 I'm the oldest of 11 children from a small town in Louisiana. Wanted to go to college, and so when I started college, unfortunately, because, you know, we were so many kids, my father didn't have a lot of money. So he gave me $500, and off to college I went, and I finished college. And after four years, I was having a tough time finding the job, you know. Like most people, it was 1979, and I was having a tough time finding the job in my small town, and I thought, I've got to do something because job security and getting paid was very, very important to me. So I joined the Navy, and I came in as an E3, and immediately one of the things I learned was that I learned to be a good follower. I understood the importance of supporting my leadership and, in turn, supporting the mission of the command, and eventually because I was such a good follower, I got to manage a program. They put me in charge of a program, and through managing that program, I learned how to be a good leader because I had folks working for me, and I had to provide them the guidance and the mentorship that they needed so that we could get the job done to ensure that the program would be successful. I came up through rank pretty quickly and was, you know, Master Chief, and put in for the Command Master Chief program, and eventually became the Force Master Chief for the Hospital Corps, which is such a great honor because those men and women are my heroes. I transitioned from the Navy about a year ago, and what I learned in the Navy that has done me well in the civilian, in my new role, in my new civilian job is this. I learned management. I learned communication, the importance of good communication, and I also learned the importance of leadership and as well as teamwork. You know, in the Navy, you learn very quickly that there's no I in team. It's a team effort, and in my new role, in the job that I'm in now, I've learned that, you know, you have to be a part of a team to get the job done, and that was instilled in me in the Navy.