 I was in the Army active duty for two years. It's a decision you make when you're 17 years old and at that time I was living on a farm, grew up on a farm and kind of wanted to see more of the world. I'm John Reeder, Deputy Chief of Staff at EPA and I'm a U.S. Army veteran. My position at EPA is the Deputy Chief of Staff in that position. I assist the Chief of Staff, the Administrator and the Deputy Administrator in management of the agency. And in particular focus on the management of the office of the Administrator. I think one of the most valuable experiences I got from being in the military was learning about the rest of the world. Rural culture is often a homogeneous place in America and when I joined the Army I met people from Puerto Rico, from border towns in Mexico, from inner city Chicago, people from all over the country that I would not have otherwise met that had never been exposed to growing up on a farm in Minnesota. I think it's made me more creative as a problem solver and as a manager because in the military sometimes you're given a job to do and you're told to go do it and you may not know how to do it, you may not have ever been asked to do it, you may not have been trained in it but you really have to just figure it out. It helps you learn to be enterprising and innovative as well as helping you to build confidence which makes you a better worker. Think diversity is good and I think we should have veterans here. I think most people, most employers here don't think about hiring veterans. For various reasons they may have stereotypes just like we have other stereotypes but I think they really should consider bringing those types of, that type of background into the workforce. I see veterans who feel that they can take on the world I think and they have a high degree of confidence in their own abilities and a sentence of I think earnestness about their work in terms of commitment, commitment to our country, commitment to the job that they bring to whomever they're working for. Why should veterans consider EPA a place to work? It's a way to continue public service. Most people at EPA are committed to the environment, they're committed to mission, they're committed to public service and I think most veterans can identify with that.