006 at age 43, my hips damaged beyond repair by the added strain that I could not feel at the time.
The VA doctor performing my retirement physical was very alarmed at the limited rotation of either hip from the normal position, and confirmed the top of both leg bones were cratered like the surface of the moon. She asked how it would impact my life after retirement, and I told her I could not allow that, as I had 3 boys at home to raise. She informed me both hips would need replacement at some point, and I would need to exercise care to not injure my back in putting replacement surgery off. I left wondering how in the world I could keep up with 3 sons.
Now, 10 years on with an empty nest, my boys pursuing lives of their own, it is time to focus on myself. I have begun pursuing my bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, focusing in Project Management. I am enrolled at Kaplan University, all online classes, where I have maintained a cumulative 4.0 GPA while acquiring all available quality points for submitted assignments. I chose online classes as my current job requires 55 to 60 hours a week as a salaried staff member. I have worked my way up there from an admin position to process planner, then to program manager, in the 6 years at my job.
While most days my hips ache with nearly every step, some days really are better than others. I train the rest of my body by weightlifting, to prepare for the surgeries I know I will need. My thinking is, the stronger I am, the less assistance and recovery time I will need. For now, when the pain is bad, I remember how I got here, take a pain reliever, and press on. Just as the military taught me to do.
I know military service made me a better person than I would have been, had I chosen to stay close to home and work at whatever job I found. Military service changed my mentality, to accept diversity, work towards goals, and never surrender. It made me tough, to get through life’s storms. It made me a better father than I had, as it gave me the opportunity to work hard to ensure they had they very best that I could give. Most of all, it made my mother proud of me, which means more to me to this day than anything I have achieved. And yes, I have a servicerelated disability. But, it is only disabling if one chooses to do nothing.
