Hi all,
This one is going to be a personal post. The markets can wait. Interestingly enough, we tend to get the most engagement with non-financial pieces, which on one level makes a lot of sense, but on another level it makes my analytical heart break just a tiny bit.
This past week, my family and I traveled to Hawaii for the retirement ceremony of Master Chief Petty Officer, Matthew Paul, my brother. A graduate of Bishop DuBourg High School (go Cavaliers), academically he was, by all accounts, an average student. After graduation, and unsure of where to go next, more education just didn’t seem like the right move, so he enlisted in the United States Navy at the ripe old age of 18.
Early in his career, and at the bottom of the totem pole, he was conflicted about his future. He’d had visions of becoming some version of Charlie Sheen’s character in the movie Navy Seals, but quickly realized that wasn’t going to happen. And just as he was considering leaving the Navy, he met his future wife, Melinda. Not unlike most of us, for the first time in his life, he understood the reason to become part of something greater. They married in July 2005, and even as a young man, I could tell something had changed. He began to believe.
In late 2007, his next deployment was to NAS Sigonella in Sicily, Italy where he served as Chief Command Criminal Investigator/Watch Commander. In 2009, he enrolled in online college classes at Columbia Southern University, and in July of 2011, he graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in criminal justice. Like Red says in Shawshank Redemption, “the boy found brains he never knew he had.”
But in 2012, he spent almost 14 months in Afghanistan. When he returned, he struggled mightily with anxiety, depression, and alcohol abuse. Life went on this way for a while, but once again he found the resilience needed to right the ship. Through friends and family, he got sober, and perhaps realized his vulnerability wasn’t a defect, but a strength. Free of the denial and self-medication, he focused all his energy to fortify his mind, body, and spirit, to become the leader and the man I’ve come to respect more than anyone on the planet. A man who stood on a wall for all of us and said, “Nothing’s going to hurt you tonight, not on my watch.”
The ceremony was intimate and understated, echoing his own civilian personality. It was an amazing celebration, not only because of the myriad of colleagues who came from far and wide to celebrate, but also because Pearl Harbor was where he was sent directly after boot camp in 1996. From an aimless sailor, to an honored and confident leader of the bravest men and women this country has to offer. A true, full circle moment on the deck of the U.S.S. Missouri.
On behalf of a grateful nation, your watch has ended. I couldn’t be more proud to call you my brother and see the man you’ve become. I salute you, and I love you.
– Adam
