WEBVTT

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I think first and foremost , I grew up

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with this . My father was in the in the

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Army , both guard and reserve , and he

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completed 32 years of service as well .

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Remember having this conversation with

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my dad and he said to me , I think this

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is the time for you to seriously

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consider the army . Remember the

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recruiter calling me and saying

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something about I'm coming to pick you

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up , take you for your ass Vab He says

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All right , I'm now I'm taking you down

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to maps E . I don't know what maps was .

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I said Okay . I said , what exactly is

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this ? Because they're just gonna give

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you physical and , you know , and then

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I think under his breath , he kind of

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said and swear you in E I said no .

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Wait a minute . E don't remember

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agreeing to that part . I need some

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time to think about it . And I remember

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him telling me very pointedly directly .

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There's no more time to think about it .

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You're doing this . He knew enough that

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I was gonna do it . So going to MEPs on

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October 15th in 1988 and that was it .

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And I was in , And so that's how I got

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in the program . That's how I signed up .

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And then I just learned my way through ,

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Ah , handful of months of drill until I

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went to basic training . So I remember

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doing all that , and I just stuck with

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it , got myself in ROTC , figured out

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how to do it . I I look back on it . I

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was by no means the best cadet at all .

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But I had the skills . It was just a

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matter of putting it together . E think

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that's that . That really was the first

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couple of years prior to commissioning

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and some of the experiences I went

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through and why and all that . Deep

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down inside , we all e think all of us

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desire to be deployed . You don't

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always articulate that because there's

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others involved and you don't want to

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appear to be selfish and leave your

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family . However , this is our job . I

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think for me everything changed after

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my first deployment I was in , for it

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would have been 15 years or so before I

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deployed . I think that's where you

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started to put all the theory training

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practice into reality , and it came

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into play . And I think all of us do

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that when we get deployed . So two

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deployments both to Afghanistan and a

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total of 14 years apart . So 03 and

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then again in 2017 very ,

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very odd experience to go back toe a

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place you've been that you never

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thought you'd see again . So we're

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talking 2017 here , and the list came

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out . I believe in April or so my name

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was on the list . So pinning , pinning

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six and theater was fantastic . I

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mentioned General Nicholson and the

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ceremony when I came home Thio here .

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Then I was assigned here to Joke Force

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headquarters , which I never drilled

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before here , And that was a bit of a

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culture shock for May . So when the rt

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I offering came out and I just was

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thrilled , absolutely thrilled . So I

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came on to the the first time I came on .

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Actually , I came on and came off and

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came back on . This was gonna be a

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strictly , um , day mission . And once

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I got my head around that I said , Oh ,

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this thing is what I want . I want em

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day to prove to again to I'll Army

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National guard that the NBA team can

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run a mission like this . You know , I

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can't speak enough about that team .

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We've transitioned the JTF right now

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into into something that is just I'd

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like , t think of this ever ever

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capable organization . It's like the

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end of any command . It's like the end

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of any assignment . They never go the

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way you want them to go . But the

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reality is , uh , you know , I still

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have a civilian job like most of us .

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Dio So , uh , yeah , I don't know what

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I don't know what's coming next . To be

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quite honest with you , I've always had

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two jobs . I may look at a second job .

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I think teaching at night history , for

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example , is something I would enjoy .

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But I just don't know . I don't know

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what the future holds , but you know

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what ? We'll see . We'll see what comes

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comes along the line . So