Hmmmmm. . . you are rather observant. This is not the first time you’ve noticed a radical change in my perceived profression. You called me on the leap from law enforcement to military once a long time ago, but I never bothered replying to it or even acting like I noticed.
Well now’s as good a time as any to talk about my past, present and future career stuff. I’ve just recently come to accept where I am, where I’m going, and what I did to myself. I’ll try to be brief, but informative:
I graduated the police academy almost 8 years ago. I was 19–turned 19 the day before class started (making me arguably the youngest person to ever graduate a Florida CJSTC Certified Police Acadamy ever). I thought it was great at the time. But the young age made it very difficult to get hired anywhere. I got my Criminal Justice BA and had a successful internship with the Tampa Police Department, but still no luck getting hired. (Tampa minimum age is 21)
I applied all over the place, making it to various stages of the employment process, but never all the way. I kept getting beat out by people who had no college and seemed much less knowledgable or capable than me. But they had “Veterans Preference” in hiring. I learned that 2 years in the Army as a janitorial specialist will get you hired faster than a 2 year degree and an internship.
Anyway, so I knew it would take a few years before anyone would touch me. So I started working at the kickass Machinegun and SWAT supply store. I got to go to all kinds of armorer schools, tactical schools, instructor courses, etc. I learned a lot and it was a lot of fun. That was my 9-5 gig and I was managing a Shooting Range 3 nights a week.
I worked there for a while and thought it would be a great place to get experience and knowledge and kill a couple years until a department would hire me.
Then, at this international SWAT competition called the Round Up, I ran into some Army Special Forces recruitors. This was two months after 9-11 and I had spent most of the previous 8 weeks thinking that I was wasting my youth and my abilities sitting on my ass. Talking to all the customers and teaching and advising… I really started to feel like I was on the wrong side of the desk. I was dying to stop telling and showing, I wanted to start doing and being.
So talking to these recruiters absolutely did it for me. I figured I would go away for like 2 years, get my Green Beret, maybe deploy to the desert if I was lucky, then return home and I would have practically a GAURUNTEE that I would be hired by a department. And the unit was National Guard, so I could be in the unit and a department at the same time.
So I joined 20th Special Forces and left for what should have been like 2 years of training. I chose Medical Sergeant–wanting to learn something new. I could have chosen Weapons Sergeant, but I felt that I already knew so much about guns and I wanted to learn something new.
So I somehow managed to pass Special Forces Selection and I started the Q Course. I was kicking ass, and receiving some of the World’s Finest trauma management training in the world. Field stuff, ER stuff, surgery, lab work, you name it.
Then, one weekend, I got stupid and earned a DUI. I was immediately removed from the course and sent home. After all that medical training I earned NOTHING to show for it. I had all this knowledge and no card or certificate to say I could even apply Neosporin effectively.
So I spend a year at home taking care of my probation and court stuff and getting my life back together. Then I switched to Active Army with the goal of returning to the Q Course and finishing what I started. The only MOS I qualified for after all that training was Infantryman. So they sent me to Korea as an infantryman. It was okay. I got to use and share a lot of my knowledge and experience. People would always ask me “You have a GT Score of 144?!?!?! Why did you choose infantry??”
My answer was always “Because I’m not a pussy!”
But really, the truth is I never enlisted as 11B Infantry. I enlisted as 18D, SF Medical Sergeant, but infantry is all I had to show for it after fucking myself.
I spent a year in Korea playing soldier. Eventually I made it back here, so now I can pursue getting back to the Q Course. I keep hitting more obstacles, but all I want to do is get back there and finish what I started and earn my Green Beret, and someday help liberate a small country from communist oppression or anything that’s worth a damn. I just want to contribute–to have some hand in molding the world into something better.
Anyway, so lately I’ve had the oppurtunities to go to some other medical training. I pretty much nap through the course and just take the test and get the certifications. I’ve had such in depth training in the past, that its all stayed with me. Now I am finally getting the credentials that I earned years ago. So I’ve racked up my EMT, ACLS, Combat Lifesavor and some other things.
But here I am… still trying to get back to Ft Bragg. Still trying to be content with what I have and where I am.
The ironic thing is that I joined the Army to get out from behind a desk, but that’s exactly where I am now.
I’m a Combat Infantryman sitting behind a desk running the Operations Shop. It’s very very very unfulfilling, but it’s challenging mentally and I’m still learning a lot. And it gives me time to go to various Army schools and get all kinds of other training.
Anyway, I have to get going. I have been typing away at the restaraunt table and my wife is getting peeved. I’ll post again soon.
…That’s it in a nutshell.
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