March 31, 2025 • 21 mins
Brandon Held recounts his Air Force career trajectory and the pivotal moment that led him to abandon his original plan of military retirement for a completely different path. A false report from a vindictive master sergeant and subsequent lack of support from leadership sparked a series of events that ultimately led Brandon to pursue broadcast journalism after watching Marv Albert interview Michael Jordan.
Please start with Episode 1. Go to my site BrandonHeld.com
• Worked hard to demonstrate value through polished uniforms and professional excellence
• Won Airman of the Quarter for his security police squadron
• Selected as flight security controller despite being significantly junior for the position
• Falsely failed a quality control test by Master Sergeant Danford without actually being tested
• Commander refused to believe Brandon over the master sergeant despite the false report
• Discovered unexpected academic ability after scoring well in a college math class
• Significantly improved ASVAB scores but was denied retraining opportunities
• Made life-changing decision to become a sportscaster after watching Marv Albert interview Michael Jordan
• Left the Air Force in January 1995 and prepared to attend Minot State University
• Enjoyed unexpected transition period playing basketball and golfing while collecting unemployment
Join me next time for episode seven where I'll share more significant incidents from my military career that have stayed with me for over 30 years.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
Welcome back.
This is Brandon Held, Life isCrazy, Episode 6.
Last episode, I took you throughmy marriage and the birth of my
son, Ethan.
And that spanned over six yearsof my life, including my
post-Air Force life.
(00:23):
I can't just go through whathappened to me while I was in
the Air Force.
I don't really remember thesequence that some of these
happened in.
I think it's more fluid to tellthe story of one incident from
its beginning to end.
And then if I need to backtrackto talk about something that
(00:46):
happened during that time, it'sjust easier that way.
So that's what I'm doing.
I'm going to talk about my AirForce career.
My plan was to join the AirForce at 17 years old.
Work for 20 years and retire.
That was my immature teenagebrains thought process, right?
(01:06):
To be 37 years old and retirefor the rest of my life.
So that's not the way lifeworked out.
You can't retire after 20 yearsin the air force and live a good
life.
It's just not, not financiallyfeasible, especially with the
way prices raise and everything.
(01:27):
So anyway, I took my Air Forcecareer seriously.
And I wanted to work hard toshow that I'm valuable and
intelligent to some degree andthat I could advance in my Air
Force career.
I showed up to work seriouslyevery week.
We would have a formation beforewe would go out in the missile
(01:50):
field.
And in that formation, you wouldhave to have polished weapons.
boots, which you had to do byhand, and you had to have a
pressed uniform, which you alsoeither could do by hand.
I was a poor airman, so I had todo it myself.
I would spend hours polishing myboots and ironing my uniform
(02:10):
just for this one formation toshow that I was sharp.
And it came across, I wasconstantly...
told by the flight sergeantsthat I was doing a great job on
my uniforms.
One time they even surprised usand said, the person with the
sharpest uniform doesn't have towork because we have an extra
(02:31):
person.
They gave it to me and I got toget out of work for three days.
I had nine days off in a rowwithout taking any time off.
So anyway, I did that.
And that was one of the ways Iwas trying to show my value and
worth.
The other thing that I did is Iwent up for Airman of the
Quarter.
You start by sitting in front ofthis board and answering
(02:54):
questions at the seatedattention, which, yes, there is
a seated version of attention.
You answer questions to thisboard.
In the security police squadron,I won Airman of the Quarter.
I beat out my other securitypolice fellows that were going
for it, and I won.
(03:15):
And so then I went for airman ofthe quarter for the base, which
obviously is what it soundedlike.
I was competing against everyoneelse in the base, the medical
group, the flights, the admins,whatever other groups there
were, I was competing againsttheir people for airman of the
quarter.
And I lost.
I did not win that.
(03:36):
I was disappointed, but itdidn't happen.
And life goes on.
So I was...
trying to show what else I coulddo there were positions that
came open for flight securitycontroller which was typically a
staff sergeant or above positionand I was only an airman first
class and at that time staffsergeant was three ranks ahead
(03:59):
of me because there was seniorairman then there was sergeant
then there was staff sergeant atthat time the air force did away
with sergeant so now it wouldonly be two ranks ahead but back
then it was three And I waschosen to be a flight security
controller on my flight by myleadership based on my skills.
(04:20):
I was the only airman firstclass to be a flight security
controller on my squad, myflight.
And so I fought all of thesethings, showing up every day,
working hard, showing myknowledge, staying sharp in my
uniform.
I thought all those things wouldhelp me gain rank a little
(04:44):
faster because you can getsenior airmen six months earlier
on something called below thezone.
And for whatever reason, Ididn't get chosen.
And that was a littledisappointing for me.
I had a flight Sergeant come outto QC me while I was working as
a flight security controller.
(05:06):
QC means quality control.
It's basically.
a test you get while you're onduty by someone in the training
section to make sure that youknow what you're doing.
And so I had a master SergeantDanford, never forget this
asshole's name, who came out tomy site to quality control me
(05:29):
while I was on duty, but I wassuper busy.
I had a lot going on.
I had two open holes.
I had a alarm going off justevery day.
Two minutes, I was on the radiospeaking to teams out in the
field to get status updates andstuff.
So there's just literally notime for him to ask me questions
(05:52):
and QC me.
I explained this to him when hearrived and his arrival was
unscheduled.
It was a surprise.
He didn't clear anything with meor anyone else.
He just showed up.
And he's, oh, okay, no problem.
I'll just stop and get some foodand check back in with you
later.
So he left and went out in thefield.
(06:12):
We had a cook that came outthere with us and they were like
our personal cooks, which wasgreat.
You would tell them what youwant to eat and they would cook
it on the spot.
So it was a nice setup.
He went out there, ate and hecame back about 30 minutes
later.
The situation hadn't changed.
I was very busy and I couldn'tdo anything.
(06:35):
The quality control testing.
He said, okay, I'll go out thereand wait a bit and come back.
So he went out and he shot somepool because we had pool tables
out at the sites and it probablyplayed pool for about 30
minutes.
And he came back and he said,oh, how's it looking?
And I said, nothing's changed.
Still in the same situation.
(06:55):
I can't do it right now.
He said, okay, no problem.
I'll come back another time toQCU.
And I said, okay, great.
Thanks, Sergeant.
Sorry it didn't work out, butI'll see you next time.
I'd never met this guy before.
So he leaves and goes back tobase.
And the next day I travel to thebase and I get called into the
(07:18):
office by my flight sergeant.
And he says, you have beendecertified as a flight security
controller because you failedyour QC.
And I said, What?
I didn't even take a QC.
He said, Master Sergeant Danfordcame out there yesterday.
He QC'd you.
You failed.
It's in his report right here.
(07:39):
I said, Master Sergeant Danforddidn't do anything.
He didn't ask me a singlequestion.
He came out there.
I had two open holes, an alarm,and he ate, and he shot pool,
and then he left.
He didn't even ask me one singlequestion.
You ask me anything right now,I'll pass a QC.
No problem.
And my flight sergeant said,that's not necessary.
(08:02):
I know you're sharp.
I know you know your stuff.
And I got your back.
I'll take care of you.
So I was getting ready to go onleave.
I went on leave, came back fromleave.
And he said, there was nothingwe could do.
The commander believed thetraining sergeant and you're
decertified as a flight securitycontroller.
(08:24):
I was devastated.
I just was always under theimpression or belief that if you
are doing the right thing andyou're doing what you're
supposed to do, things will workout in your behalf.
But no, I quickly learned thatone asshole with no integrity
can totally derail your careerin the snap of a finger.
(08:46):
I asked if I could talk to thecommander.
I asked directly because I knewthe commander personally,
because I was an athlete and Iplayed sports.
When you have the best sportsteams accumulated over the year,
you win something called acommander's cup.
My commander wanted thecommander's cup and I played
every sport, football,basketball, volleyball,
(09:09):
softball.
I partook in everything and Iwas a really good athlete.
So my commander knew who I wasand I knew who he was.
I met him in his office andexplained, sir, this is just not
true.
This master sergeant's lying.
He didn't even QC me.
He wrote a false report.
And my commander just looked atme and he said, airman Held, I'm
(09:31):
sorry, but if I can't believe amaster sergeant over an airman
first class, what kind of airforce do I have?
I said, sir, you have a brokenair force because you have a
master sergeant that's lying andI'm going to be punished because
of his lies.
So I got decertified andeventually I got recertified.
(09:53):
Once I proved, I know what I'mdoing.
They gave me the chance to proveit, but the damage was done.
Now I had to reconsider.
Did I want to make the air forcea career?
Like I had initially thought Iwas going to do right.
The thought all along wasblindly.
I'm going to do the air forcething.
(10:14):
But now I was rethinking thiswhole process.
So in rethinking this process, Iwas thinking I could get out,
but then what would I do?
I said, or I could try toreclassify.
I could try to get a differentjob and just not be a cop
anymore.
Maybe it's a cop thing.
(10:35):
Maybe this one massive SergeantDanford asshole, it's just
because he is a cop and he's anasshole.
So I considered all thesethings.
Now I'm going to backtrack alittle bit again.
Before this incident happened, Iwas meeting with my supervisor
(10:56):
for my evaluation.
I don't remember how often itwas.
I was meeting with him and I wasasking, how can I advance in my
career?
How can I make rank quickly?
How can I advance quickly?
He was already someone that wasdoing it.
I don't remember his name, but Iremember he was 24 years old and
already bald, right?
(11:17):
Like a 50-year-old man, head tohair, going around the sides,
but completely bald on top, 24years old.
But he was fast-tracking his waythrough rank and getting up in
the Air Force quickly.
I was asking him, how do I dothat?
How do I follow that path?
And so he told me, you volunteerso you can put that on your
(11:40):
resume and And so I did that.
I volunteered once a month at anold folks home, going to see old
folks, reading to them, talkingto them, just keeping them
company.
And it was cool.
It was an amazing experience.
Eye-opening, life-changing.
Things that I carry with me tothis day.
He said, you could go to collegeand take college classes,
(12:02):
advancing your education.
That will help.
And so I said, yeah, okay.
I suck at school.
I can't do that.
I barely got out of high schoolwith a 1.5 GPA.
I got out of there on the skinof my teeth.
He said, all right, what wasyour best subject in high
(12:23):
school?
And I probably joked and saidsomething like gym.
Eventually it led to math, whichI did take advanced math courses
because math came easily to me.
He said, just take a math class,one math class, see how it goes.
If it doesn't go well, No bigdeal, and you know it's not for
(12:43):
you.
If you do all right, then youknow you could do it, and then
maybe take some more.
Because I was serious aboutadvancing my career, I went
ahead and went for it.
I went to the local educationcenter, signed up for a college
math class, and I didn't give it100%.
I didn't take it seriously.
I didn't really do that for anyschool in my life at this point.
(13:07):
I took the class and I got a Bwithout honestly trying that
hard at all.
And I kept that in my mind like,oh, geez, I got a B in a college
class.
Like here I'm thinking I'm someidiot who isn't built for school
and I just got a B in a collegecourse.
So I kept that there.
(13:29):
But anyway, my first thought wasafter this incident, I wanted
the Air Force to be my career,so I'm going to try to
reclassify.
I'm going to try to get adifferent job.
So I go to the building whereyou do this.
I don't remember what it'scalled in the Air Force.
And I express my entrance like,hey, my CJR is coming up, which
(13:52):
is what they call yourreenlistment.
I said, I want to stay in theAir Force, but I don't want to
be a cop anymore.
They said, let's see what yougot here.
And they pull out my ASVABscores and they look at how low
they are.
And they go, with these ASVABscores, you can't do anything
else.
You just barely made it to be acop.
No one's going to let you pickany other military career.
(14:14):
I was pretty dejected.
And they said, what you can dois study a little bit and retake
the ASVABs.
I was like, yeah, okay, I can dothat.
So I I took that on.
I went and studied for a fewmonths because I was short on
time.
I didn't have a lot of time.
And I went back and I retook theASVAB and boom, I had
(14:37):
drastically increased my scores.
90 were possible in everycategory.
And I went from being in the 30sand 40s and even in my best
categories, 50s up into the 80s.
I was proud.
I was like, look what I did.
Help me get a new job.
And then they were like, the AirForce is short on cops, missile
(15:02):
cops in particular.
They're not going to let you go.
So I said, okay, if I get out ofthe Air Force, they're going to
lose me.
So I can either get out of theAir Force and not be a missile
cop, or I can retrain and not bea missile cop.
Either way, they're going tolose me.
And they said, that's the way itgoes.
They're not going to let youretrain.
(15:23):
You have to stay as a missilecop if you're going to stay in
the Air Force.
I was getting pretty frustratedat this point and didn't know
what other options I had.
And I said, okay, so what aboutjust letting me go to a
different base?
I've done my time here fouryears at Minot.
I don't want to be here anymore.
Can you send me somewhere else?
(15:45):
And they say, nope, can't dothat either.
We're short on missile cops andparticularly military.
Here, might not.
So if you want to reenlist, youhave to stay a missile cop and
you have to stay here.
And I said, okay.
When I walked out after feelingso good about raising my ASVAB
scores and what I thought thatwas going to do for my potential
(16:08):
career change, I went from thatto just being completely
dejected.
Oh crap.
I have to stay in this crappycareer and this crappy base or
get out.
I was sitting at home ponderingthis.
What am I going to do with mylife?
I was watching an NBA basketballgame.
And at the end of the basketballgame, I see Marv Albert
(16:31):
interviewing Michael Jordan.
And I got to thinking, I waslike, oh, this is just basically
a regular guy interviewing thegreatest athlete on the planet.
That's it.
That's for me.
That's what I want to do.
I would love to sit court sideor field side of basketball
games and football games orwhatever sporting events,
(16:52):
because I played so many andjust do the play-by-play.
I want to be a play-by-playsportscaster.
In that moment, I made thatdecision right there.
I'm going to get out of the AirForce when my time is up.
I'm going to pursue a career asa play-by-play sportscaster.
(17:13):
Now, for me personally, When Imake up my mind about something,
I'm all in or I'm all out.
So I was all in on the idea ofgoing to college and carving out
a different career path, whichmeant I was all out on being in
the Air Force anymore.
And so I was still married atthis point.
(17:34):
And I shared that.
I'm getting out of the AirForce.
I'm going to college.
She panics.
She's completely different thanI am.
She likes security.
She ended up doing her 20 yearsin the Air Force and retiring.
She liked that security of thatsteady paycheck coming in and
(17:56):
retirement pay.
But I am more of a risk taker.
If I stayed in the Air Force andeverything went smoothly and I
didn't have any more hiccups, Icould make Chief Master
Sergeant.
Is that a big enough win for me.
What I feel like I'veaccomplished as much in a career
(18:16):
and in life as I could.
And the answer that I came backwith was no.
When I could compare that tobeing a sportscaster and
potentially interviewing theMichael Jordans of the world, I
thought that is way moresuccessful and I'm capable of
doing it.
So I was done.
I was out.
(18:36):
And so I I decided to get out ofthe Air Force when my enlistment
came up and that is how my AirForce career came to an end when
I thought that was going to bemy life.
The next steps in my life werefor six months because I got out
in January of 1995 and Icouldn't start school at Minot
(19:01):
State University untilSeptember.
of 95.
I got to collect unemploymentand the way North Dakota paid
unemployment at that time, Iwould actually lose money if I
would go get a job.
If I would go work in the mallor become a waiter or any of the
(19:22):
jobs I could get after being acop for four years at 21 years
old in the Air Force, I wouldlose money.
So it didn't pay for me to get ajob.
I spent the next three, fourmonths just going to the gym,
playing basketball.
And I took up golf and I spentthe next four months after that
(19:42):
golfing every day.
And it was fantastic.
I was getting paid unemploymentto play basketball and golf
every day.
And I absolutely loved it.
And I started school inbroadcast journalism at Minot
State University.
And so that's the whole story ofhow I got out of the Air Force
(20:09):
and how I started college, whichwas the next venture into my
life.
And I'm gonna need to talk aboutthings that happened during my
military career that alsohappened prior to this in an
(20:29):
effort to keep it flowing andmake the stories make sense.
I don't know where they exactly100% happened in my journey.
I will go back and tell you somestories that were significant
incidents in my life.
Things I'll never forget.
Things that even 30 plus yearslater, I remember these things
(20:53):
and probably will never forget.
And I will start that on thenext episode seven.
So thank you for joining me.
I'll talk to you soon.
Welcome back.
This is Brandon Held, Life isCrazy, Episode 6.
Last episode, I took you throughmy marriage and the birth of my
son, Ethan.
And that spanned over six yearsof my life, including my
post-Air Force life.
(00:23):
I can't just go through whathappened to me while I was in
the Air Force.
I don't really remember thesequence that some of these
happened in.
I think it's more fluid to tellthe story of one incident from
its beginning to end.
And then if I need to backtrackto talk about something that
(00:46):
happened during that time, it'sjust easier that way.
So that's what I'm doing.
I'm going to talk about my AirForce career.
My plan was to join the AirForce at 17 years old.
Work for 20 years and retire.
That was my immature teenagebrains thought process, right?
(01:06):
To be 37 years old and retirefor the rest of my life.
So that's not the way lifeworked out.
You can't retire after 20 yearsin the air force and live a good
life.
It's just not, not financiallyfeasible, especially with the
way prices raise and everything.
(01:27):
So anyway, I took my Air Forcecareer seriously.
And I wanted to work hard toshow that I'm valuable and
intelligent to some degree andthat I could advance in my Air
Force career.
I showed up to work seriouslyevery week.
We would have a formation beforewe would go out in the missile
(01:50):
field.
And in that formation, you wouldhave to have polished weapons.
boots, which you had to do byhand, and you had to have a
pressed uniform, which you alsoeither could do by hand.
I was a poor airman, so I had todo it myself.
I would spend hours polishing myboots and ironing my uniform
(02:10):
just for this one formation toshow that I was sharp.
And it came across, I wasconstantly...
told by the flight sergeantsthat I was doing a great job on
my uniforms.
One time they even surprised usand said, the person with the
sharpest uniform doesn't have towork because we have an extra
(02:31):
person.
They gave it to me and I got toget out of work for three days.
I had nine days off in a rowwithout taking any time off.
So anyway, I did that.
And that was one of the ways Iwas trying to show my value and
worth.
The other thing that I did is Iwent up for Airman of the
Quarter.
You start by sitting in front ofthis board and answering
(02:54):
questions at the seatedattention, which, yes, there is
a seated version of attention.
You answer questions to thisboard.
In the security police squadron,I won Airman of the Quarter.
I beat out my other securitypolice fellows that were going
for it, and I won.
(03:15):
And so then I went for airman ofthe quarter for the base, which
obviously is what it soundedlike.
I was competing against everyoneelse in the base, the medical
group, the flights, the admins,whatever other groups there
were, I was competing againsttheir people for airman of the
quarter.
And I lost.
I did not win that.
(03:36):
I was disappointed, but itdidn't happen.
And life goes on.
So I was...
trying to show what else I coulddo there were positions that
came open for flight securitycontroller which was typically a
staff sergeant or above positionand I was only an airman first
class and at that time staffsergeant was three ranks ahead
(03:59):
of me because there was seniorairman then there was sergeant
then there was staff sergeant atthat time the air force did away
with sergeant so now it wouldonly be two ranks ahead but back
then it was three And I waschosen to be a flight security
controller on my flight by myleadership based on my skills.
(04:20):
I was the only airman firstclass to be a flight security
controller on my squad, myflight.
And so I fought all of thesethings, showing up every day,
working hard, showing myknowledge, staying sharp in my
uniform.
I thought all those things wouldhelp me gain rank a little
(04:44):
faster because you can getsenior airmen six months earlier
on something called below thezone.
And for whatever reason, Ididn't get chosen.
And that was a littledisappointing for me.
I had a flight Sergeant come outto QC me while I was working as
a flight security controller.
(05:06):
QC means quality control.
It's basically.
a test you get while you're onduty by someone in the training
section to make sure that youknow what you're doing.
And so I had a master SergeantDanford, never forget this
asshole's name, who came out tomy site to quality control me
(05:29):
while I was on duty, but I wassuper busy.
I had a lot going on.
I had two open holes.
I had a alarm going off justevery day.
Two minutes, I was on the radiospeaking to teams out in the
field to get status updates andstuff.
So there's just literally notime for him to ask me questions
(05:52):
and QC me.
I explained this to him when hearrived and his arrival was
unscheduled.
It was a surprise.
He didn't clear anything with meor anyone else.
He just showed up.
And he's, oh, okay, no problem.
I'll just stop and get some foodand check back in with you
later.
So he left and went out in thefield.
(06:12):
We had a cook that came outthere with us and they were like
our personal cooks, which wasgreat.
You would tell them what youwant to eat and they would cook
it on the spot.
So it was a nice setup.
He went out there, ate and hecame back about 30 minutes
later.
The situation hadn't changed.
I was very busy and I couldn'tdo anything.
(06:35):
The quality control testing.
He said, okay, I'll go out thereand wait a bit and come back.
So he went out and he shot somepool because we had pool tables
out at the sites and it probablyplayed pool for about 30
minutes.
And he came back and he said,oh, how's it looking?
And I said, nothing's changed.
Still in the same situation.
(06:55):
I can't do it right now.
He said, okay, no problem.
I'll come back another time toQCU.
And I said, okay, great.
Thanks, Sergeant.
Sorry it didn't work out, butI'll see you next time.
I'd never met this guy before.
So he leaves and goes back tobase.
And the next day I travel to thebase and I get called into the
(07:18):
office by my flight sergeant.
And he says, you have beendecertified as a flight security
controller because you failedyour QC.
And I said, What?
I didn't even take a QC.
He said, Master Sergeant Danfordcame out there yesterday.
He QC'd you.
You failed.
It's in his report right here.
(07:39):
I said, Master Sergeant Danforddidn't do anything.
He didn't ask me a singlequestion.
He came out there.
I had two open holes, an alarm,and he ate, and he shot pool,
and then he left.
He didn't even ask me one singlequestion.
You ask me anything right now,I'll pass a QC.
No problem.
And my flight sergeant said,that's not necessary.
(08:02):
I know you're sharp.
I know you know your stuff.
And I got your back.
I'll take care of you.
So I was getting ready to go onleave.
I went on leave, came back fromleave.
And he said, there was nothingwe could do.
The commander believed thetraining sergeant and you're
decertified as a flight securitycontroller.
(08:24):
I was devastated.
I just was always under theimpression or belief that if you
are doing the right thing andyou're doing what you're
supposed to do, things will workout in your behalf.
But no, I quickly learned thatone asshole with no integrity
can totally derail your careerin the snap of a finger.
(08:46):
I asked if I could talk to thecommander.
I asked directly because I knewthe commander personally,
because I was an athlete and Iplayed sports.
When you have the best sportsteams accumulated over the year,
you win something called acommander's cup.
My commander wanted thecommander's cup and I played
every sport, football,basketball, volleyball,
(09:09):
softball.
I partook in everything and Iwas a really good athlete.
So my commander knew who I wasand I knew who he was.
I met him in his office andexplained, sir, this is just not
true.
This master sergeant's lying.
He didn't even QC me.
He wrote a false report.
And my commander just looked atme and he said, airman Held, I'm
(09:31):
sorry, but if I can't believe amaster sergeant over an airman
first class, what kind of airforce do I have?
I said, sir, you have a brokenair force because you have a
master sergeant that's lying andI'm going to be punished because
of his lies.
So I got decertified andeventually I got recertified.
(09:53):
Once I proved, I know what I'mdoing.
They gave me the chance to proveit, but the damage was done.
Now I had to reconsider.
Did I want to make the air forcea career?
Like I had initially thought Iwas going to do right.
The thought all along wasblindly.
I'm going to do the air forcething.
(10:14):
But now I was rethinking thiswhole process.
So in rethinking this process, Iwas thinking I could get out,
but then what would I do?
I said, or I could try toreclassify.
I could try to get a differentjob and just not be a cop
anymore.
Maybe it's a cop thing.
(10:35):
Maybe this one massive SergeantDanford asshole, it's just
because he is a cop and he's anasshole.
So I considered all thesethings.
Now I'm going to backtrack alittle bit again.
Before this incident happened, Iwas meeting with my supervisor
(10:56):
for my evaluation.
I don't remember how often itwas.
I was meeting with him and I wasasking, how can I advance in my
career?
How can I make rank quickly?
How can I advance quickly?
He was already someone that wasdoing it.
I don't remember his name, but Iremember he was 24 years old and
already bald, right?
(11:17):
Like a 50-year-old man, head tohair, going around the sides,
but completely bald on top, 24years old.
But he was fast-tracking his waythrough rank and getting up in
the Air Force quickly.
I was asking him, how do I dothat?
How do I follow that path?
And so he told me, you volunteerso you can put that on your
(11:40):
resume and And so I did that.
I volunteered once a month at anold folks home, going to see old
folks, reading to them, talkingto them, just keeping them
company.
And it was cool.
It was an amazing experience.
Eye-opening, life-changing.
Things that I carry with me tothis day.
He said, you could go to collegeand take college classes,
(12:02):
advancing your education.
That will help.
And so I said, yeah, okay.
I suck at school.
I can't do that.
I barely got out of high schoolwith a 1.5 GPA.
I got out of there on the skinof my teeth.
He said, all right, what wasyour best subject in high
(12:23):
school?
And I probably joked and saidsomething like gym.
Eventually it led to math, whichI did take advanced math courses
because math came easily to me.
He said, just take a math class,one math class, see how it goes.
If it doesn't go well, No bigdeal, and you know it's not for
(12:43):
you.
If you do all right, then youknow you could do it, and then
maybe take some more.
Because I was serious aboutadvancing my career, I went
ahead and went for it.
I went to the local educationcenter, signed up for a college
math class, and I didn't give it100%.
I didn't take it seriously.
I didn't really do that for anyschool in my life at this point.
(13:07):
I took the class and I got a Bwithout honestly trying that
hard at all.
And I kept that in my mind like,oh, geez, I got a B in a college
class.
Like here I'm thinking I'm someidiot who isn't built for school
and I just got a B in a collegecourse.
So I kept that there.
(13:29):
But anyway, my first thought wasafter this incident, I wanted
the Air Force to be my career,so I'm going to try to
reclassify.
I'm going to try to get adifferent job.
So I go to the building whereyou do this.
I don't remember what it'scalled in the Air Force.
And I express my entrance like,hey, my CJR is coming up, which
(13:52):
is what they call yourreenlistment.
I said, I want to stay in theAir Force, but I don't want to
be a cop anymore.
They said, let's see what yougot here.
And they pull out my ASVABscores and they look at how low
they are.
And they go, with these ASVABscores, you can't do anything
else.
You just barely made it to be acop.
No one's going to let you pickany other military career.
(14:14):
I was pretty dejected.
And they said, what you can dois study a little bit and retake
the ASVABs.
I was like, yeah, okay, I can dothat.
So I I took that on.
I went and studied for a fewmonths because I was short on
time.
I didn't have a lot of time.
And I went back and I retook theASVAB and boom, I had
(14:37):
drastically increased my scores.
90 were possible in everycategory.
And I went from being in the 30sand 40s and even in my best
categories, 50s up into the 80s.
I was proud.
I was like, look what I did.
Help me get a new job.
And then they were like, the AirForce is short on cops, missile
(15:02):
cops in particular.
They're not going to let you go.
So I said, okay, if I get out ofthe Air Force, they're going to
lose me.
So I can either get out of theAir Force and not be a missile
cop, or I can retrain and not bea missile cop.
Either way, they're going tolose me.
And they said, that's the way itgoes.
They're not going to let youretrain.
(15:23):
You have to stay as a missilecop if you're going to stay in
the Air Force.
I was getting pretty frustratedat this point and didn't know
what other options I had.
And I said, okay, so what aboutjust letting me go to a
different base?
I've done my time here fouryears at Minot.
I don't want to be here anymore.
Can you send me somewhere else?
(15:45):
And they say, nope, can't dothat either.
We're short on missile cops andparticularly military.
Here, might not.
So if you want to reenlist, youhave to stay a missile cop and
you have to stay here.
And I said, okay.
When I walked out after feelingso good about raising my ASVAB
scores and what I thought thatwas going to do for my potential
(16:08):
career change, I went from thatto just being completely
dejected.
Oh crap.
I have to stay in this crappycareer and this crappy base or
get out.
I was sitting at home ponderingthis.
What am I going to do with mylife?
I was watching an NBA basketballgame.
And at the end of the basketballgame, I see Marv Albert
(16:31):
interviewing Michael Jordan.
And I got to thinking, I waslike, oh, this is just basically
a regular guy interviewing thegreatest athlete on the planet.
That's it.
That's for me.
That's what I want to do.
I would love to sit court sideor field side of basketball
games and football games orwhatever sporting events,
(16:52):
because I played so many andjust do the play-by-play.
I want to be a play-by-playsportscaster.
In that moment, I made thatdecision right there.
I'm going to get out of the AirForce when my time is up.
I'm going to pursue a career asa play-by-play sportscaster.
(17:13):
Now, for me personally, When Imake up my mind about something,
I'm all in or I'm all out.
So I was all in on the idea ofgoing to college and carving out
a different career path, whichmeant I was all out on being in
the Air Force anymore.
And so I was still married atthis point.
(17:34):
And I shared that.
I'm getting out of the AirForce.
I'm going to college.
She panics.
She's completely different thanI am.
She likes security.
She ended up doing her 20 yearsin the Air Force and retiring.
She liked that security of thatsteady paycheck coming in and
(17:56):
retirement pay.
But I am more of a risk taker.
If I stayed in the Air Force andeverything went smoothly and I
didn't have any more hiccups, Icould make Chief Master
Sergeant.
Is that a big enough win for me.
What I feel like I'veaccomplished as much in a career
(18:16):
and in life as I could.
And the answer that I came backwith was no.
When I could compare that tobeing a sportscaster and
potentially interviewing theMichael Jordans of the world, I
thought that is way moresuccessful and I'm capable of
doing it.
So I was done.
I was out.
(18:36):
And so I I decided to get out ofthe Air Force when my enlistment
came up and that is how my AirForce career came to an end when
I thought that was going to bemy life.
The next steps in my life werefor six months because I got out
in January of 1995 and Icouldn't start school at Minot
(19:01):
State University untilSeptember.
of 95.
I got to collect unemploymentand the way North Dakota paid
unemployment at that time, Iwould actually lose money if I
would go get a job.
If I would go work in the mallor become a waiter or any of the
(19:22):
jobs I could get after being acop for four years at 21 years
old in the Air Force, I wouldlose money.
So it didn't pay for me to get ajob.
I spent the next three, fourmonths just going to the gym,
playing basketball.
And I took up golf and I spentthe next four months after that
(19:42):
golfing every day.
And it was fantastic.
I was getting paid unemploymentto play basketball and golf
every day.
And I absolutely loved it.
And I started school inbroadcast journalism at Minot
State University.
And so that's the whole story ofhow I got out of the Air Force
(20:09):
and how I started college, whichwas the next venture into my
life.
And I'm gonna need to talk aboutthings that happened during my
military career that alsohappened prior to this in an
(20:29):
effort to keep it flowing andmake the stories make sense.
I don't know where they exactly100% happened in my journey.
I will go back and tell you somestories that were significant
incidents in my life.
Things I'll never forget.
Things that even 30 plus yearslater, I remember these things
(20:53):
and probably will never forget.
And I will start that on thenext episode seven.
So thank you for joining me.
I'll talk to you soon.
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