Happy Birthday to the National Guard, America's oldest military organization! 🇺🇸♥️🎂 Established in 1636, the #NationalGuard alone serves both community and country, responding to combat missions abroad AND domestic emergencies. After basic training, soldiers return to civilian life, training regularly with the understanding that they can be called on to serve full-time at a moment's notice. In honor of their anniversary, we spoke with Project Manager and former Field Artillery Officer Peter Lutz about his time in the National Guard. 🎙️Peter! You served for seven years, balancing your military responsibilities with your career. How did the former shape the latter? 🪖Being in a dedicated leadership role at a young age helped me, for sure. But that's everywhere in the military. What’s unique about the National Guard is you’re a citizen soldier; "citizen" first, "soldier" second. So, it's not just that you're in a leadership role in the military where rank structure is what you live by, it’s being in a leadership role with people who have lives and careers outside of the military, and who, in many cases, are 20-plus years into those careers (whereas I was six weeks into mine). It was a lesson in humility; you learn to treat people respectfully quickly because you don’t have the same level of authority you'd have in the Army. I think it also helped with prioritization. More directly to construction, construction is modeled similarly to the military. Project manager-types are akin to officer-types, superintendents to senior non-commissioned officers, and subcontractors to soldiers. You’re given a lot of responsibility at a young age and you're expected to perform. If you don’t do something, it’s not getting done; and people can get hurt when you don’t do your job. 🎙️As a Platoon Fire Direction Officer, you led the team overseeing artillery calculations; the stakes were high. Did that precision translate to managing construction sites? 🪖One-hundred-percent. Every round that leaves your tube, you’re betting your rank on because if you miscalculate, you could kill somebody. There are real life consequences to getting the math wrong. 🎙️What do you miss most about your time in the service? 🪖This is going to sound super weird but the smell of an active firing line. Just that scent in the air; it's a massive amount of gunpowder [blissful sigh]. 🎙️[Interviewer laughs] You need a gunpowder-scented candle! 🪖 Right? It wouldn't be the same though. Shooting rounds is a culmination of a ton of work and checks and calculations; it's difficult to get to that point. So, there's a ton of reward wrapped up in that smell, coupled with the fact that it's an awesome display of power and work and math and engineering. All that exists in one black cloud, and when you smell that – 🎙️It smells like success. 🪖And work completed. It’s like, “Man, today’s a good day.” Thank you, National Guard, for 387 years of courageous service! 🎉👏🏼
Robert Carlson
9mo
Great post ! Citizens Warriors Indeed !
Builder on a mission for the soul of the construction industry
9moGreat interview 👃