 My grandfather was a Kiowa veteran, served in World War II, and I've always aspired to be like him. I've always aspired his way about how he treated people, and I think his discipline, the hard work that he performed when I was young, kind of ingrained in my mind the kind of person I wanted to be, and he was a veteran, so he's proud. He was proud to serve in World War II, so that always stayed with me. I come from a long line of service members, so I had my grandmother's father fought in World War II, my granddad was in Korea, and I have three uncles that went to Vietnam, one Desert Storm, one Desert Shield, so I come from a long line of military people, and like I said, I come from a very patriotic family. It's always been something I've wanted to do, restoring the military, ever since I was a kid. I did four years active duty, and then I've done 13 years in the Guard, but I immediately jumped right in and was willing to do whatever the Guard needed me to do. There have been numerous Native Americans who've served in the Oklahoma National Guard. I know a lot of my relatives from our Kiowa Black Legons, they served in World War II with the 45th Infantry Division and also in Korea. Knowing that there are a lot of Americans that have served in the 45th Infantry Division and the Oklahoma National Guard, it only makes me feel like that's serving a purpose in our communities. Indians want to be a part of it and know that they're taking care of their people. My grandma would say, hey, your grandpa's birth was part of the 45th, and as a kid I would say that, okay, that's cool, that's cool, and I'd see his dog tags. Once I came into the Guard and understood what the 45th was, I realized, and you know, he's passed away, my grandparents passed away, but I still have his patch and dog tags from back then. Through the course of history, American Indians have always had warriors, people that were protectors of their families, their homes, their land even. There's something about American Indians, they have that ingrained in their genes. They place a high priority on taking care of people who can't take care of others, and I think that's something in our Native American culture we hold our veterans in high regard. Our Kiowa tribe has always been a very war-like tribe, and our Kiowa veterans have found a way to adapt using the United States military service now to serve a purpose within our community. We have a word in my language that says kattai, and that means a person who is a protector of all people, people who can't fight for themselves. And I think that translates into our United States military culture, especially the guard because we're all civilians during the day. We go to, you know, our daily jobs, on the weekends we do our weekend drills, but I feel like the Oklahoma National Guardsman knows what it's like to take care of people and try to do for others, and I think that correlates with our American Indian philosophy of what it is to be a warrior. We hold the military in high respect, so anything that the military needs me to do, I'm willing to do that. I'm willing to give the military everything I have. If you're a member of the guard, you are already a member of a tribe, because the similarities are parallel to each other. You may not be blood related to each other just like any tribal member, but you're going to become family. You learn each other's strengths and each other's weaknesses, and I think especially on deployments or even AT, you understand that leaning on each other becomes a part of your survival. It's exactly the same as being in the tribe. I'm just proud to be an American Indian serving the military. Per capita, American Indians serve the most amongst all other race and ethnicities in the United States. You know, after everything that has been, all the policies that have been implemented on American Indian cultures and communities, we're still here and we still have viable cultures alive, but we are able to blend and tie those cultures together to where we are now a soldier in the United States Army and able to tie that to our, bring our American Indian culture along with us, makes us a better person and makes us look with new perspective on things, and I think that's what American Indians bring to the guard. They bring that warrior aspect, that warrior perspective that may have been taught in their own communities and to the guard. That's what I'm proud of.