About this episode
Send us Fan MailGetting fired after a bar fight is not most people’s origin story for military service, but for Dave Lewis it lands just days before 9/11 and everything changes. Dave grew up in the Flint and Fenton, Michigan area, raised by a mom who never stopped showing up while his dad survived a devastating crash and later a brain tumor. That mix of community, hardship, and loyalty sets the stage for why the structure of the Michigan Army National Guard felt like a pull he could not ignore.Dave walks us through enlisting, the shock of day one at Fort Leonard Wood, and the moment basic training flips from regret to pride. Then the timeline accelerates: a fast mobilization order, a courthouse wedding so the Army will recognize his spouse, and a long overseas deployment that runs through Kuwait and into Iraq convoy security. He shares what it feels like to be told you are extended when you are already packing to go home, and he speaks candidly about loss, survivor’s guilt, and why reintegration can be harder than the deployment itself.From there, we trace the rest of the arc: recruiting life, staff and leadership roles, culture change, and the mindset he leans on when life gets chaotic, “Event plus Response equals Outcome.” Dave closes with a lesson he wants to leave behind for future leaders: empathy without abandoning accountability. If you care about leadership, veteran transition, National Guard careers, Iraq War stories, or navigating VA benefits, this conversation stays with you. Subscribe, share this with a veteran or leader you trust, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. Support the showwww.veteransarchives.org
