WEBVTT 00:16.450 --> 00:18.617 My name is John Midget . I'm a company 00:18.617 --> 00:21.250 commander here training center . Before 00:21.250 --> 00:23.472 coming to Cape May . I was stationed in 00:23.472 --> 00:25.417 Sitka , Alaska Air Station Sitka . 00:25.417 --> 00:27.361 Prior to that , I was on the coast 00:27.361 --> 00:29.694 guard cutter Vigilant in Cape Canaveral . 00:29.694 --> 00:31.917 I chose the Coast Guard because growing 00:31.917 --> 00:34.083 up , I grew up in a coast guard home . 00:34.083 --> 00:36.028 I knew the kind of life that I had 00:36.028 --> 00:38.250 grown up and I wanted to give that same 00:38.250 --> 00:40.472 life to my family . I met my wife . She 00:40.472 --> 00:42.639 was on vacation from Scotland . That's 00:42.639 --> 00:44.694 where she's from and she came to the 00:44.694 --> 00:46.694 States . I was living in Savannah , 00:46.694 --> 00:48.750 Georgia at the time and she was down 00:48.750 --> 00:50.806 for two weeks touring the east coast 00:50.806 --> 00:50.500 and I actually met her the last night 00:50.500 --> 00:52.444 she was down , we met at a bowling 00:52.444 --> 00:55.500 alley and I thought she was cute . Love 00:55.500 --> 00:58.090 the accent . I love traveling . So we 00:58.090 --> 01:00.201 swapped my space addresses and dating 01:00.201 --> 01:03.090 myself here . And we , we talked for a 01:03.090 --> 01:05.090 year and before we decided to start 01:05.090 --> 01:08.100 dating , dated four years and finally 01:08.100 --> 01:10.100 we decided to tie the knot . We got 01:10.100 --> 01:12.267 married in Scotland and she immigrated 01:12.267 --> 01:14.267 over the US . And it was only after 01:14.267 --> 01:16.433 that , that I joined the Coast Guard . 01:16.433 --> 01:16.400 The experience of becoming a father for 01:16.400 --> 01:18.678 the first time was , was life changing . 01:18.950 --> 01:21.172 And uh there were a lot of changes that 01:21.172 --> 01:23.339 were going on in my life . We had just 01:23.339 --> 01:25.339 moved from the last good New Jersey 01:25.339 --> 01:27.506 just took a new job on being a company 01:27.506 --> 01:30.100 commander . Uh Our household goods 01:30.100 --> 01:32.044 haven't even showed up yet . We're 01:32.044 --> 01:34.100 living in an empty house and then we 01:34.100 --> 01:36.156 have to go to the hospital to have a 01:36.156 --> 01:35.810 baby . And while we're in the hospital , 01:35.810 --> 01:37.643 that of course , that's when the 01:37.643 --> 01:39.477 household goods come . So it was 01:39.477 --> 01:41.421 chaotic , but it was also the most 01:41.421 --> 01:43.532 rewarding thing that I've ever that's 01:43.532 --> 01:45.790 ever happened to me . My father was a 01:45.800 --> 01:47.967 public affairs specialist in the Coast 01:47.967 --> 01:50.189 Guard . He was also a company commander 01:50.189 --> 01:53.020 and speaking with him about his career . 01:53.030 --> 01:55.197 He said the most impactful part of his 01:55.197 --> 01:57.030 career was his time as a company 01:57.030 --> 01:58.919 commander . And that's one of the 01:58.919 --> 01:58.620 things that kind of made me want to be 01:58.620 --> 02:00.680 a company commander is the level of 02:00.680 --> 02:02.569 impact that you can have on these 02:02.569 --> 02:04.736 recruits . And on the Coast Guard as a 02:04.736 --> 02:06.902 whole being the drill master here came 02:06.902 --> 02:09.920 a is very unique experience . You get 02:09.920 --> 02:11.920 to work with the company commanders 02:11.920 --> 02:14.142 while they're running company . You get 02:14.142 --> 02:16.198 to guide them through the graduation 02:16.198 --> 02:18.031 week , You get to guide the grad 02:18.031 --> 02:17.410 support company and get to work with 02:17.410 --> 02:19.521 these recruits and teach them a skill 02:19.521 --> 02:21.632 that they most of these recruits have 02:21.632 --> 02:23.632 never had before and you get to get 02:23.632 --> 02:25.743 them from the bottom to where they've 02:25.743 --> 02:27.688 never touched a rifle to the point 02:27.688 --> 02:27.380 where they're performing in front of , 02:27.380 --> 02:29.324 I always tell them you're gonna be 02:29.324 --> 02:31.269 performing in front of 600 sets of 02:31.269 --> 02:33.436 eyeballs on Friday . And , uh , it's , 02:33.436 --> 02:35.340 it's a very unique time for them 02:35.340 --> 02:37.396 because I tell them when they go out 02:37.396 --> 02:39.562 into the fleet , you're probably never 02:39.562 --> 02:39.110 gonna have an opportunity to do 02:39.110 --> 02:41.166 something like this again . And it's 02:41.166 --> 02:43.277 pretty cool that they get to do it in 02:43.277 --> 02:45.499 front of their families and their loved 02:45.499 --> 02:44.490 ones at the graduation . 02:50.090 --> 02:52.146 You get inspired by the recruits all 02:52.146 --> 02:54.368 the time because they are put through a 02:54.368 --> 02:56.479 lot of stress and the things they had 02:56.479 --> 02:58.812 to overcome just remind you of what you , 02:58.812 --> 03:01.034 what you've had to overcome . There was 03:01.034 --> 03:03.034 this one short female recruit , you 03:03.034 --> 03:02.980 really struggling spinning a rifle 03:02.980 --> 03:05.091 around every time she would spin it . 03:05.091 --> 03:07.258 Like you could see it in her face that 03:07.258 --> 03:09.147 she was struggling and I was just 03:09.147 --> 03:11.202 trying to get her to like no emotion 03:11.202 --> 03:10.830 like I should . If you're going to 03:10.830 --> 03:12.886 struggle with the rifle , you're not 03:12.886 --> 03:12.840 going to show me that you're struggling 03:12.840 --> 03:15.007 with the rifle kind of thing . Like if 03:15.007 --> 03:17.173 you drop the rifle , that's fine , but 03:17.173 --> 03:17.010 just lock it on . I don't want to see 03:17.010 --> 03:19.640 it in your face like just your robot 03:20.120 --> 03:22.900 and she was struggled with that the 03:22.900 --> 03:25.011 whole eight weeks all the way up to , 03:25.011 --> 03:27.178 we even performed on Thursday in front 03:27.178 --> 03:29.400 of the company and the company told her 03:29.400 --> 03:28.800 like , hey , I can see in your face 03:28.800 --> 03:31.022 that you're really struggling with that 03:31.022 --> 03:33.133 rifle grad day , she was the one that 03:33.133 --> 03:35.244 was walking through the jam while the 03:35.244 --> 03:37.578 recruits are throwing the rifles around . 03:37.578 --> 03:37.080 Recruit clocked her on the head with 03:37.080 --> 03:41.040 the front sight and she just 03:41.040 --> 03:43.510 fixed her cover , she locked it up and 03:43.510 --> 03:45.732 she went out and she finished the whole 03:45.732 --> 03:47.899 routine flawlessly . As soon as we get 03:47.899 --> 03:49.899 in the passageway , she breaks down 03:49.899 --> 03:52.066 crying . I lift up her cover and she's 03:52.066 --> 03:54.232 got a two inch gas , she's bleeding at 03:54.232 --> 03:54.210 the top of her head . I had to send her 03:54.210 --> 03:57.230 to the clinic and , um , she ended up 03:57.230 --> 03:59.230 coming back right after the company 03:59.230 --> 04:01.341 disbanded and they actually stopped , 04:01.341 --> 04:03.508 stopped everybody from hugging so they 04:03.508 --> 04:05.397 can give her her grad . So it was 04:05.397 --> 04:07.397 pretty cool . Transition from drill 04:07.397 --> 04:09.452 master to company commander has been 04:09.452 --> 04:11.508 bittersweet . I , I knew that it was 04:11.508 --> 04:13.674 coming . I knew that I couldn't be the 04:13.674 --> 04:13.370 drill master for the rest of my tour 04:13.370 --> 04:16.950 here . Um , and we picked a great guy 04:16.950 --> 04:20.540 to take it over , But I am gonna miss 04:20.540 --> 04:23.100 it . I'm gonna miss the job and working 04:23.100 --> 04:25.120 with the recruits and coming in at 04:25.120 --> 04:27.120 nights to the drill practices . I'm 04:27.120 --> 04:29.670 also gonna feel a little more relaxed . 04:29.680 --> 04:31.624 It's almost like a burden has been 04:31.624 --> 04:33.847 lifted because there is a lot of stress 04:33.847 --> 04:33.780 that comes with knitting together a 04:33.780 --> 04:36.010 routine every week and having to make 04:36.010 --> 04:38.121 it good to go . So you can perform in 04:38.121 --> 04:40.066 front of 600 sets of eyeballs . So 04:40.066 --> 04:42.288 that's , that's one stress that's gonna 04:42.288 --> 04:41.870 be lifted from . 04:51.990 --> 04:54.157 I think my favorite part about being a 04:54.157 --> 04:56.046 company commander is the level of 04:56.046 --> 04:58.101 impact that you have on , on some of 04:58.101 --> 05:00.212 these recruits lives . A lot of these 05:00.212 --> 05:02.157 recruits come in from , from rough 05:02.157 --> 05:04.323 backgrounds and they don't have that , 05:04.323 --> 05:06.046 that direction , that level of 05:06.046 --> 05:08.157 discipline and they definitely get it 05:08.157 --> 05:10.157 here and , and when they graduate , 05:10.157 --> 05:12.323 they're , they're so thankful for it . 05:12.323 --> 05:11.990 And you can see that the change in the 05:11.990 --> 05:13.990 recruits at graduation and you send 05:13.990 --> 05:16.212 them out into the fleet . That , that's 05:16.212 --> 05:18.379 my favorite part about being a company 05:18.379 --> 05:20.546 commander leaving training center came 05:20.546 --> 05:19.950 a , I'm going to Training center , 05:19.950 --> 05:22.283 Petaluma to be an , a school instructor . 05:22.283 --> 05:24.339 I've been lucky enough and fortunate 05:24.339 --> 05:26.561 enough to have already gotten orders to 05:26.561 --> 05:28.728 do that . So that's something that I'm 05:28.728 --> 05:30.839 really looking forward to , to go out 05:30.839 --> 05:33.006 there and still continue teaching just 05:33.006 --> 05:34.950 doing it in a , in a more academic 05:34.950 --> 05:37.172 setting in a different manner . I think 05:37.172 --> 05:39.228 I'm really gonna miss my time at the 05:39.228 --> 05:38.690 training center . I'm gonna look very 05:38.690 --> 05:41.920 fondly at my company commander tour . 05:41.930 --> 05:45.180 It's a lot of work . It's extremely 05:45.180 --> 05:48.810 rewarding and I wouldn't 05:48.960 --> 05:50.980 close the door on potentially doing 05:50.980 --> 05:51.650 another tour here .