Active Duty: Army Overview

What drew me to my initial MOS in the Active Duty Army was the length of the training and the type of training that it was. It was a technically oriented training. It was 10 months.

I learned how to fix radars, how to take them all the way down to subcomponents and then reassemble those subcomponents. I really thought, "Wow, this is a lot of technical knowledge that I can do something with in the future. Not only will I be able to fix this radar, but I'm learning about radar in general."

I picked Patriot Operator Maintainer when I went Active Duty. My deployment to Saudi Arabia, we thought we were going to come under terrorist attack at anytime. We were at a modified DELTA threat condition. It was a scary time, but it was good because we were prepared for it, we were prepared for anything that was thrown at us. It was great; it was the best thing I've ever done. It took me out of New York and made me who I am today.

I wanted to come back into the Army right after 9/11. I was still in the IRR at the time and initially my wife wasn't supportive and I just kept telling her, "I don't understand it myself. I just know that the Army needs me, that they're looking for people and I want to do my part."