| What is your most memorable childhood experience? | Every summer, our family would go up to our cabin and we would bring our yellow lab. I would go out on the lake and play around on an inflatable tube, trying to keep my balance and pushing the tube around the lake front. After a while, my yellow lab, who loved to swim, would swim out to me on my tube and check up on me. At one point, I got close to the dock, and she wasn’t scared of the water, so she jumped right on the tube with me. She was so happy, she and I just laid on the tube sunbathing, just a boy and his dog. Later, when I actually got to go tubing, she’d sit in the back of the boat and watch me get thrown around behind the boat. Tubing was one of the exhilarating and fun things I remember about the most. Although she is now gone, the memory we shared together will be forever with me. |
| What immediate family member do you closely identify with and why? | I can’t choose who I closely identify with because I am a mixture of two people. My mom and dad are surprisingly different. I believe myself to be a leader who holds courage, honesty, determination, and discipline above all else. My mother was always disciplined and determined. She always put her family first and worked hard. Her strict attitude and discipline were instilled in me and helped me get through school and into the marines. My father on the other hand was more compassionate, caring, and honest. My dad taught me to be empathetic and live a more carefree and stress-free life. I appreciate everything they did for me because life is about balance, and I wouldn’t be who I am today, and I wouldn’t be where I am today. |
| What character traits do you admire in an individual? | I admire someone who has goals and is driven to complete them. I admire loyalty, because if I am your friend then I want you to watch my back as much as I watch yours. I want my partners loyalty because we are a bonded team. I admire the loyalty of my family because when I need assistance, I can always rely on them. Someone who takes charge will always have my respect and admiration. |
| What is the funniest thing ever to happen to you? | While in the Marine Corps, I became the guide/leader of over 100 people during my job training school. As the guide, I was responsible for accounting for every one of those people every morning and night. Now, I had a few irresponsible individuals who didn’t show up on time sometimes, so I got in hot water with my platoon sergeant. She ended up taking away our guide-on, which is the flag we carry when we March to classes. It represents our platoon and anything we do with it out can be interpreted as good or bad depending on the situation. So, she took away the symbol of our platoon spirit and told us the only way to get it back was to tactically acquire another platoon’s guide-on. They used to play this game when they were in the schoolhouse and now we had been entrusted to begin the shenanigans to acquire our guide-on back. So, 100 of my peers disbursed from the formation and started looking for opportunities to tactically acquire (steal) another guide-on. That night I took accountability for all my Marines and got ready for the next day. Well, we had our workout in the morning and when I checked my phone, I saw that my platoon sergeant had called for another formation, so I disseminated that to the rest of the platoon for afternoon formation. After classes, we had formation. It turns out we had acquired 2 guide-ons, one was another Marine platoon’s guide-on, the other was an army command guide-on. As in, the flag that represents the army’s presence at that post. Of course, I learned my buddy was the one who walked up to the command’s posted guide-on and pulled it out, put it under his arm, and started marching away. Now this did draw attention, three school soldiers ran over to stop him but were called back by their drill sergeant who didn’t see him take it. As he was walking away he looked back and could see 3 army recruits getting IT (Intensive Training) and doing pushups. He brought the guide-on to our platoon sergeant who looked at him incredulously. She accepted the guide-on, but he got a talking to about stealing not only posted guide-ons, but the command guide-ons. So, we were all in formation when she told us that the army commander, a lieutenant colonel (pretty high up on importance) called asking about their command guide-on. She had to tell him the story about this unfortunate situation, but we all had a good laugh, and nobody got in trouble. The army got their flag back and we got ours because we did get another platoon’s, but we all learned something that day. My friend is one crazy man to steal a command guide-on in broad daylight. |
| If time and money were not an issue, where would you travel and why? | I have always been a fan of history, especially ancient history. I would travel throughout Rome and Greece because there are so many historical sites and artistic pieces. I took a few western civilization college classes that it would be nostalgic to see them in person. I believe embracing other cultures and learning about their history is a great experience. |
| When and if you ever have children, what would you like to pass on to them? | If I ever have children, I would like to pass on skills and experiences. I want to be able to share some memorable experiences with them and encourage them to learn about any skills or talents they may be interested in. If it makes them happy then I’d say I did my job well. |
