 I joined the Air Force back in July 28, 1999. My dad gave me two options. Either go to college or join the military. The third option was get out of my house. So I joined the Air Force. Everything was going good, but I got into some trouble. I went to the BX and got in a little scuffle with somebody that was actually picking on me. As he hit me at the register, all I remember is mothers picking up their kids, running, everybody screaming. We ended up getting a fight right there in front of the register. I picked up my stuff and I ran out. So with that, I got Article 15 demoted from A1C down to an Airman, lost one stripe. To top it all off, they locked me up in this correctional custody for 30 days. They don't use this program no more, but it's really to see if you want to stay in the Air Force. And it was a tough experience. Seven bases didn't want me because of my Article 15. And once I got into the Guard, it was like a whole different world. But once I told a story about the correctional custody, they wonder, how did you even make it up to a Master Sergeant? Most people would just either keep messing up and get kicked out of the Air Force. What drives you to keep going? My number one answer is, I never want to disappoint family, you know, people that believed in me. And then it's my kids. When I look at my kids, how can I tell them that you can be whatever you want to be but your daddy's a quitter? I lead by example. So whenever I do, my kids are watching and they look up to me. So when you're going through your time, the only way I can explain is when you're going through your time and you think all is done and I'm going to fail or this, shake it off. I went through what I went through. It actually made me stronger. So when I see young airmen acting out like, I have no problem talking to them. I have no problem telling them my experience because why would I have to, why go through all this and not help somebody else? Why hold it all in? Why not take young kids these days and talk to them, let them know, I don't care what you did. You can come talk to me because I've been there.