Before my 19th birthday, I was working as a temp at Tombstone Pizza and had zero direction in my life. Then one day a friend of mine said to me, "Why don't you join the National Guard? It's cool." I kind of laughed at him and said, "Yeah, right." What on earth would I do in the military, I wondered. Then a few days later, the thought occurred to me that perhaps I should join. I didn't have anything else going on in life. So in January of 1998, I walked into an armory and asked about joining. Long story short, I was enlisted shortly thereafter and within a couple of weeks, I shipped off to basic training.
Fast forward to fall of 2000. I was working on orders (like a temp position) for the National Guard. One of my sergeants suggested I apply for a full time position. Again, it was like, "right." How would I ever even dream of being a full timer? But with a little help, I put together my application and submitted it. Lo and behold, I was hired! I was quite excited, to say the least.
I spent the next 7 years working for State Headquarters. I loved it!! I knew the job like the back of my hand and always felt I was "on my game". Once the deployments started, I spent a great deal of time at Fort McCoy assisting soldiers with preparing the necessary paperwork to be ready for mobilization. I also had the privilege of creating ID cards for the soldiers and their families.
In November of 2007, I was offered a position working at an armory in Northern Wisconsin. I was thrilled at the thought of a promotion (who wouldn't be?) and accepted. Unfortunately, it did not turn out the way I hoped. Check out my next post to read on.
No comments:
Post a Comment