I have had the privilege to serve for twenty years in the enlisted, cadet, and officer ranks. What began as a single ambition to serve for a few years as medic during the period of the “First Gulf War” has instead turned into a military career as a Medical Service Corps Officer which has taken me around the world and introduced me to peoples and cultures that I had only read about in books. So what took me from a 17 year old kid from Appleton, Wisconsin to a career military officer?

To answer this question, I think it is important to understand the opportunities that the army provides to anyone who has desire and ambition. My story, like many other kids graduating from high school in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, began with a drive and desire to expand and do something more than my parents had the opportunity to do. While they provided me a guided middle class upbringing in northeastern Wisconsin, I knew there was more out there that I wanted to see and do. About this time, Operation Desert Storm (the first major operation since Vietnam) was about to begin. I, like many boys my age, thought this would be a chance to do something cool, exciting, and different. So with a typical teenager’s attitude that I knew everything, I drove down the U.S. Army recruiter’s office and asked how we could help each other.

I was given a routine speech and provided an opportunity to take the entrance test (ASVAB) to see where my skills and competencies lay. It was here that the army began demonstrating the opportunities that exist. After completing the exam, which seemed like it took forever, I was brought into a career counselor’s office to begin making a deal. After being offered multiple options, I decided to take a chance on being a combat medic with advanced training as an orthopedic specialist. In my opinion at the time, this was not bad for a kid who had just graduated from high school. The important thing to note here is that if you do well on the ASVAB, there are jobs in the army for nearly every interest. Additionally, like most kids I wanted to go to college as well. It was here that I was first introduced to a GI Bill. This program allowed for me to put a small investment in initially and the army would then provide me enough money pay for tuition and books (the new GI bill actually covers typical tuition costs and a generous living allowance stipend for housing). So I signed on the dotted line and raised my right hand to begin my career. After about four years of being stationed at locations in Texas and Maryland and taking college classes at night (tuition assistance from the army covered nearly all these expenses without having to use my GI Bill), I was introduced to a program called Green to Gold. This program allowed for active duty army members who had completed 75% or more of their initial enlistment to apply and compete for an ROTC scholarship. This scholarship would cover tuition, books, and a small living stipend and after graduation would make me an army officer.

I seized this opportunity and began the second phase of my career as a cadet and officer. As a cadet I spent nearly three years at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh learning my skills to become an officer, while pursuing a degree in history, which I loved. After graduation, I was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Medical Service Corps. Since that day, I have married and had two children who have moved with me throughout, Asia, Europe, and the United States. During these years I have also had the opportunity to attend graduate school, executive level internships, and professional military schools.
 

The army has a lot to offer those with ambition to make themselves a better person. Whether it is to serve your country, travel the world, receive an education, provide for your family, or a combination of these things, the opportunities are there. The only limitation to where you can advance is based on you. I have seen the army create great leaders and thinkers from men and women of all races who came from both humble and well to do upbringings. After twenty years of learning and seeing, I believe there is no other organization in this country that can better help a person to become not only who they are, but more importantly who they might be.