Dec 13, 2019
Listen Here
Mike, filled out some questions I send out as (homework, ha
ha). I asked the questions to get the ideas and thoughts
flowing. Below are the answers to his questions which I thought
were very good and funny.
- Mike's funny story -
My most vivid memory of
family was at Christmas before I left for the Army my grandpa was
ticked I joined. His view was from the 60's 70's kids going off to
die in Vietnam, and didn't like that I was handing over control of
my life to the government. I thought it was quite funny and
it never bothered me, but man my dad was ticked :)
Questions:
What got you interested in joining the service or why
did you join the service?
- Backstory - I went to college
to be a teacher. I was undisciplined, immature and felt entitled. I
was on the 7 years to get a bachelors degree plan ( more focused on
the social aspects of college than getting a degree ). I was self
aware enough to know to needed help growing up, and with the
finances of college.
- My original plan - Join the Air
National Guard. My thought ( knowing not much about the military )
was I could join the national guard ( go to basic, get some
discipline, and get some extra money to help with school
)
- What actually happened - Air
Force recruiters wanted nothing to do with a college drop out (
thought I was a dummy ), the Army recruiters were more than
willing. As good recruiters do, he convinced me that the only way
to get a decent amount of money for school was to go full time for
4 years to get the full college fund.
- Army prep - I remember being
worried about being able to handle the mental grind of basic
training. I signed up in Oct ( ish ) but didn't leave for basic
until January. So everyday I watched the first part of Full Metal
Jacket. I figured if I could get used to that level of yelling,
nothing the modern Army could do would affect me. It actually
worked too well. The Drill Sgts yelling at me never bothered me, in
fact I used to get in trouble for grinning while they yelled, as I
thought it was pretty funny.
WHAT ARE YOU SMILING AT HAMMAN,
DO YOU LIKE ME? ,etc, etc. etc...
What is the best and worst things you like about the
military?
- Best
- Friendships / comradery ( This has helped me understand the
importance in my career to build a strong bond with my team
)
- meeting
different people ( race, culture, different places ). Kelley
Jenning story. Met people with so many different viewpoints ( City,
Country, Texas, Cali, New Yorkers, Southern, etc)
- Discipline, sacrifice,
responsibility
- Worst
- I like
doing things "smarter not harder" and I hate doing things "because
that's how we've always done things". This never sat well with my
NCO's. I learned to listen to orders and accept them. This trait
has helped me tremendously in my civilian life, but was not a great
fit for the military. Don has called me the devil's advocate for a
reason
Did you deploy anywhere and how did it go on the
deployment?
- Overall best experience of my
time in the Army
- I deployed to Haiti / Operation
Uphold Democracy
- We had ad long weekend so the
most of the company was out of town. I happened to be in the
barracks so I was pulled to deploy ( only 6-8 of our company was
part of this deployment )
- Originally we were supposed to
go to the Keys, setup communications link ( packed lots of civilian
clothes ), last min change, going in country ( un-band my wall
locker and repack FAST )
- Sit and Wait, Ready to go right
away. Felt like days sleeping in our HUMVEE's waiting to
go
- Gotta watch 82 go, come back and
land, Field Promotions for 82 for flying 1/2 way. Then they got to
go home and we took off
- Hit in the head on the when the
plane landed
- slept on the ground the 1st
night, no mosquito net
- Every night it would rain about
5-6 pm, so we'd wait in our PT's. Then run under gutters and
"shower"
- caravan trips out on the
town
- Swimming at Aristide's beach
house
- What do you remember about basic
& advance training that you would like to share?
- - Hard work, Long Days, if Haiti
was the best experience. Basic and AIT would be my favorite time in
the Army.
Basic Training
- PT - scored well on my first PT
test. ( Decent athlete in HS, but never a great runner, always more
of a sprinter, never a Long Distance guy. Our lead DS was PT nut so
he must have had a bet that his company would win High PT in
the battalion. He made me run
each morning with the "A" group even though my time was a "B"
group. At night when everyone else got to shower and write letters,
he would bring me to the front of the barracks and smoke me, trying
out new techniques he recently learned. He caught me eating
donuts one morning at breakfast, so he grabbed a bunch more and
made me eat all of them. Then killed me on the run the next morning
as he ran me until i threw up.
AIT
- After basic, I remember how
great it felt to have just a touch of freedom. Being able to walk
over to the PX and grab a soda, candybar, etc.. Go watch a movie,
etc.. That little bit of freedom felt so good !!! Started
learning our job. I don't remember many ( any ) specifics about
that job anymore. But I remember how high the bar was for passing.
In school ( HS, College ) passing was a C. I remember we had to get
like 95% right to pass a test... I've used this method with my kids
as I have become a parent. I set the bar high so they learn to
stretch themselves and have to really work at it.
- Whisky Workout - I was only 19
in AIT but most of my friends were older.. We bought a bottle of
whisky ( not allowed ) and were sitting in the barracks passing it
around. One of our roommates went to DS and told him, He found us,
called us down to the front of the barracks and started smoking us.
But he would one at a time call us up and make us drink Whiskey and
Sprite mixed while getting smoked. Working out and drinking are not
a great mix and I had to be carried up to bed... Never had a taste
for E&J and Sprite since...
What is a memory that
still sticks with you?
- One of my favorite memories was
playing video games with the guys in the barracks. I could never
beat Vinny Clark at NBA Live, but I paid him back on the college
football game. Aaron Anderson and I used to have some serious
battles with Bill Walsh College football, we'd spend hours and
hours on rematches. We had generators to run our comms vans in the
field so we would bring a small tv and gaming system and play even
in the field. ( Rough life i know )
- Monday Morning Madness... 1st Sgt Dickens instead of long
company runs, he would smoke us every Monday morning. It's funny
because if he recorded those workouts he would have been a
millionaire selling them to Beach Body.
What is the funniest moment you
remember?
- My buddy from HS was at Bragg the same time I was. His barracks
were right across from our motor pool. So many days I'd go over
there at lunch or break rather than all the way back to my room.
His 1st Sgt walked in his room one day when I was there and told me
If I like spending so much time in his company he was going to get
me transferred to his unit
What is the most serious moment you
remember?
- On one of our caravans trips in
Haiti we decided to go check out Cap-Haïtien ( we were
stationed in Port-au-Prince ). While driving around town, we pulled
up alongside of someone in a military uniform with an AK47 (
assuming it was someone from the Military Regime ). I heard 6 M16's
go locked and loaded and things got very tense and very quiet...
But he turned left and we kept straight and just like that, it was
over. I was very lucky to never deal with any real serious moments
like our guys have had to deal with in Afghanistan, Iraq and
Syria.
What does your career look like
today?
- Currently working as a Test
Manager for Honeywell. Smart Energy. We develop smart meters to be
deployed in our network on as an OEM product on other companies
networks. My team focuses on the automated testing of the FW on
these devices.
- My time in the Army has been critical to any career success
I've had
- I learn to Train, Train, Train
- I learned to build that team comradery
- From my faith I've learned to be a servant leader, Just as
Jesus showed us, putting others needs ahead of our own. It's our
job as leaders to put our employees needs ahead of our own. They
should be able to feel you truly care for them ( and you have to
truly care for them ) if you do this, there is nothing your team
can't accomplish.
Closing question, what one thing did you learn from the
military that you would like to pass along to your
family?
- There are two decisions I have
made that have shaped who I am today.
- Joining the military at 19. Helped me on the path to realize
what it meant to be a man ( and to stop acting like a boy )
- In my 30's accepting Jesus Christ as my savior. The Army could
only take me so far, it started me down a path but the only way to
truly become a man was to become a Man of God ( a kingdom man
)
- Growing up I head a hole in my heart, i tried to fill it with
good and bad things ( fun, family, career, partying, etc ) but no
matter what I tried it was always there. I accepted Jeus as my
savior and that void was filled, and now the journey continues to
to become a Man of God... Small steps each day..