Life After Service

The room changes when people who’ve seen the worst days talk about building better ones. We sit down with two Army veterans from our training division—Officer Wells and Officer Spencer—who trace a line from deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan to roll call in Fort Myers. Their stories are honest and grounded: why the uniform still matters, how civilian life can feel unstructured, and what it takes to make clear decisions when the pressure spikes and seconds count.

We dig into the training philosophy that shapes our officers: crawl, walk, run; basics before flash; mentorship that corrects and encourages. You’ll hear how hood drills and stress inoculation reveal true readiness, how leadership means anticipating needs and communicating cleanly, and why consistent reps on fundamentals—traffic stops, de-escalation, tactical movement, communication—build the reflexes that keep everyone safer. Along the way, they share the small moments that stay with veterans: the first cheeseburger back home, the feel of carpet under bare feet, the quiet gratitude of being stateside with family.

Threaded through it all is the spirit of Veterans Day—esprit de corps, service beyond self, and respect for anyone who signed the line, regardless of MOS or years served. We talk about transferring combat-earned calm to the street, turning experience into empathy, and living for the aha moment when a trainee finally owns a skill. If you care about public safety, leadership, and what real training looks like from the inside, this conversation delivers hard-won insight with heart.

If this resonated, follow the show, share it with someone who values service, and leave a review to help others find these stories. Your feedback shapes future episodes and keeps this mission moving.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to FMPD Roll Call, the official podcast of

(00:02):
the Fort Myers PoliceDepartment.
I'm your host, Megan Fuentes,Public Information Officer.
Today is Veterans Day, a time tohonor the men and women who have
worn our nation's uniform andcontinue to serve their
communities long after.
Here at Fort Myers PoliceDepartment, we're proud to have
many veterans among the ranks,including the two joining me
today from our trainingdivision, Officer Wells and

(00:22):
Officer Spencer.
Both have served our country,and now they dedicate their
experience and leadership totraining and preparing every
officer in the Fort Myers PoliceDepartment.
Thank you both for being hereand thank you for your service.
Roll call begins now.

SPEAKER_02 (00:37):
I actually enlisted in the Army right out of high
school.
So it was like 2009 and 2013that I was active duty.
I was stationed in Fort Drum,very cold.
Did not like it, but just forthat reason.
Did a tour in Afghanistan whileI was over there.
I left that and then went intothe National Guard for about six
years.
And I ended that tour in like2019.
I think total 10 years.

unknown (00:58):
Sounds right.

SPEAKER_00 (00:59):
And how long have you been here?

SPEAKER_02 (01:00):
Seven.
Yeah, working on year numbereight.

SPEAKER_00 (01:03):
What about you, Officer Wells?

SPEAKER_01 (01:04):
Yeah, 2008 joined the Army right out of high
school.
Did six years active duty.
Most of that time was spent withthird ID uh Fort Stewart,
Georgia.
After I got out of there, I cameand joined the reserves.
And I'm still in the reserve.
So I have 17 years of service inthe Army now as a combat
engineer.
And I've been here for sixyears.

SPEAKER_00 (01:24):
So you're almost done.

SPEAKER_01 (01:25):
I'm almost done.
Well, I have almost 18 years.
So yeah, I have a couple moreyears left and then I retired.

SPEAKER_00 (01:31):
I joined probably a while out of high school,
probably four or five years outof high school.
So I was like one of the oldestin my division.

SPEAKER_01 (01:38):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (01:38):
And they were like, wow, you're 21 already.
And I'm like, yeah, guys.

SPEAKER_01 (01:42):
You're an adult.
I know.
I turned 21 in Iraq.
Yeah, I mean, uh, it was justanother day.
So nobody even knew it was mybirthday.

SPEAKER_00 (01:49):
You didn't tell anyone?

unknown (01:50):
No.

SPEAKER_00 (01:51):
You kept that under wraps, too.

SPEAKER_01 (01:53):
It's a different culture in the military.
You kind of get hazed for stufflike that.
So they kind of make fun of youand make your day harder than it
has to be.

SPEAKER_00 (01:59):
In the Navy, I could tell you that was not a thing.

SPEAKER_01 (02:02):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (02:03):
Joined the wrong branch, apparently.

SPEAKER_00 (02:04):
Aaron Ross Powell, you both spent your lives in
service, first to the countryand now to your community.
What made you want to continuethat mission with law
enforcement?

SPEAKER_02 (02:11):
There was just something that seemed everything
seemed empty without putting ona uniform and working with a
bunch of like-minded people tocome to the same kind of goal,
like to working towards a commoncause.
I worked at Comcast, I didconstruction, I did none of
those things are bad.
They're all formative.
But working with other peopleto, like I said, to to help, to

(02:33):
just help folks.
That was kind of the uh that waskind of the transition point.

SPEAKER_01 (02:37):
Yeah, I tried a couple things after active duty
also.
I didn't like working in thecivilian world.
I missed the military, I missedthe organization.
I missed the esprit decor, uh,you know, where people were
proud of doing what they did.
And I was actually on my wayback.
So I was I had my war officerpacket in to go fly for I wanted
to be fly helicopters for 160thnight stalkers.

(03:00):
However, I also put anapplication into Fort Myers PD.
So the trajectory went quickerwith Fort Myers PD.
They were more responsive.
So that's the route that I took,and I'm happy I did.

SPEAKER_00 (03:11):
Yeah, in our department, I I feel it,
especially with the command, thestructure here.
I can understand the easytransition from military to law
enforcement just because ofbeing here and understanding how
it already worked.

SPEAKER_01 (03:24):
Yeah, especially at Fort Myers.
You got strong leadership.
You know, our chief is still outat PT every morning at the
academy.
So that was just more thingsthat linked Fort Myers PD to a
familiarity with the military,which is why I wanted to be
here.

SPEAKER_00 (03:37):
Yeah, chief would make a good drill instructor.
For many veterans, obviously,transition back civilian life
can be challenging.
What was that experience likefor each of you?

SPEAKER_02 (03:45):
It can be tough sometimes going from you know,
being told what to do, notnecessarily what to think, but
you you have your day prettymuch laid out for you.
You know what's expected becauseit's gonna be the same thing
that's expected of everybodyelse.
The agency that you have overyourself as a civilian is
something that you don't reallyappreciate until you've had it
all stripped away and you'vebeen in the military.
And I mean, you can probablyagree with that, you know, being

(04:06):
able to make a decision of whatI'm gonna wear today, do I even
want to get out of bed?
Like all these things aredecisions that you make and
people make every single day,but you don't get to do that in
the you know, in the military.
So I think that was that was abig a big transition point.
That was probably one of thetougher things, and especially
coming into law enforcement.
You know, this is alldecision-based work that we do.
You know, we make decisionsevery day on the street, and

(04:27):
that's and they can be prettybig decisions.
So going from you know,regimented, I don't want to say
autonomous, but you know, you'reyou're doing less thinking for
yourself that and then beingthrust into this place where
you're, you know, expected tomake these decisions all the
time, every day, multiple timesa day.
And it's not just for you, it'sfor other people, and they can

(04:48):
have some large impacts.
You know, I think that was a bigthat was probably the hardest
part of transitioning,especially not just into
civilian life, but also into lawenforcement.
But again, I had great trainingcadre here.
Um, we came in at a great timebecause I think we came in about
the same time.
That helped me break out of itbecause I had really good
trainers to kind of guide me andsay, hey, you know, go do this
thing.
And I just did it and it's like,oh, cool, I can make decisions.

SPEAKER_01 (05:09):
At transitioning, the hardest thing for me was the
lack of discipline, I guess, inthe civilian world or the lack
of accountability to bedisciplined.
So, like in the army, you don'thave a choice.
You know, most everybody is atleast to some extent disciplined
in something, in some way.
So it was easier to talk tothose people, it was easier to
hold them accountable when theydid something wrong.

(05:30):
Transitioning to the civilianworld, that wasn't always the
case.
It wasn't very merit-based.
And I and I missed that.
You know, like if I worked hardand I was disciplined and I did
the right things, then I can goas far as I want.
But in the civilian world, itdidn't seem like any of those
attributes mattered as much asthey did in the military.
That's why I missed it so much.

SPEAKER_00 (05:48):
Aaron Powell It's clear that your military
experience continues to shapethe way you lead and serve.
How has that backgroundinfluenced how you approach your
role as a police officer?

SPEAKER_01 (05:58):
Aaron Powell It plays heavily into how I
approach my role as a policeofficer.
I gained a lot of lifeexperience being in the
military, being around differentwalks of life, going to
different countries, seeingdifferent cultures, and then
applying that to problem solvinghere in the city of Fort Myers,
dealing with people and on theirworst days.
You know, and I've seen a lot ofpeople's worst days outside of

(06:19):
being a police officer.
So it helps you bridge the gapof empathy and be able to help
them when they're at theirlowest and try to find a
resolution.

SPEAKER_02 (06:27):
I would say probably the decision making under
pressure is probably a big onethat I like to like to kind of
bring back to because you know,in in the military you're
trained for all sorts of things,but like it's very job specific.
But you're always there's alwaysa baseline, right?
And I mean they continue sothey'll they all talk about

(06:48):
crawl, walk, run.
And we do that, we use that intraining here.
We try to teach people how to dosomething, talk about it, and
then kind of show them, and weget a little harder and faster
until we're like up to like fullspeed.
And that type of model helped mein the military, to being able
to make the decisions to whereyou're there's other things
happening around you, andthere's consequences for your
actions, and you're perseveringthrough that to try and like

(07:11):
keep yourself calm and focused,and you're drilling into the
actual you know crux of theissue and then being able to
come to a resolution for all theparties involved.
Without having that pressuretesting beforehand from the
military, I think it would havebeen a lot harder to come into
this profession.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, having twogrown men yell at you from left
and right, you know, becauseyour shoes aren't right.

(07:32):
You know, if that's thebeginning, right?
But like that's that transitionsdirectly, that relates directly
into law enforcement because yougo walk into a scene and people
are yelling at each other for,you know, who knows what.
And so being able to keep yourhead straight and make those
decisions and go forward throughthat is kind of um it just
translates directly into it.

SPEAKER_00 (07:49):
Yeah, I think being cobbed under pressure is
something we learned as early asboot camp.
So you guys both serve in ourtraining division.
So tell me a little bit abouthow your background as a veteran
helps you train new officers.

SPEAKER_01 (08:02):
Well, I'm still serving as a platoon sergeant.
So at the 365th Engineer Companyhere in Cape Coral, where I am
in charge of 30 people there.
And that kind of is a directtranslation to what I do here as
a field training officercoordinator.
So I have a lot of new peoplewho need guidance and need
direction.
So I take my experience fromleading in the military and I

(08:23):
just apply it here.
I make sure that I'm one stepahead of whatever their needs
are, so that way there's nonobody being left in the dark or
being unsure.
I try to communicate as best asI can from the top down.
So they're never leftuninformed.
And then if they ever needanything, I have an open door so
they can come to me and theyalways I want to make them feel
like they are comfortable enoughto come and talk to me about

(08:45):
anything that they might need,so that way they could be
successful as road officers ontheir own.
Eventually, that's the goal.
It's to make you the best FortMyers police officer you can be
from start to finish.
So that way when you're out onyour own, we've done everything
we could do to give you all thetools that we could give you,
the same way I would do with anew soldier who came in as a

(09:06):
brand new combat engineer.
I want to get you fully up tospeed to where you can do this
without my help.

SPEAKER_00 (09:11):
And Officer Spencer, I know your role is a little bit
different than his.
So he takes care of obviouslyall the new recruits that come
in.
Right.
And your job is to train theofficers that are currently
coming here or have been herefor a while.
Right.
So how do you keep that new andfresh and use your military
background?

SPEAKER_02 (09:28):
I mean, it I remember you so I was an
infantryman.
It was, it's I don't want to saybare bones, basic like army
stuff, but typically in the inin the army, at least, when you
go to basic training, it's thesame basic training for
everybody.
And depending on whatever yourextra job is, on top of that,
you get extra training.
So if you're a combat medic, yougo, they teach you how to put
tourniquets on people and docombat medic stuff.

(09:48):
Same thing for the dentists, andeverybody else has that advanced
school afterwards.
In the infantry, it's basicallya couple extra weeks of more
basic training.
So they just drill down thebasics.
And so that's what I have kindof started to adapt into a lot
of my training is just drillingdown the basics.
To quote Bruce Lee, I think hesaid, you know, he doesn't fear
the man who knows a thousandkicks.

(10:09):
He he fears the man who haspracticed uh one kick a thousand
times.
And it's it's knowing the basicsand being able to get that like
locked in and dialed in.
That's what I tried to bringtowards training now, because we
do several micro trainingsessions a week.
And we do uh block trainings, Ithink five times a year now.
We're up to number five.
And we do try to conducttraining throughout the year.

(10:29):
And just no matter how advancedand specialized we get, bringing
it all the way down to thefoundation and strengthening
that foundation, making surethat's strong that so that
everything else that comes ontop of it is like also good or
better.

SPEAKER_00 (10:42):
Would you say you draw a lot from your military
experience when it comes totraining new officers or
officers that have been here fora while?

SPEAKER_02 (10:49):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
I mean, and there's also thementorship aspect of it.
Because I mean, I had a lot ofreally good NCOs when I was in
the Army that didn't just say,hey, you're doing this wrong.
They said, Hey, you're you'reyou're doing this wrong, and
this is how to do it right.
So that's it's not just aboutbrowbeating and and and yelling
at people, making them feel likethey don't know, because if they
don't know, well then cool, butyour job is still to teach them.

(11:11):
So that's the you know, that'swhat I kind of got out of it.
Had a lot of good leadershipopportunities to learn from a
lot of people on on what to do.
And that was uh that's what Ibring.

SPEAKER_00 (11:21):
So I gotta ask, whose idea was it to cover the
officers' heads before thescenario in this latest
training?

SPEAKER_01 (11:31):
That's that's almost industry standard now.
We learned it from our EFCtraining, Jay Wadsworth, who who
hosts that and produces thatkind of training.
But in level two, you do thoseare called hood drills.
So it makes you react to asituation that you're not
prepped for.
Just going back to like uhOfficer Spencer said, your basic

(11:51):
skills, like your foundation.
Is your foundation strong enoughto handle these law enforcement
scenarios this quick?

SPEAKER_02 (11:57):
Yeah, we're not the only ones doing it.
I mean, it's I I I would wagerto say we're one of the first.
I mean, I I don't know if theother agencies in the area have
been doing it, but I mean, Iknow we have never done anything
like that.
And it's it's we're not the onlyones doing it.
It's not a new thing.
It's just we're we're trying tobring everything up to speed.
And and also that's how you testthe reactions.
That's how you test thefoundation is and and and you

(12:18):
add some pressure and see whereeverybody's at.
So you can figure out who needsa helping hand, who needs some
extra time or who's doing goodand ready for more, and and just
constantly building on that.

SPEAKER_00 (12:27):
So, since today is Veterans Day, what does Veterans
Day mean to both of you?

SPEAKER_02 (12:31):
So, Veterans Day has always been to me not just going
to Applebee's and getting yourfree, you know, pot stickers or
whatever, though that's great,and I'll probably be doing that
later.
It's I don't normally take anytime and like reflect on myself.
I normally look towards otherpeople and try to, you know,
devote my attention to othersbecause like I just I'm I I

(12:52):
guess selflessness is part ofthe part of one of the job
requirements here.
But that's where I take a secondand I say, you know what?
You did something good, and thenI take my kids the the parade
and Kip Coral because I like toshow them, you know, like hey,
this is this is what it's about.
Because kids don't usually knowwhat you know mommy or daddy did
when they're in the military,especially if they're little.
So getting to show them, I mean,your kids are older now, so they

(13:13):
have kind of an idea, but youknow, that's what it is to me,
is like say I did this is what Idid and showing my kids and my
my family this and just taking asecond saying, you know what,
you did good, and then gettingback to it.

SPEAKER_00 (13:23):
I know I take my daughter for Memorials Day, it's
over in Cape Coral.
And obviously she's four, shedoesn't know, but still I think
it's the the sacrifice and alsohonoring that.
And obviously as veterans, Iwant to honor other veterans as
well, even if I don't tell themI'm necessarily a veteran.

SPEAKER_01 (13:42):
Yeah, it's the esprit de corps.
You know, that's what it meansto me is if you see another
veteran, you know we both didthe hard thing, we both went
through something similar, andit's the same thing if you're in
another state or another cityand you meet some of the
officers there.
There's kind of this unspokenrespect that we have for each
other because we kind ofunderstand the similarities of
what you've been through, ofwhat I've been through, and and

(14:04):
it's a connection.
It's that esprit de course, thatpride in the uniform, pride in
the service.
So that's what it means to me.

SPEAKER_00 (14:11):
What was a defining moment for you when you served?

SPEAKER_01 (14:15):
I think I've had a couple of them.
I mean, a defining moment for mewas getting back to the States
after being gone for a year inIraq.
Like I didn't understand howmuch I appreciated America until
then, until I was in anothercountry and I was living in an
austerior way where it wasn'tcomfortable, hardly ever.
And I just missed things like acheeseburger and actual bed or

(14:41):
comfortability of being aroundfriends and family.
Like I missed a lot of thosethings.
So when I came back home, Iremember getting off the plane
in Georgia when we landed andjust being so happy and so
thankful that I was I was out ofanother country and I was back
home in my own country.

SPEAKER_00 (14:57):
I forgot how to use my phone when I came off
deployment.
Like after seven months, Iforgot texting was a thing.

unknown (15:02):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (15:03):
Completely.
What about you?

SPEAKER_02 (15:05):
I actually uh so for me is the weirdest thing.
And I my uncle served in inIraq.
He was he was a Gulf Warveteran, and he he and I have
like a like an unspoken littlebond there.
But he said, before I went to myfirst deployment, he said, you
know, you're gonna miss some ofthe weirdest things when you
leave.
And when you're gone, you're notgonna realize how much you miss
it until like you're it's notthere.

(15:26):
And I when I came back, I justwalked barefoot on the carpet in
my house, and I was just soexcited.
I felt so at home just havebeing barefoot on the carpet.
That was such a and it's theweirdest thing.
It's almost like that scene inDie Hard where he does that like
in the very beginning.
It's almost like that.
It's just the weirdest thing.
I was like, I never thought I'dmiss carpet.
Yeah.
You know, until you go to athird world country, you can't
really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 (15:46):
What keeps both of you motivated to continue the
mission every day, both intraining and in the field?

SPEAKER_02 (15:52):
I live for the aha moment, and that's something
that I kind of grew when I wasin the military too.
Because when you're in, you'reyou know, your NCO's job is
always to like mentor and guideand coach and like try to bring
them to you're always trainingthe people below you to, you
know, for your job, trainingyour replacement, right?
And so that when I'm able topush a concept and maybe explain

(16:16):
something, and then seeing itclick and it happened, and like
they it's not just that you knowthe training of the students
understanding it, but they likethey really like they were
struggling, and then they justkind of cross that peak, and
it's just like, oh, that's whatthat's what this is, and that's
why it's important, and thenbeing able to put into action,
that's what that's whatmotivates me for all of it.

(16:36):
I mean, for anything.
I do I love being able to conveythat message and see that like
that light bulb pop that thatgives me joy.

SPEAKER_01 (16:42):
Yeah, I would say my motivation is similar.
I genuinely care about people, Igenuinely care about the people
at the Fort Myers PoliceDepartment.
And when I can see somebodywho's struggling and knowing
that I can step in and apply uhsome of my experience and my
knowledge and get them to thenext step or or help them along.
And and just seeing that withoutany recognition at all, that's
my motivation.

(17:02):
Is like I saw I saw you fromzero, now you're at 10.
Like I want to continue to dothat for as many people as I can
do that for.

SPEAKER_00 (17:10):
Perfect.
Is there anything you guys wouldlike to add that I did not about
Veterans Day or your servicehere?

SPEAKER_01 (17:16):
I mean, everybody's veterans experience might be a
little different, but we allshare a commonality in a lot of
things.
So, you know, whether you servedtwo years or 10 years or 20
years, you know, we we all havethat common ground where we can
come together and talk.
And it and it's a smallcommunity, but I would just
encourage people to stay in thatcommunity as much as they can
with whatever that is, VFWs ormemorials or parades or whatever

(17:40):
it is, just stay involved.

unknown (17:42):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (17:42):
You know, it's just getting coming down to the
trading office and we can, youknow, talk shop for a little bit
or like reminisce.
And it doesn't matter if you did20 years or if you did like
three years, doesn't matter ifyou did all the, you know, cool
guy special forces stuff, or ifyou were just, you know, a
mechanic.
It it does it doesn't matterbecause you don't always get to
choose your lot in life.
When you when you join, you'rethrowing your name in the hat
for whatever they're gonna sendyou for.

(18:04):
So just having signed your nameon the line and then coming out
of it, like we're we have stuffin common.
We can, you know, we can palaround about that.

unknown (18:12):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (18:12):
Officer Wells, Officer Spencer, thank you both
for joining me today, and thankyou for everything you do for
the Fort Myers Police Departmentfor this city and for our
country.
To all veterans, both here atFMPD and throughout our
community.
We thank you for your service,your sacrifice, and your
continued commitment to making adifference.
From all of us at the Fort MyersPolice Department, happy

(18:33):
Veterans Day.