WEBVTT

00:01.269 --> 00:04.179
I always grew up , you know , looking

00:04.190 --> 00:06.190
up to my father as , as my personal

00:06.190 --> 00:08.357
hero , as someone I wanted to embody ,

00:14.569 --> 00:18.430
he's a great leader and

00:18.440 --> 00:20.607
he's , he's someone who I've wanted to

00:20.607 --> 00:24.440
emulate my entire life . My

00:24.450 --> 00:26.617
grandfather , William Lamott served in

00:26.617 --> 00:28.894
the Navy um for just a couple of years .

00:28.894 --> 00:32.220
And so my and my father , uh never was

00:32.229 --> 00:34.229
able to serve , but he always had a

00:34.229 --> 00:36.229
sense of service . And so he always

00:36.229 --> 00:36.090
brought us to Fourth of July parades ,

00:36.189 --> 00:38.189
always tell us to salute veterans ,

00:38.189 --> 00:40.022
always take care of it , went to

00:40.022 --> 00:42.189
veterans homes and took care of them .

00:42.189 --> 00:44.300
And so , um , that was very instilled

00:44.300 --> 00:46.522
upon me at a very young age , tried the

00:46.522 --> 00:48.689
college thing for two years and I kept

00:48.689 --> 00:50.800
walking by this booth , an ROTC booth

00:50.800 --> 00:53.133
and I was like , what is this all about ?

00:53.133 --> 00:55.300
What are they doing in ROTC ? And they

00:55.300 --> 00:57.580
said , just come on out , it's uh cost

00:57.590 --> 00:59.423
you nothing . It's you can get a

00:59.423 --> 01:01.368
leadership grade , you learn about

01:01.368 --> 01:03.534
becoming a leader . So they sent me to

01:03.534 --> 01:02.919
Fort Jackson . So I became a basic

01:02.930 --> 01:05.260
training XL and every day it was great

01:05.269 --> 01:07.102
because we were teaching the the

01:07.102 --> 01:09.269
soldiers , army values and the warrior

01:09.269 --> 01:11.491
ethos was going on at that time . So it

01:11.491 --> 01:13.713
was a big deal , uh , working on that .

01:13.713 --> 01:15.769
And so I was very excited . Uh , and

01:15.769 --> 01:18.047
then while I was there , um , you know ,

01:18.047 --> 01:20.047
looking at transitioning , I always

01:20.047 --> 01:22.380
thought about being a financial advisor ,

01:22.380 --> 01:24.436
uh , want get out do that . But then

01:24.436 --> 01:26.602
911 hit and so it got real real fast .

01:26.602 --> 01:28.769
My daughter was born and 18 days later

01:28.769 --> 01:30.991
I left for Iraq for the first time . So

01:30.991 --> 01:33.158
we drove up , basically got out of the

01:33.158 --> 01:36.690
car , took the bags out , shut the door .

01:36.989 --> 01:39.100
I'm leaving my baby girl . I have two

01:39.100 --> 01:43.059
boys , baby girl and I'm looking in

01:43.069 --> 01:46.779
the window of the car and there's my

01:46.910 --> 01:49.660
daughter in the car seat and ,

01:52.220 --> 01:54.553
and my boy is there as well and my wife ,

01:54.870 --> 01:58.580
it was a hard day and no , walked

01:58.589 --> 01:59.811
inside and deployed .

02:04.169 --> 02:06.280
I mean , that's hard . You , you grew

02:06.280 --> 02:08.391
up with , with your dad right there .

02:08.391 --> 02:10.558
Um , and of course , you know , he was

02:10.558 --> 02:12.613
busy doing his army thing . Um , but

02:12.613 --> 02:14.558
he'd still come home from dinner ,

02:14.558 --> 02:16.725
still tuck you in , tell you stories ,

02:16.725 --> 02:16.470
watch football on the weekends with you .

02:16.559 --> 02:18.726
So going from that at such a young age

02:18.726 --> 02:20.559
is definitely tough . But , uh ,

02:20.699 --> 02:22.810
something I hold , I held sacred from

02:22.810 --> 02:24.810
that time , I was , you know , just

02:24.810 --> 02:27.032
learning to read in kindergarten . Uh ,

02:27.032 --> 02:29.088
but there was a book that , uh , you

02:29.088 --> 02:31.088
wrote a note in , um , that I still

02:31.088 --> 02:33.310
have . And it's the , uh , my daddy's a

02:33.310 --> 02:35.588
soldier . You know , the book is about ,

02:35.588 --> 02:37.755
about a dad who , who's has to go away

02:37.755 --> 02:39.866
and , and it's all the fun stuff . He

02:39.866 --> 02:41.977
does the push ups with his son , uh ,

02:41.977 --> 02:44.310
packs his bags . He's talking about how ,

02:44.310 --> 02:46.421
you know , dad smells bad coming back

02:46.421 --> 02:48.588
from the field or , or all that , that

02:48.588 --> 02:50.810
stuff that every , every soldier has to

02:50.810 --> 02:53.330
do . And , uh , you know , it's ,

02:54.520 --> 02:56.520
it's again a reminder if you know ,

02:56.520 --> 02:58.800
like , uh , you know , my , my father

02:58.809 --> 02:59.809
is my hero .

03:05.039 --> 03:07.809
I think there's a , sometimes you see

03:08.080 --> 03:10.639
parents maybe a little nervous about

03:10.649 --> 03:13.399
their kids uh serving and uh , and I

03:13.410 --> 03:15.577
would ask you , you know , it was good

03:15.577 --> 03:17.743
for you . Why isn't it good for them ?

03:17.743 --> 03:19.910
Um And so to me , like I said before ,

03:19.919 --> 03:22.360
it's always important for me to , it

03:22.369 --> 03:24.480
was important for me to serve so that

03:24.480 --> 03:26.960
my Children have the ability to choose

03:27.250 --> 03:29.759
uh to serve . And so very proud of

03:29.770 --> 03:31.826
Bailey . He made the decision on his

03:31.826 --> 03:33.714
own to be able to do that . But I

03:33.714 --> 03:35.937
realized what I wanted to be able to do

03:35.937 --> 03:38.159
is the , the timing was perfect where I

03:38.159 --> 03:40.214
retired and now it's Bailey's type ,

03:40.214 --> 03:42.669
it's not me and it's not Colonel Lamont

03:42.679 --> 03:44.568
and , and , and second Lieutenant

03:44.568 --> 03:46.790
Lamott , and we're trying to figure out

03:46.790 --> 03:48.957
balance and want to be my time is done

03:48.957 --> 03:50.179
and his time begins ,

03:54.289 --> 03:56.345
I think being a military kid is , is

03:56.345 --> 03:58.400
extremely valuable , the experiences

03:58.400 --> 04:00.789
that I've gotten to do . Um Thanks to

04:00.800 --> 04:03.529
the , the army and the army community ,

04:03.960 --> 04:07.710
it's tough . But I think , I

04:07.720 --> 04:09.776
think it teaches you that resilience

04:09.776 --> 04:13.119
early on and you become kind of ok with

04:13.130 --> 04:15.130
that change in the army . Make sure

04:15.130 --> 04:17.019
that that life isn't dull . Uh It

04:17.019 --> 04:18.963
doesn't get stagnant . Something's

04:18.963 --> 04:21.130
always changing and something's always

04:21.130 --> 04:23.130
happening . I really love that . We

04:23.130 --> 04:25.297
have come full circle from back when I

04:25.297 --> 04:27.519
used to see the commercials like in the

04:27.519 --> 04:29.408
eighties of be all you could be .

04:29.408 --> 04:31.519
There's no other place you can be all

04:31.519 --> 04:33.574
you can be . I mean , they just want

04:33.574 --> 04:35.574
the best for you in the army and it

04:35.574 --> 04:37.574
takes a village and you got a whole

04:37.574 --> 04:39.686
village . We love living on base . We

04:39.686 --> 04:41.741
love being part of the community and

04:41.741 --> 04:43.574
any community that we were at uh

04:43.574 --> 04:45.297
getting the opportunity to eat

04:45.297 --> 04:47.019
different foods , be a part of

04:47.019 --> 04:49.241
different cultures . It was all a great

04:49.241 --> 04:51.352
learning process and developed uh who

04:51.352 --> 04:53.529
we are today . Army treated me pretty

04:53.540 --> 04:55.480
good . And I felt it definitely

04:55.489 --> 04:58.040
impressed upon me this , this desire to ,

04:58.920 --> 05:01.470
to pay that forward by , by myself ,

05:01.480 --> 05:03.459
serving uh for however law of his

05:03.470 --> 05:04.380
career lasts me .