 serves your moderator today. I'm joined tonight by a fantastic group of panelists who represent Hispanic officers and listed soldiers and civilians from across our great army. Over the next half hour or so, probably longer because we like to talk, they're gonna share their stories about why they joined the army and how they got to where they are today. In addition to covering some important contributions that our Hispanic soldiers continue to make to our army. Regardless of where you're joining us from or how you found us, thank you for watching this timely discussion. So without further ado, Colonel Maritza Lagares is the former executive officer to the headquarters department of the army, chief information officer on transition leave right now. She was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico and received a direct commission into the military police branch in the army after graduating from Rockchester Institute of Technology. Colonel Lagares, thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule. Even on leave to join us for our conversation. Hey, thank you so much for having me inviting us and I thank everyone in the audience for joining us this evening. Absolutely. Staff Sergeant Raquel Flores is also with us tonight. She's from El Paso, Texas and it listed in 2013 as a healthcare specialist. She is a first generation American and is also the first in her family to get a college degree, starting with an associate's degree in health science from Kaplan University. Then her bachelor's degree from Excelsior College. Staff Sergeant Flores is currently pursuing a master's degree in public health at Northern Arizona University, while also serving on U.S. Army recruiting commands, diversity, outreach and inclusion team. I'm really excited to hear more about that. Staff Sergeant Flores gotta say thank you for joining us tonight. Thank you so much for allowing me to share my army story with you today and thank you to everybody for tuning in. Who? Finally, I'd love for you all to meet Mr. Hamilton Lopez Cruz, who is currently a marketing integration manager at the U.S. Army Futures Command, Austin, Texas. Mr. Lopez Cruz was born in Guatemala and immigrated to the United States as a young teenager. After graduating high school, he joined the army as an armor crewman, go tankers. He deployed to Kosovo on a peacekeeping mission that reinforced his view of service to others. Mr. Lopez Cruz's civilian career began at U.S. Army recruiting command, just like Raquel, where he worked in a variety of positions that helped him grow as a marketing professional while using his knowledge of the army to assist in recruiting efforts as well as leading army partnerships with Hispanic organizations like Lubeck. In his current position at Futures Command, he leads nationwide efforts to introduce and promote the command to the private sector and also to the American public. So Mr. Lopez Cruz, Hamilton, it is great to have you with us. Hey, thank you, Hank. Greetings from Austin, Texas to you and all the audience that is joining us. So happy to be here and thank you for the opportunity as well. Yeah, we're just glad to have all three of you. Now, for those watching, don't forget, we want to hear from you as well. So please add your questions into the chat. Just drop them in the comments during our conversation. We'll do our best to answer them. What I'd like to do now is kick off the discussion by getting to know our panelists just a little bit better. Now, all of you come from different parts of the country and represent different cultures of the world. So starting with Conor Lagares, ma'am, would you please share just a little bit about yourself, your upbringing and your family heritage? Absolutely, Hank. So I am Puerto Rican. I was born in Bonce, Puerto Rico. I have three siblings, two sisters and a brother and my dad is deceased. I lost my dad when I was 25, but my mom is still alive. And as a matter of fact, I take care of her. She lives with me. She is 80 years old. I joined the army when I was 17 years old a long, long, long time ago. But I wouldn't have it any other way. Grew up with the kids in the house. My dad working very hard. He came to New York and I was born in Bonce, but we went to New York City. We had lived in the Bronx and then from the Bronx we landed in Rochester, New York. Had a happy childhood. Parents were always there, lived with two parents in the home, but they always said it was hard work. You got to work hard to get somewhere in life, right? And so the common thread throughout my childhood was, go to school, go to school, go to school and education. Both my parents only had a third grade education. So that was just their way of saying, we want better for you. And so growing up, I always watched my dad work hard, get up at four in the morning, go out the door, come back in the evening, always putting food on the table for the kids and telling us to stay in school. But again, my childhood was very good, very happy. Although we were poor, there were three kids in the house and my dad was the only one working. We were poor but we were happy. And so that's always, it always warms my heart to know that I came from nothing. They came from Puerto Rico with nothing and they put all of their kids through school. And it was that you have to go to school and we always had that positive affirmation growing up and that family, that sense of family and that foundation is critical to a good upbringing and being successful in life. So I happened to be very, very fortunate that I had both my parents and the family and the household creating that structure and always telling us, it wasn't, it's funny because I hear some kids today, like, I don't know if I'm gonna go to college, I don't know what I'm gonna do. And I'm like, what do you mean? Because I had a choice. I felt like it was already, this is what you do, you go to kindergarten, you go third, fourth, fifth grade and then you go to high school and then you go off to college. And so that's how my parents brought us up is hard work pays off and that's what I've always looked by. Absolutely and I gotta tell you, your story mirrors almost mine. Although I didn't come, my parents didn't come from Puerto Rico but the whole idea, I'm from New Mexico. So there I'm Henry Minitres but of course on the air I'm Hank Minitres. It's easier to say. But family is everything. Family is everything. So it warms my heart to hear you say you're taking care of your mother. I can completely relate to that. While I live on the East Coast, all of my family's still in New Mexico. My sister who is the family nurse, literally a nurse is the one who took care of my parents whenever they started taking the downturn. So everything you just said, absolutely respect it, understand it and you're not the first Puerto Rican from the Bronx that I've met. I've got several friends from there actually. It just blows my mind. That's why I love speaking with folks like you just learning about where you come from and where you've been and now where you are. So fantastic. Thank you for sharing that. Thank you. Oh, you bet. Over to Staff Sergeant Flores now, Raquel. Talk to me. Yeah, so I was born in El Paso, Texas. So I come from a Mexican family. My parents were born in Sacatecas, Mexico. They immigrated to the United States when they started having children because CMS as a kernel, they wanted us to have an education because they only had an elementary school education. So they said, you guys need to get a degree. We came over here for you guys to have opportunities. So that always was instilled in my brain growing up. When I, around September 11, my sister was actually already in the military. And I remember the shift and I just, I remember her walking out one day and she put on this uniform and it was like seeing like superwoman, I don't know, in a time where it was such a hard time at being in America and the unfortunate events of September 11, like I found a hero and that was my older sister who's also serving in the military right now. She's still currently in the Army. So that was always in my head. I want to be in the Army, I want to be in the Army, but so I'm the youngest of four siblings that have two older sisters and an older brother. And none of them, not calling them out, but none of them had gone to a degree, right? So my parents were like, hey, like, you know, your sisters don't get me wrong, they're all very proud of everything that they've done, but they're like, we want one of you guys to get a degree. Like that's all we want, you know, I don't care what the degree is in, you know, they just wanted us to have a degree. And so that was in my head. So when I graduated high school back in 2011, I was kind of lost, I'm not gonna, you know, it's hard. I think for me at 17, I wanted to make my parents proud, but I also didn't know what I wanted to do. So I started a semester at the University of Texas at El Paso. And you know, I was like, I'm gonna study business because my dad's an entrepreneur and he's really good at it, right? And unfortunately, I was not. I failed a couple of classes and it was heartbreaking to me as well because my dad actually paid for it, paid for my classes. And so, you know, that was a lot of money that in a sense went down the drain and I was so disappointed in myself. I didn't, I was, obviously I didn't want to fail, but I just couldn't, at the time, I didn't have the capacity to be a student. And so, you know, I got a bunch of jobs and I was like, I'm gonna pay my dad back. Like, you know, he's given me everything I need to pay him back. And so, one day, I don't know, I just literally, it was one day I woke up and I said, I'm not happy. I don't know what I'm doing with my life, but this is not what I wanna do for the rest of my life. And I walked into a recruiting office and I said, I'm ready. Like, this is what I wanted to do from the beginning. And I was a little hesitant because growing up in a Hispanic family, you know, especially already having an older sister in the military, you know, female predominantly doesn't just, hey, let me go be a soldier. You know, I feel like there's that stigma in at least the Mexican community where like, you know, the male is supposed to go, not the female. And so, I did it, I did it. And it was the best, I mean, decision of my life if I'm being completely honest. It's given my family so many blessings. It's given me, myself personally, so many blessings. My parents finally, you know, they get to say that one of their kids graduated from college and that's all they wanted, you know? And thankfully I was able to do it without my dad having to pay for it. I, you know, it's just the opportunities that I got are just beyond words. Now, I'm with you on that. And here we are, another story that kind of mirrors, you know, the first one. My dad, he's who I get my last name from Minitris. You know, his big thing was, you need to do better than I did. You need to go higher and farther than I did. He was an eighth grade dropout and he used to joke because he eventually got his, as he used to call it, his good enough diploma, his GED. But he was always impressive on me and my sisters to do the same, to push ourselves farther. And I think, you know, that's what you went through and you've aspired to. It's kind of neat though that you had your own superhero to look up to. That's really kind of cool. I was the oldest, I didn't have that, but that's really cool. I'm really glad that you had that and that you made the right choice and you're where you belong. Over to you, Mr. Hamilton Lopez Cruz, please tell us your story. Hello, Hank, but thanks, good evening. So I was born and raised in the second biggest city of Guatemala. It's called Quetzaltenango. So for the audience out there, you could look up this spelling, Quetzaltenango Guatemala. So my story is somewhat a little similar. Obviously there's a little foundation of family around Hispanic families. My dad passed away when I was eight months old due to an accident. So I never got a chance to meet him in person. I'm just through photos. And then that was one of the deciding factors that caused my mom to move to the US when I was five years old. So I grew up with aunts and uncles and grandma and grandpa. And that was the foundation of what family was to me. Moved to the US when I was 12 years old, not knowing English and most immigrants, right? They come to the United States and they have to learn English when they come to the United States. Out of all the States that you could have think that someone from Guatemala could move into, I will tell you the Stanford, Connecticut was the one that was furthest from any of those. But I was lucky enough to be allowed to enter a school where I was automatically integrated with sixth graders. Except I would, instead of doing a regular class, I would do an 830 to 230, where it was just English classes with a whole bunch of other international students. And I say, I feel lucky because now when I've talked to other friends about the process, they just don't have that program anymore at most schools. Now it's ESL throughout middle school or high school. So most of my adult life has been in the Army because shortly after I graduated high school, I joined the Army. My mom lives in Redwood City, California. My half sister, I don't call her half sister, my sister lives in Orlando, Florida and I'm in Austin. So it's like I'm in between both of them and I still got to jump on a flight. You know, I can't just get in the car and just go. I'm either two hour and a half flight to the West Coast or two hour and a half flight to the East Coast. So I'm in between both of them. But, you know, similarly to Raquel and Colonel Agares, you know, family was really my foundation of my upbringing. Even when I moved to United States, I was not living with my mom. I came to live with my uncle in Connecticut. So, you know, I do have to give him and his wife a lot of credit for setting a foundation of what Wright looks like and also sending a foundation of, you know, you got to go to school. You got to, you know, do something with your life, right? Other than just be a bum per se. So that's just a little bit about my upbringing. Oh, that's awesome. Hamilton, thank you so much for sharing your story. Something that, you know, you said kind of triggered a memory for me and I'll throw this out to all three of you. I'll give you my little story there, my experience and then I'll ask you to comment and see if you had anything similar. But I was two years old when my dad married my mom and he actually went the extra step and adopted me. So he's 100% Mexican, born and raised in New Mexico. Family came from Mexico, probably a couple of generations before. And when I was old enough to understand what was going on, I asked him to teach me Spanish because again, white kid, super cool Hispanic last name, I should probably speak Spanish. And he told me, no, English was his second language just like yours Hamilton. He said, no, you have to learn English. People are going to make fun of you. English is the language in this country. And it was a lot from his generation that believed that he was born in the 1940. But I just wondered if the three of you had a similar story or something that you could comment with regard to that. Go ahead, Staff Sergeant Flores. I see you shaking your head. Oh, yes, definitely. Well, it's actually, now I see it as an adult but my situation was a little bit different. My parents till this day actually, they don't speak English. They speak very minimal to get them by since El Paso is a border town. Pretty much everybody in El Paso speaks Spanish. So I grew up just talking Spanish. I actually didn't know English till I got to third grade. But what I noticed is I didn't realize the importance of learning more than one language or your native language until I left El Paso. And I saw that people maybe not in the army like jobs paid or separately, they pay more if you speak a second language or if you speak Spanish, you get like incentives paid which the army does have as well. So that in itself, I was like, like I don't know, I just, I didn't know how important it was until I left El Paso to be bilingual or however many languages you'd like to speak. I absolutely agree. That's my biggest regret was that as a youngster, I didn't press them harder to teach me because even back home being bilingual, like you said, more job opportunities and higher pay scale. Colonel Legatus or Hamilton, anything you want to add to that conversation? So I would add, you know, growing up in a Hispanic household, my mom and dad always spoke Spanish. And then you go to school and everything is taught to you in English. And so I always had a hard time and my siblings had a hard time transitioning because we were learning English as our second language, but at home we would talk Spanish and some of those words or we weren't pronounced things correctly. But then on the flip side was my parents could never help us with homework or anything like that because we were the ones that knew we're starting to learn the English language. So then it was kind of like a reverse, you know, a role reverse because when we did learn the language, we always helped our parents whenever we had to go somewhere and interpret then they used us like to fill out an application or to go to the DMV. And so we helped each other, you know, through the years, we would speak Spanish, we would go and learn English. And then, you know, it was sort of like flip-flop because we would help them as well and try to teach them because again, they only made it to the third grade and they learned through the years because they both worked and they assimilated and they were around people and they learned the language. But as far as reading the English language we absolutely played a critical role in helping our parents learn it as well. Oh, that's fantastic and great point by the way that role reversal where the student becomes the teacher as it were. That's pretty awesome. Hamilton, anything you wanna throw in there before we move on to our next question? Yeah, real quick. Mine was because I came not knowing English. I focused mostly on learning English and even when I was at home, luckily everybody knew English as well. So they managed both languages. My uncle's family was fully bilingual. So to me, I focused so much during the school hours per se. So from 8.30 to three o'clock and then I played soccer in high school. It was all English. So when I got home, it was more of a break to actually go back to my native language. And then, you know, general army. So it was back to 99% English until you, you know, after duty hours when you met other soldiers that were also from Hispanic background. So I think that for me, because I came when I was already 11 or 12 years old and I was almost like behind the power group, right? Not knowing the level of English that you need to prep to get into college and so on and so forth. There was more of an emphasis for me to focus to learn English in my situation. Wow. All three of you have such incredible stories and different perspectives on, you know, bilingual and knowing both languages, knowing your heritage language as well as English. Thanks for sharing that. It's just I love having conversations like that and just hearing what other folks went through as they were growing up with two languages. Can't thank you all enough for sharing your stories and in your perspectives and really just allowing our audience to get you know you and your culture better. So let me put a lot of this into perspective for you. There's more than 139,000 Hispanic Americans serving in the total force. That's the Army, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard. Hispanic Americans make up 16% of the Army and that's no small impact as Hispanic Americans have made and continue to make important contributions to our very diverse all volunteer force. Now with this in mind, I'd like to hear from all of you why you chose to join the Army and how you feel your heritage or cultural values influenced the way you serve. So Colonel Lagares after your upbringing in Puerto Rico you received a direct commission into the Military Police Corps after graduating from Rochester Institute of Technology. Now since then, you've pursued not one, not two, but three master's degree. And I guess you were bored so you went for a doctorate of science. You deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and you've worked your way to the rank of Colonel which is also no small task. You sound incredibly busy ma'am. I'd like to know how your heritage has influenced your ambition and your career path. Well, we'll have to go back quite a few years. But you know, we've been talking here having a conversation and I keep hearing family and family. And it was all about my family, right? And my upbringing. I was in high school when I joined. I was in high school and the recruiters came to the cafeteria and I was very athletic, I played softball. I ran track and I got hung up on one of those videos. Be all you can be. Yeah, I'm dating myself, right? And so I'm like, you know what? I can do this. And I joined the army with my girlfriend and I found myself in Fort Jackson, South Carolina. 17 years old and I'll try to be pithy here but I was 17 years old and I get down to boot camp and you know, nothing I've ever expected. My mom didn't want me to go. My dad encouraged me to go. If she wants to go, let her go. And I went and the first time they allowed us to use the phone, I called home. Papi, come get me please. I was like, I don't know what I did. Please come and get me and I'm crying. And he's like, Marisa, you got into this. You can finish this. You'll be fine. It'll be a few weeks. And that is that. And you know, I wiped those alligator tears and I was like, okay, Papi. And I did it. And it was that sense of family. I realized I did commit to the Army. I'm gonna finish this. I had my best friend with me. And so that was support. But it was that whole family. It was that whole team building that I got out of basic training. I ended up being soldier of the cycle. I went to AIT. I ended up being the undergrad. And so, you know, it stuck in my head. My dad said, you committed to this. You're gonna finish this. And I was 17, didn't know what I got into. I was like, dad, please come and save me. And he was like, absolutely not. And, you know, I have no regrets. 33 years later, I have no regrets. The Army has been good to me. I have my family, but the Army is my family as well. You know, I've come across a lot of great people throughout my 33 years in the service. And I couldn't have gotten here by myself. And that is not the cliche of, you know, there's no eye and team, but it is. It's all teamwork. It's the network that you build and that support system. But, yeah, it started a long, long time ago. And I had to regret that one time when I called my dad crying, but it's been a fantastic, fantastic career. Oh, that's so good to hear. And you're absolutely right. It is not a cliche to say that we have, we are family in the Army. It's one team, one fight, but we're the Army family. You've always got someone you can lean on to help get you through some of those tough times. When you do feel like calling home and saying, come get me. You know, in my dad, he was always telling us, you know, be respectful, respect folks, you know, treat them well. And it tickles my heart when I, you know, I hear the Army saying people first. And it's not because the Army says people are first, it's because people are first. Yes. People are fundamentally first. They are our greatest asset, right? Treat people well and they'll treat you well and we'll succeed as a team. Absolutely correct. Staff Sergeant Flotis, I'd love to hear from you. Not only are you a first generation American, but you're also the first in your family to receive a college degree. And we talked earlier, you didn't stop with just an associates. You're now pursuing a masters, which is phenomenal. Applied you for that. You are certainly forging your own path. We're delighted that the Army is part of your path. We're very lucky to have you. So why don't you tell us why you joined the Army and how did your culture and upbringing in Texas contribute to your decision to join? You heard about your sister, but I'd like to hear a little bit more. Yeah. So like, as I already stated, my sister played a big part and, but what I didn't say is a sister, as you're listening, I am using your story, but it's very important to mine. So my older sister actually, when she decided to join my, because we grew up in a predominantly Hispanic family on the border, my mom said, absolutely not. When my sister, my sister at 17 was like, I wanna enlist. And my mom said, no, you are not. You are a, like you are my oldest, you are a female, you are not joining. And my sister said, well, you're not gonna stop me. She said, at 18, I can sign my own paper and I'm gonna go. And what happened? She signed the paper and she went off into the military at 18. And so because of that, I like to bring that up is because thankfully, like I said, I did have her have already, in a way, she rebelled to get what she wanted, but that led me an open doors for me when I decided to join my mom, although she was still hesitant, obviously, because I was the second two of her three females are now in the military. She was still hesitant. She was like, I don't want you to. She's like, but I learned from your sister that you're still gonna do whatever it is you want that you guys are gonna do. So she's like, I support you and give you my blessing. Yeah, she said, you know, I just want you to be happy. So definitely, you know, and I also grew up in a different side of Texas. So I think Texas, when people think of Texas, they think of like country, like love of country, you know, but El Paso's a little bit different. And just again, the sense that, you know, that border town, so we have that, those fundamentals, you know, as we keep saying family, family culture, you know, that's what we grew up on. And so it was definitely a little bit harder for me to, you know, raise my right hand because of that. But it definitely, I always knew though, like that, I since, like I said, ever since I was little, and I saw my sister put on that uniform, I wanted to, I wanted to not just only be like her, but, you know, give back to this country that has given so much to not just myself, my parents, and it will continue giving on to, you know, my children and my family, like, you know, so yeah. Being, like I said, it was definitely a struggle, but I'm very glad that it all happened this way because again, and again, and it shows progress, right? So maybe 22 years ago when my sister decided to join, thankfully my mom could have been, no, I don't want you to go, but you know, we, she evolved and we are here now together. And we have great memories. And like I said, and she's so proud of me, you know, I finally, I got a degree or I got multiple degrees, you know. Excellent, excellent. Well, again, congratulations on your degrees and I'm sure your mother is proud now. There's a lot of us whose moms didn't want us to do this, but you know, like my dad was the one who said, you got to get out of here, there's nothing here for you and you need to pay for your education. We don't know how to do it. We can't pay for it, so get out of here and go make something of yourself. But yeah, mom was the one that cried a lot. Now, it's time to move on and talk to our resident Army civilian, a fellow Army civilian, as it were, Mr. Lopez Cruz Hamilton. You came to the United States at a very young age, mentioned shortly thereafter, you made the decision to serve your home country and the armed forces. Not only did you choose to be a soldier, but now you are continuing to use your skills and your knowledge to assist the Army as a civilian. I think I can speak on behalf of everyone in the audience wondering why you joined the Army and then stuck with it as a civilian. So why that? And also, how did your culture tie in to your tie in and influence your decision to join? So, you know, how did the culture influence? So I think that I was, I'm the, at that moment, I was the only one of the family had even thought about joining any kind of military services. And the reason I say thought about it is, obviously I grew up in Guatemala in the 1980s, a lot of the Central American countries were influenced by a lot of internal conflict. So I really grew up with newspaper clippings and video clipings of a lot of those conflicts. So I wanted nothing to do with militaries because when I came to the U.S., that was my concept of what serving the military was. But my uncle, who obviously I grew up with, met a recruiter somewhere that's still on my to-do list 20 plus years later to ask him, how did you meet the recruiter? Because my uncle said to me, hey, I met a recruiter. I know that you want nothing to do with the Army, but do me a favor and at least talk to him for 30 minutes and just to see what he has to say. And obviously because of the commercials, be all that you could be. I was influenced as well. I knew about the benefits of the Army offer, but at the moment that did not necessarily appeal to me because I just did not want to join. So I met the recruiter, sit down for 30 minutes. And to this day, I would never forget this. So there was no laptops. He had a black binder with document protectors, right? The little shiny ones. So he's walking me through and I'm just going to through the motion just to make my uncle happy that I met with the recruiter and then he flips this page and I see this Excel spreadsheet that had ranks and money attached to it. So I said, okay, explain to me what does this mean? So he said, look, this is how much you're going to make as a private E-1, $884 a month. So I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, what do you mean? I was working on McDonald's, making $425 an hour at that moment. So when he flipped the page, it was breaking news to me. That you actually got a paycheck for serving in the Army. All along, I thought that when you joined the Army, you served for two, three years. You lived in a base, they issue your uniform, you go to the defect and you figure it out. So from that moment, my concept of serving changed because then all the other commercials that I have heard before kind of made sense. So I decided to now only continue and to listen to the recruiter, but then I started asking about college benefits. I did not want to be a burden to my uncle for him to help me pay for college. He has kids of his own, right? That's not his responsibility. So I saw that as a way to get my college education. And I've always enjoyed traveling and I knew that I wanted to go to Europe. I told my recruiter, look, man, I don't care what job you give me, just give me, give me to Europe. And I took the practice, asked the Baptist, the one that they just give you just to kind of figure out where you are. And he said, look, I could offer you X, Y and Z and I could get you to Germany. I was sold and in 45 minutes I was like, where do I sign up? I am ready to do this. So talk about having an original negative impact with my culture. And then I came to the US where all I know about the army was, hey, this is you kind of just get picked up and off you go for lack of a better word. So that's how I ended up joining the army. And because of those opportunities as a soldier, it allowed me to expand my mindset about what serving it is. Definitely when I deployed to Coastal as a soldier I got an opportunity to see how much of an impact we as the US military make abroad. And I knew that there were others that should know more about it. And then when I transitioned from being active duty soldier, I got an opportunity to start working with recruiting command. I was actually calling all the leads at the lead refinement center. So I would call everybody in a lot of the Hispanic states because obviously it took advantage of the fact that I was bilingual. And I would have a lot of good conversations with parents, right? Hey, I think this is something that your son or daughter should do in the native language. From that moment I knew that I was in a good position as a civilian to continue to serve soldiers and also to maybe find an opportunity to help other Hispanic families learn more about the army itself. Hank, are you still with us? But again, you can hear me, right? Oh goodness. Hank, we got you back. Can you guys hear me and see me? Yes. Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry. I don't know what happened there. I was listening to Hamilton's awesome story and then all of a sudden I was offline. So sorry about that. But yeah, continuing on, it's just been, it sounds like a very interesting adventure for all three of you. So Hamilton, your story about sitting down with the recruiter for half an hour, Staff Sergeant Floodus over here works for recruiting command. And in another lifetime, I was that recruiter with the black binder, with the document protectors trying to explore those five areas that might be of interest to you. College, you need money for college? Just money period, you need a paycheck? Do you want some adventure, some travel? Or do you want to serve your country? So it sounds like he got three of those out of you in that initial meeting. That's fantastic. But you're absolutely right. And that's so demonstrative of what I used to face as a recruiter, what I'm sure Staff Sergeant Floodus faces as a recruiter is most people just don't know. They have no clue. They watch movies, full metal jacket, top gun, whatever. And they have no idea. And that's kind of why we do these virtual engagements because we're real people. We don't just put a uniform on and salute people every day and do pushups all the time and scream at people or get screamed at. We are humans, we are real people. We have great stories and you guys are certainly no exception to that. Want to say just thank you for all, all for telling us why you chose to serve. Not only do you come from a wide range of heritages but you also represent diversity of branch. We've got the medical, military police. We've also got marketing on the army civilian career side of the house. And in fact, we can trace the history of Hispanic people serving in the US military back to the civil war. And since then Hispanic Americans have valiantly served in each branch of the military at each rank in the army and have been recognized with the nation's highest, most distinguished awards to honor their bravery and sacrifice. For many years now Hispanic Heritage Month has served as a great opportunity for us to share stories of Hispanic American soldiers and army civilians who have not only answered the call to serve but dared to make a difference in the name of freedom. So the three of you, I'm going to ask you one question and we'll just kind of go around Robin. Would love for you to share with us the moment in your army career that you realized you were exactly where you were supposed to be and what happened that made such a big impact on you? So Hamilton, we'll go in reverse order this time just to mix it up. What do we start with you? So I've always had a passion for soccer. I think most, you know, Hispanics, you know, if you, if he's not soccer he's usually baseball because there's, you know there's no, there's no football there, right? So it's football instead of football. So, and I was deployed to Coastal Bowl and we were at a remote location and it was the end of the shift and it was a peacekeeping mission. So, you know, we all felt a little more easy about being there. And it was the end of the night, if you will probably six p.m. And then I saw a whole bunch of kids playing soccer. So then I asked my platoon, sorry to, hey you know, we're off duty. It was in a very safe area. So he's like, hey, if you want to just kick the ball around and go for it, you know? So then I did. I, you know, I went to play soccer with them and it, you know, we played probably an hour. And then after we got done playing soccer, you know, I think I bought everybody like some Coke or whatever store was available. And then even though I did not speak their language, they did not in necessarily new English or Spanish. We still found a way to communicate with each other and talked about some of the plays that had happened or how somebody could have scored easily. And then, you know, it was that moment that I realized, you know, even though if it wasn't for the Army, at first I would have never met the kids from Coastal Bowl playing soccer. Even though we did not necessarily spoke the right language, we spoke the language of sports or the language to say, hey, we are, you know, we all share the love for the game per se. And I think that to me, open my eyes of going back to my earlier answer is open my eyes to how much of an impact the US Army can have, not only in stateside, but also abroad. And, you know, me playing soccer with those kids also show them that it's totally okay to approach a soldier to talk to an American, to say, hey, what's going on, man? You know, and it's just common ground that you find with others. And had it not been for the Army, I would have definitely not gotten a chance to meet those kids or play soccer or enjoy a Coke with them. So that to me, it was only 18 years old. So that for me was that if I can continue to serve in a different capacity, even if I decide not to retire, then why not stay and maybe seek that opportunity as a civilian? Absolutely. It's a great way to go. Personal choice for me too. You know, it came a point in time where I was going to hang the uniform up, but I loved the Army and I stuck with what I knew. I knew the Army and I know the great things that we do. And I knew the great opportunities that come with it, even as a civilian. So kudos to you, my brother, kudos to you. Colonel Lagarez, how about you? How did you know, or when did you know you were right where you needed to be in the Army? So I think that would go back to my deployment. While I was an MP, I had transitioned into a functional area of 53, which is information systems. And now I'm a cyber officer. But when I deployed, I was a G6 to a brigade, a civil affairs brigade. And I had a bunch of soldiers in my shop. And I think the point in my career that I knew this is where I needed to be was seeing these young soldiers in my shop. They were me years ago, right? They were 17, 18 years old. I mean, out of high school, like straight out of high school, to basic training, to AIT and deploying. It wasn't like they had a window in time where they were in the Army, they were in garrison, where they were learning the Army values and they were learning all of these things of how to be a soldier. They went from being trained to being shipped. And a lot of my young soldiers, they struggled. They struggled with like, I hate the Army. This isn't for me. I left high school and I can empathize because they went from programming a router and standing up servers to being shot at, to being part of a convoy team, providing security. And so it was hard for them to wrap their head around that. And I truly believe that God put me in Iraq at that time with those young soldiers so that I could help them and lead them and guide them and mentor them and let them know that this is just a piece of the Army. There are better things that are out there for us. And just to help them, those young soldiers make it through that year of deployment was very critical in our brigade and in our battalion success. But that was when I said to myself, this is where I need to be. The Army has done so much for me. I need to pay it forward. And those young soldiers were struggling. And I still keep in contact with them today. Great soldiers and most of them have stayed in but I would, reflecting back in my years of service I would say that that was the time because I said they went from being a recruit, AIT to deploying to war. And that wasn't what they felt that they signed up for. Right, now exactly. And also at that age, and I'm guilty of it as well is you can't think past Wednesday. So your ability to look at the bigger picture is greatly diminished. So you think that you're deployed and you're there forever and ever and ever and this is taking forever. When like you said, it's one little time period might be six months, might be a year but it's just one time period that you got to get through to get to where you want to be. So you for sticking with them and guiding them. That's awesome. That Sergeant Flores, you're up. Where were you when you just absolutely knew you're where you needed to be? So my story is actually a little bit more personal and then it led me to realize, I guess, the impact. But so being a medic, you know, where or not just being a medic, but being a soldier you're trained to be a combat lifesaver, right? So when you're a medic, you get a little bit more insight but in reality, we all have that basic education to be able to treat during emergency situations. So I had come back from Korea. I was visiting my sister, not the one in the military and other sister and her youngest, her baby. She literally picked me up from the airport. We get home and I took a look at her baby and she's bluish tint. And her baby's only like two months old, right? And there was like this weird bluish tint and I'm like, sister, like what's like, I don't know. I don't like the color. I was like, there's something wrong. We need to go to the hospital right now. And so sure enough, we went to the hospital and my niece, she was having, she was pretty much being asphyxiated. She was having acid reflex so bad from her food but she was pretty much like choking by her food. Like, so she actually ended up in ICU for about a month and they ended up having to change her food. Like, I mean, it was intense but if it wasn't for the training that I got through the army, who knows what would have happened to my niece, you know, it was a split second decision and it's not just me but, you know, as I, when we were teaching CLS classes or combat life-server classes, you'd hear, you'd come back and you'd hear their soldiers say, hey, Sarn, you know, like we had this incident at the barracks and we were able to provide for a state, you know, or, or, hey, Sarn, you know, there was a motor vehicle accident and I had my aid bag and you taught me how to use a tourniquet and I used a tourniquet and I saved a life, you know? And that's when I realized not all, I'm right where I, like, I, this is, I belong. This is what I should be doing. This is what I want to do for the rest of my life is just have that opportunity, you know, to be there and, you know, teach as well as, and learn, you know, from other individuals in the, you know, just to save lives, you know, that's, every soldier, I think, has that ability to, we are taught that ability to not, you know, save lives. No, you're absolutely right and I'll do you one better. It's not just the training that we get that teaches us basic first aid or when you do something more advanced like combat lifesaver, but it's all, it's also that mindset to keep a cool head about yourself. Like you can't let anything freak you out and get all frazzled. You've got to focus. You absolutely have to focus in order to save that person's life and you, you did exactly that. You knew what you needed to do to get that child to the hospital. You knew something was wrong and you kept a cool head and you came up with a solution right there on the spot. So yeah, that's phenomenal. All of you just phenomenal stories and I'm really loving this conversation. We've done so many of these virtual engagements and each time they just get better. What I'd like to do now is turn to the topic of representation in our ranks. I'd love to hear your thoughts based on your experiences serving and making your way through your career. So two part question, when you came through the ranks, did you see diversity at the top? And part two, did you feel there was someone who had similar experiences who you could go to for mentorship when you were first starting out? So to mix it up, let's go back to Staff Sergeant Flores. So yes, I have seen diversity through the Army, throughout my Army career at all levels. So I actually, so the most impactful mentor I had was she's retired now, so I'm first class, Jacqueline Moore. So she gave me the support that I needed to apply for college after I joined the Army. So, you know, I have multiple degrees, but it was her, like her, just say, you need to do this. I believe in you, you know, nobody had ever really said that. And again, she, you know, didn't matter what was going on. She was my boss, but she made sure that we got the mission accomplished and not only me, but all her soldiers had the ability to, you know, be successful in their own career. I also recently had the opportunity to have a female command sergeant major. She encouraged me to continue my education and start running half marathon. So she ran religiously every morning. And I said, if she can do it, I can do it, you know, so Sergeant Major Elegarcia, if you're listening, I just want to thank you for in the bottom of my heart, Nostradiaquis y usted, you know, and you know, I've made countless friendships with individuals throughout my time in the Army as well, in all ranks, all ethnic backgrounds, you know, although I came in predominantly with Mexican Hispanic values, I've learned and adopted many other traditions that helped me in my professional life as well as my personal life. So yeah, I've seen diversity at all. And I think it's important. Representation is definitely important. Yes, we need to be seen. Everyone should look at someone else and say, they look like me. They have similar experiences, similar background. We can be seen. That's the key thing right there. Hamilton, how about you? When you came in, what was it like in terms of, you know, diversity in the higher ranks for you? So as I recall, back to my soldier days, I, you know, I grew up in a combat arms environment. So, you know, for the moment you go to basic training, it's males obviously, because I was a 19 kilo armor. That's just the way that you used to be able to train. It's certainly it's not that way anymore. Right. But I think that, you know, coming in as an E1, you know, the senior army's leadership is really your, those are not the people that you deal with every day. You normally have a tendency to remember and pay attention and listen to those that you deal with every day. So I think I had some really good E5 sergeants that really help out to make sure that, you know, not only was I becoming a good soldier, but I was also becoming a good individual in their eyes. You know, meaning just do the right thing and make sure that this is what you got to do to prepare yourself for the next promotion board. So, you know, to me that was a big mentorship to help me develop professionally, even though I was a soldier, you still have to prepare yourself for the next grade or the next promotion board. So I continue to be very thankful to those young E5s, even those that you won. And to someone may say, well, E5 is still very young, but to me being an E1, they were much older than me. So I looked up to them. Now that I'm a civilian, you know, I looked at my peers up and down and I say that because I've got some really good mentorship of civilians that are not necessarily at the same level per se, but that are certainly coming up the ranks and in the same field that we're in. And then certainly those that are above my level, right? Because I obviously want to see what did they do to get them to the next step? You know, what kind of advice would they give me? And it's just, especially with technology nowadays, you know, someone could be stationed in Washington, DC where I moved from, sent them a note through teams and said, hey, what do you think about this? Or hey, help me out with this or have you had an experience with a project that's very similar to this? So I think that that's where I've gotten a lot of my mentorship is being able to identify who my true friends have been and the true leadership that I've been wanting and needing and I've been able to reach it back to those individuals and say, hey, I really need your help with this. So that's where I think that I've been lucky to have a lot of good leaders and mentors. And now that I know, you know, being a futures command, obviously we deal a lot with a lot of the senior army leadership. I am happy to see that we have a Undersecretary of Hispanic background. And, you know, a lot of commands are the majors, as Raquel mentioned, and a lot more colonels and a lot more generals are coming up in the rank to have a Lopez or Martinez or Marquez in their last name. So now that I, you know, I'm a little older, I get to see that side of the house as well and how important that is for civilians and also because they adapt and have a decision to make on policy that impacts soldiers as well. Absolutely. Colonel Lagadas, over to you. When you were brand new going through basic training and after you, you know, your dad didn't come and save you, what was it like for you as a young soldier? Did you feel represented at the top? Did you see people that you looked like or looked like you and you could relate to? And same question also about the mentorship. Okay, so I'm gonna start this off with a short story. In basic training, it was interesting because now that I reflect, I went down to basic training with my best friend and she was African-American. And I remember sitting there in the Bay Area and all the new recruits were sitting there and the drill sergeants came in and they were partnering us up the buddy teams, right? And you over there and you over there and I'm looking and I'm listening and I'm like, like, what are they doing? And I'm like watching, you know, to my best friend and I realized that they were mixing folks up. If you were African-American and sitting in partnering up with African-American, they were breaking you up if you were Hispanic. And so what they were doing is just making sure that all of the teams are diverse. And they got to me and my best friend, Tracy Dixon and I'll never forget it. They pointed at us and they said, you two are fine. And they went on to the next person and that is how my Army career started with that whole diversity, right? And so that warms my heart. But going through, I became, you know, went through the ranks, became an E6. I saw more diversity as an enlisted soldier than I do as an officer. I became an officer. And while there is a lot of diversity now, a lot better than 33 years ago, I was still, you know I go to a school. I'm still the only female in that class. I will go, you know, I went to ILE at Fort Levinworth, the only female in that class. I went to the National War College. I was the only Army female in my class. And so it's just, it's a little bit harder as you make, as you go through the ranks to find people that look like you. But, you know, if I do run, you know, walking down the hallway at the Pentagon and I see a little brown person, you know, it warms my heart because I know we're represented. Right? And so that's good. I think the Army still has a long way to go. I think we still have a long way to go when it comes to females. The hair thing, people that I was nuts, I still wear my hair up because I've been wearing it up for 33 years. But I'll never forget, I mean, I have to share this story because it's amazing. I was at the Pentagon when they released the regulation about wearing earrings and, you know, wearing your hair down. Now, while I was always used to wearing my hair up, the earrings were fantastic. It was like tickled my heart. I get to wear earrings in uniform. I get to look like a girl, right? And people, you know, the guys didn't understand that. I'll never forget because I went into a conference room and there was Lieutenant General Morrison sitting there and Sergeant Major sitting there. And I walk in and I have this huge smile and they're like, Maritza, good morning, you know, what's going on? And I'm like, sir, it's a great day in the Army. I get to wear earrings and they looked at me like I was nuts, right? Like, what's wrong with this girl? And I'm like, sir, I've been waiting years. And as you walk through, I mean, and this is no joke that day, as you walked through the Pentagon and you went into the bathrooms and you ran into your counterparts in the bathroom, it was like, you know, you were looking to see, you know, did they have earrings on? Because it was just, I mean, a little thing, but it meant a lot to the female officers because we're finally being heard. We're finally being seen. And although it was, you know, something small as a little diamond stud, it was amazing. Probably one of the best days I had in the Army. And, you know, and as far as mentorship, you know, I've had a lot of great mentors, but I would say, you know, sticking to a female mentor, it's hard because there's not a lot of them in, you know, in our ranks. And so I have been very fortunate and very blessed that I have been seen by male officers that have taken me under their wing. You know, I'd like to thank General Mike Eastman. He has been, he's retired now, a great mentor. He has three daughters, two daughters, one boy. And his wife works for, she is Secret Service. She works for the Secret Service. So he's been around females and he was like the best person to talk to because he would know the frustrations and he would hear the same similar stories that his wife would bring home and his daughters would bring home. And so I would say, you know, it's not always matching someone up with the same gender or ethnicity because there are others that can also understand. And I just have been very blessed throughout my career to have very strong, very nice kind male mentors that have paid it forward. And I would, and I go back to what my father says is, you know, hard work, hard work and dedication is that when people see that you're dedicated and that you're a hard worker, you recognize and they'll pull you along as well. So I think all of my mentors over the years. Absolutely. Well, with regard to the earring regulation, you're welcome. That was our shop that did that. When you achieve a staffer personnel, we kind of push that through. And then also the, you know, the new regulation on females wearing hair, you know, ponytails and whatnot because we not to get off on another tangent, but we just felt it was important. There was a board of only women soldiers that came together. All ranks, you know, junior enlisted officer, NCO and all ethnic backgrounds, that was very important to us because, you know, until you understand what someone else is going through, you don't know, you know, it's the first time I'd ever heard of alopecia. Like what is that? And women are like, no, wearing my hair to make myself look more male as it were. Yeah, I'm losing my hair. It causes alopecia. So things like that are, you know, important steps that the Army is taking to do better. You said we got a long way to go. I would completely agree with that statement right there with different ethnicities at the higher ranks as well as genders at the higher ranks. We've got a long way to go, but I think the Army is trying to do the right thing and open up more opportunities, you know, and the naysayers and the trolls are gonna say, oh, well, you know, they got promoted just because. No, that's not true. It's just why, you know, why is there such a disparity there at the top? You know, why is that? And what can we do to grow a female African-American general officer? What do we need to do? What are we looking at? You know, when we do promotion boards, are we being really objective or are we just, you know, choosing the ones that look like us? You know, that's the hard question and the honest question to ask. And I know the Army has asked that question, just working on the policy side of things. That's definitely being asked so that we can, again, increase representation for all groups out there. Sorry, I didn't mean to get up on a tangent, but it's something I'm very passionate about if you can't tell. So on that note, let's do a pivot, let's do a pivot. We're gonna start to wrap things up. So what I'd like to do, I mentioned earlier that we do a lot of these virtual engagements so that people who are not in the Army can watch and listen and learn that we are just regular people. We, you know, the stereotypes in the movies kill me. It's ridiculous because, you know, even watching Top Gun Maverick, my number one favorite movie right now, I'm like, nobody talks like that. We don't do that in the military. So with these events, I'd like to have the audience get to know you a little bit. We've heard your stories about your service. Now let's hear about you, hobbies. What do you do outside the office? You know, what do you do outside of work? So Colonel Legatus, how about we start with you? Sure, so outside of work, as you all know now, I do take care of my mom, although she says she still takes care of me. So I, you know, if I have to take her to medical appointments, I make sure that I do all that. But just to relax and unwind, I like to run. I like to read. I also teach undergraduate at Wilmington University. I love to teach. I love interacting with the students. So that's one of my passions. And I just need to give a little bit of recruiting tip here is that, hey, ladies, if you join the Army, you don't have to iron and you don't have to pick up. You don't have to pick up clothes for the whole week. You know what you're gonna wear. So that's always a plus of being in the Army. But yeah, that's what I usually do. I'm always reading. I love to learn. I love fixing things. And I also like to garden. That's awesome. Yes. And by the way, if you're male, you also don't have to worry about what you're gonna wear to work. That's pretty much decided for you. Yes, it is. Staff Sergeant Flores, over to you. So, you know, as a soldier, I feel like there's a stigma that we're like super strong and super buff and super, super fast, right? But I'm gonna personally say that that's not me. So recently in about the last year, I was looking for a different workout routine. I was extremely intimidated to go into a CrossFit gym because I felt like it was very, very complex. But I finally decided to go to a CrossFit gym and functional fitness is like the new thing, right? And for me at least, and it's changed my life. I mean, I've lost, I lost over like 30 pounds. I've gained so much muscle. And it actually catapulted me as well into starting, I started to run or half marathons. I'm trying to run a marathon this upcoming year. But for now, half marathons. So, yeah, CrossFit, I love running. My best friend who's actually also a soldier, so Steph Sarn, Eileen Alvarez, she's the one who planted the seed in my brain. She was like, hey, like, you know, I know you've never been more than like maybe six, eight miles. But let's go do a half marathon. And I was like, yes. So I enjoy, you know, running as well. I love to travel. So, and it works out because a lot of the half marathons, you can go to a different city. And so you explore the city in a new way by running usually like the major viewpoints. And then you also, I'm a foodie. So I love to eat, love, love to eat. So, you know, I work out a lot, so I can eat a lot. But no, yeah, I also, I really enjoy hiking on the weekends. Usually my partner will take our son and our dog and we'll go hike a bunch of mountains. Right now I'm in Phoenix. I think I forgot to say that, but I'm in Phoenix, Arizona. And so there's mountains galore, you know? So it's perfect for hiking. Nice. That's, it's also very hot there. Yeah. You know, it builds character, so they say. It does. Well, good luck on the marathon training. I did the Baton Memorial Death March in 2020, 26.2 mile road march. I don't like running. Sorry, you guys can have that. But yeah, hiking. And so I was on a 20 week program. So I hope you get on the right program that properly prepares you so that you don't get hurt. That's the key thing right there. Good for you though. That's really cool. Hamilton, what about you? What do you like off duty hours? So I am a former concert producer. So being stationed at Four Knox as a soldier, I've always had a passion for music. And for those of you that are familiar with Four Knox, Kentucky, you have to drive to Louisville, Kentucky to get the big city. Even the Louisville is not a big city, but to get the big city field. And I've always enjoyed just Latin culture and Latin music. So long story short, I went to the local officers club and established a contract of an MWR. And I was doing Latino nights as they were called at Four Knox for, I don't know, four or five years. So that passion kind of continued to grow. After I left the military. So I don't necessarily do it much here in Austin, but definitely have always enjoyed just the craziness that happens when you got to put together an event. I mean, you guys can only imagine when you go to a concert, just everything that goes on from the ticket sales to get in the band and the hotels and lodging and yada, yada, yada. So I'm trying to get back to doing that. I'm also very involved with a lot of community service. When I was, I like to say station, but I guess station as a civilian in Washington DC, I was exposed to a lot of nonprofits that always need some sort of help. Whether it's the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute where they need somebody to review the kids that are applying to go to some of the internships. Just some, there's always a need for someone to understand the culture of a lot of the Hispanic nonprofits and Latino organizations. So I've always found myself being a board member of a nonprofit here in Austin. I'm a board member of a nonprofit called Prospanica, which is formally known as the National Society Hispanic MBA, so then transition to Prospanica. I was a board member of the Washington DC chapter and I transitioned to Austin, so I joined the chapter here. So I think that all of us have busy lives, right? All of us have a job and they always got a lot of things going on in our lives, but I think that given maybe one or two hours a week to be able to at least share some of your experiences or help one of the many nonprofits through service, it's very beneficial. And I like to say that because of my regular job with Army where I used to work a lot with a lot of Hispanic nonprofits, I realized that there is a need to continue to do that even though you're no longer exposed to those organizations in the same way. So those are definitely, and then travel, I mean, I think I am single, no kids, no pets, no plants. I have a fake one. So I could go whenever I wanna go. I've been to probably 32, 33 countries now. So it's one of those things that whenever I could go, I could go away and I have no worries. There's an expression in Spanish that says, no tengo perro que me ladre, which means I really don't have a dog. I probably like, I have no worries, right? So those three, community service, definitely some sort of music, concert and then travel are definitely my true hobbies and passions. Excellent, excellent, relatable on all counts on my part. So very cool, very cool. We got time for one last question and we'll make these short answers. This will be your 32nd elevator speech. If you were talking to your younger self or someone who is that age that's asking you about the Army, what would you tell them, Staff Sergeant Flores? I don't give up. No dream is too big for you. Keep going even if there's no one that looks like you. Do what makes you happy and don't settle. Hamilton, you're up. Look at enlisting and joining the Army as a college option because if that's what you wanna do, then consider the Army as college option A and then look at your other universities and then you decide that university B is better than option A, which is the Army, then when you arrive at the university, look at the ROTC program because you're still gonna accomplish getting your education paid for. You're going to the university that you chose anyway. You study the career you chose anyway. So why not look at the ROTC programs that are available to you? That is absolutely the best advice I could give anybody. Just consider the Army as one of your many choices. If that's not necessarily the path you wanna go, once you arrive at that school university, look at your ROTC programs there because that's a great way to not only get leadership but also get your college paid for. Great point. Colonel Lagadas will close with you. I would say the Army is phenomenal. It's a great institution, full of opportunities. And so I would tell anyone younger than me, which there is a lot of people. Go for it. I mean, the world is your oyster. I'll just close it with this. I just went on a trip to Korea. And while I was there, I looked for my little cousin that just joined the Army. She's 19 and her first duty station is Korea. She was at Camp Humphreys. And I went there to visit her. She didn't know I was coming. And I'm like, I didn't know where she was. And I got this staff sergeant to help me find her and he found her in global. And she happened to be in the building that I was visiting with the Army's CIO. And so I walk into, this is just too funny not to tell you guys, but I walk in there, a Colonel, right? Walks in there looking for a private. And I walk into this, it was actually an MP battalion. I walk in and I'm like, hey, I'm looking for private florals. And they're like, this kid, he doesn't see me, he doesn't have my, he doesn't see my rank. And he's like, excuse me. And I'm like, I'm looking for florals, you know, private florals. And he looks over, cause there were two monitors and he looks over and I thought he saw a ghost and that kid just sprung up. And he belted out attention. I jumped back cause he startled me and I'm like, oh hell, you know, yes, here I am. And you know, and so that was, you know, I'll be looking for my cousin, but I looked at her when I finally found her. She said, you know, my first sergeant called me and he said, a whole Colonel was looking for you. It sounds a little suspect, but I finally linked up with her, you know, and she's just entering the military. And I'm like, it's so funny cause I feel like I'm looking through, you know, it's through just, you know, the past. It's like, she is me now, right? And she's trying to figure it out. And you know, and I'm telling her, you know, you have this, you're going to go, you know, you're coming back to the States. I need you to, what is your TSP allowance? You know, make sure that you, that you invest. And I'm telling her all of the things that I know I overwhelmed it, but I'm, you know, now, you know, she's my little cousin. I have to help her, but she chose this and she actually went to lunch with, with me and the Dr. Oyer, the Army's CIO. We all went out to a lunch and he asked her, cause he thought I had influenced her to join the Army. And I'm like, I had nothing to do with it. Like my mom turned to me and said, did you know that she joined the Army? And I'm like, no way. But he, you know, he turned to her and he said, you know, why did she join the Army? And I'm like, I'm waiting for her story. And she said, cause I wanted a better life. And I was like, this is the best place to find it. I just swore it was my heart. That's phenomenal. That is phenomenal. Well, friends, that's all the time we have for tonight. So I want to thank the three of you on behalf of our audience who's watching as well as the entire US Army. Thank you all so much for sharing your stories with us. Thanks for being such an inspiration to us all. I loved your stories. I found them very powerful. And I think that folks out there also found them powerful. And certainly want to thank you on behalf of the Hispanic American community for stepping up and doing this show with us. It's been a great discussion. I hope that those of you watching have enjoyed it as much as I did. Talking to these great folks, these fine Americans. So thank you to everyone who joined us virtually. We hope to see you for our next live discussion. I'm Hank Manitrez. Good night, everyone. Okay, I'm hoping we're clear. Somebody will come on and tell us. Oh, that was great. Did you guys have fun? Yes. That was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. That was a lot of fun. It went by fast. Yeah, these always do, cause we always