 You know, I started this whole journey with the promise to my father. So going from, you know, the morbidly obese guy being told that I might die soon, going to maxing out my sit-ups and push-ups, it's just amazing to me. Now I just want to push further and harder. I am a tech sergeant in the International Guard. I have taken the NCOA class. I have passed my course and I'm waiting on master stripes. And now I will be the first master sergeant in my family. At the time of my dad catching limb cancer, I decided I needed to join the military again. I made my dad a promise and said, dad, I'm going to lose my weight and get back in the military. And he said, you can't do it. This is your life. And I said, you know what, life is what you make it. So within two months, I lost over 80 pounds and I tried to join the International Guard. I now have over 11 years in accounting my active duty service. I could actually do 24 before I retire, which is my goal before I reach 60 years old. So I took a 17 and a half year break before going from active duty to the International Guard. When my dad was on his final deathbed, that was December of 2013. They found my paperwork. My dad seen me at a smaller weight and he commended me. And my dad, he passed away in December of 2013. So at that point in life, it was kind of getting pretty tough. January of 2014, I went through a divorce and then I joined SCANG, that is South Carolina International Guard. We fast forward another year. My brother in February of 2015, he passed away in a car wreck. So that was kind of devastating. I lost my father, my sister is not my sister, and then I lost my brother. So at that time, my mom says, I can't leave you because you've lost so much. In December of 2015, my mom passed away of a heart attack. So at that point, I was kind of wondering where my direction was going to go. I had my kids, I had my new girlfriend, which is presently now my wife. We moved to the North Middle Beach area in South Carolina and I was going to the Air National Guard. But I noticed that the Air National Guard group, the guys that I work with, became like family. I really held the word brother close to my heart for a very long time. Once I released that name to those airmen, started calling them brother, the unit became like family. They were like my brothers and sisters, who I can rely on, who I could go to for anything. They come rotary, they come in together, the family feel. I have when I come and work with this unit, with the guys, with the men and women, the enlisted and the officers. It's like coming home. It's like a family reunion. Every time I come out to a drill status. That's why I sign up for every single deployment. We might be traveling to places unknown for three, four months, but I know I can get along with these guys every single day. Keeping us like family is a major thing. You know, usually you appear as the old guy or grandpa or dad. Most of the time I was dad to a lot of these airmen. One guy tells me that he's a fan of Scooby, and I'm like, was that even me? They actually come up to me and said, hey, you're not a typical older gentleman, but I try to keep up with the generation. That way I can kind of relate. With that, they can relate to me, and then we again stay a family.