Da Guards - Ep. 7 - Let's meet Lt. Col. Dan Murphy

good morning good evening good afternoon my name is STA and Samuel croll at the North Dakota National Guard's public affairs office and today I have a special guest Lieutenant Colonel Dan Murphy how are you doing sir Good Sam thanks fantastic so right now you're assigned as the uh Director of Human Resources um for the North Dakota National Guard um and you also are an mday uh domestic operations is what I know or deputy director for our Dom op section that's correct director fantastic so we're going to talk a little bit about that but I'd like to First do the introduction so tell me a little bit about yourself where you from what you like so I grew up uh smalltown North Dakota lmore North Dakota okay best cat mascot in the state polar bear all right um and uh enlisted into the north Cod Army National Guard when I was 17 junior in high school so I was a split option guy okay and uh you know funny story there I joined one night I went to pick up a buddy of mine and his dad was forcing him to sit down and talk to the recruiter and we couldn't go out to do anything until after so I sat at the table and by the end of the night we both had committed and we were heading down to Fargo so nice that's uh that's how I ended up in uniform uh that was you know late 80s okay so it's I've been wearing this uniform for quite some time right on uh spent a little time in the Ada uh I've spent time in logistics units a variety of different things um like I said my last full-time assignment was uh the j3 so domestic Ops full-time sure and uh then in in January moved into human resource office fantastic and and Sir uh you were enlisted before you went officer route so I was enlisted for 18 years oh okay yep and I was a direct commission ah gotcha so so a direct commission is basically you go right through OCS or how does work no R Toc oh what the heck yeah they uh they you put a packet together you look at all your NCS you get a bunch of letters of recommendation and sure you sit in front of a board you interview and you get the thumbs up thumbs down and they must have been pretty desperate at that time cuz I got the thumbs up oh that's awesome so take me back a little bit so 1988 you enlisted as uh you said a Ada right in the Ada Ada so first a fire for all the Ada listeners out there um what was it like in 1988 joining the military I mean you and I've even looking at your career here you were actually the EXO under recruiting and retention what has like from being in for this amount of time what has changed um and and I mean don't have to go over good and bad but like what's the difference then and now yeah so really sad when we first when I first joined right late 80s um and then to today right I've gone through um you know that that period of uh a strategic Force versus an operational Force right oif o I spent some time in Kosovo uh so you know midpoint of my career or later little later than that uh really when deployments kicked off and that that changed a lot changed a lot for the organization and changed a lot for um you know opportunities in the organization right and uh you know it's it's been great and you know what I'm on I don't want to do public math but somewhere in the you know three decades plus so I've seen a lot and done a lot and it it's been a great career well good and I mean I've had the pleasure of working with you um a couple of different times throughout my tour working at troop command where you were the executive officer um there and then also when you were a little I think I was a brand new E4 I don't know if you remember at all but I was a brand new E4 we had a simbly middle school basketball game and I had to say like oh the North Dakota National Guard's been deployed a bunch of times and it was like me and another crew and I was the E4 I had got to basic training or anything but I remember you was Major Murphy then but you probably didn't know this young I don't remember that no but I don't remember a lot like I said it's been a long career well and that's okay and and that's interesting you say that so when you talk about um time specifically you know if o f um all of these deployments it is a huge change of not culture but climate um in the sense of you know opportunities Etc and and you at hro and then also having this time being in all these different units I mean Ada uh 12 Charlie you know you've been an engineer you've been with the Ada public affairs so like you've seen many many different things and also have been a part of many many changes to kind of caveat onto that what made you decide to go the officer route yeah so uh about year 16 17 into my enlisted career sure I wanted to get into public relations MH uh the equivalent to that in the Army is public affairs right right uh at that time our public affairs officer was starting to get ready to retire okay and uh you know massart uh Keller and uh and Rob was getting ready to retire and the organization wanted to put it or turn it back into a commissioned officers uh position oh wow okay uh so that's what started me down the path of of putting a pack together for a direct commission and um and like I said you know eventually got the thumbs up uh and that was my first full-time position was the deputy public affairs officer working with Rob okay and he retired about a year later I became the public affairs officer and I did that for from 2005 to about 2011 uh and during that time frame that was three deployments wow um and that was really when oif and O if and EF kicked off and so organizationally we were extremely busy and then throw on top of that the flood of Nine the flood of 11 um and a variety of other domestic responses that we did that it it was it was extremely engaging and rewarding yeah uh from from you know the Foxhole of a public Affairs officer I mean I I got to experience and do a lot of different things right and that's if there's one thing that I know is how do a lot of younger soldiers that I've met are like how does so and so do so well well they've had a lot of exposure right and we talk about um over time you're going to learn and have mentors good and bad and sometimes you're going to get put in positions where holy cow what am I doing am I doing things right and you're questioning all these things and you have people around you like Rob Kell or just people in other offices Etc so when you talk about that I can't even imagine the amount of a pressure B the amount of things you learned on the Fly um but then also just the clarity of it all after you're done with something you're kind of just thinking to yourself okay I've done this what could I have done better and then come the next operation like you're talking 09 08 the floods and stuff how that directly correlates so yeah and what I'll tell you is you know the the Army helps you to become very resilient oh yeah um they also uh you know help you and teach you to become confident yep and really just you put your best foot forward every day and you kind of get a little quicker faster stronger smarter when you do that and and each day right you just get a little bit better a little bit better or you hope to right right you know it's nice when your leaders tell you that you're falling a little bit short right so you pick up the pace a little bit feedback is good yeah positive feedback always um so you know that really that's that's that's been my career is the Army has really just taught me to be resilient do your best right and you know the old adage of you know those are tough shoes to fill well you know you fill your shoes you don't fill somebody else's shoes right and and you just I love that literally do the best you can that's awesome that is that is probably the one quote that I've like pic that's awesome um and that's such a big thing to realize oh my gosh even as a younger leader I've had to be I'm the same person I'm like oh my gosh I wish I could be like him I wish I could be like them or whoever but at the end of the day you fill your own shoes no one else can do it for you that's fantastic um so did you always decide to be in the military full-time for your entire career I mean going on I mean it's 2025 2025 almost now so was this a career decision in the making when you were done with all these crazy missions or was this like no I wanted to do this from day one great question so I like many others joined to get my college paid for right okay um so that was you know that was the motivation behind is you know how am I going to pay for college um that turned into you know your second enlistment of okay what do I do and there was a point in my career uh I was you know right around the 10 11 year mark sure um that I I took a year off uh and and um ironically I you know I say by the grace of God I happen to be going to school out you Mary and I was sitting next to somebody um who I I knew well and and she said murf what are you up to and I said well you know I I I'm in the ing right now I'm you know just taking a break and unfortunately uh you know the preponderance of folks that go into that type of status don't return right right and she said what do you want to do and I said well I'd really like to get into public affairs or public relations uh because that's kind of what I'm go into school for and she said you know we've got an enlisted position that's open in our public affairs Detachment oh you know so it just worked out just was pure luck and and uh I I took a tour of of uh you know what they did and and you know just kind of jumped right back into to that point um so that was a few years of doing that uh inlisted and um and then at that point it was uh like I said the the the full-time public affairs position was coming open and and I was certainly interested in going down that that path and so I I put my packet in and took and was the only liutenant in the headquarters building for a lot of Lieutenant Dan I had a I heard it I would be a very rich man that's a new one yeah that's a new one yeah that's that's actually crazy you say that so similar experience in my own sense I was going to go to Minnesota for the Art Institute or I was going to get a music degree in performance at the University of Mary and at the time like I had a marine package filled out and my grandpa looked at me and said no with all the things going on around you don't want to be in going to Syria or something like that you should should find another option and that's no diss on to anyone else right but somebody then at all state music said hey there's an Army Band holy cow what like I was going to in music for a civilian career and there's a military option had no idea and then that effectively changed everything and then like you said over time people places timing right yeah and here I am here I am 10 years later six years in the full-time world it's crazy um but you know Sam you know aside from trying to grow that sweet mustache we got to take chances in life 100% right yes and and the fact of the matter is you took chances right I took chances yes there are a lot of us in the organization that take chances and you kind of alluded to it earlier you you know oh how would I do it that job or I'm not sure I would succeed or whatever and you know again I I've done this Army thing for a long time and the Army just really instills in you that be confident oh yeah right just keep putting a foot forward every day and you're going to be shocked at what you accomplish that's so that's a great caveat I always use the um example you have to you have to climb a or excuse me you have to jump off a cliff in order to climb the mountain which a lot of people like wait a second but I'm on the I'm on the cliff like I'm already I should be at the top of the M don't think about it too much it's like when going to ask for a military full-time interview would you rather choose the fork or the spoon yeah you know it's one of those proding bicycle yeah exactly oh yeah this guy will be great salt or pepper you know um so that being said when you say Taking Chances how to the every mday Soldier when they enlist they think okay I'm going to do a six-year contrast to 6X two because that's what the guard offers um and I think there's even a three-year contract now but it's a 6X two contract majority and they're going to be getting their college paid for they're goingon to do what well along their Road they're going to have different things they may be in the Ada and do a rotation operation Noble eagal in Washington DC or you're an MP Company and you're going over to Ghana and working with their police force um there's a lot of things that'll change a person's career over such a I mean six years in the guard if you think about it is well I think the math again no public math here but 365 is days if we think about like M day you know one week in a month two weeks out of the year isn't six years it's like a year um for anyone that's an mday what would you say to them if they don't know what they're doing but they're enjoying their military service like what are some of the opportunities that we have for an mday soldier in the guard currently okay so I'm going to talk about full-time opportunities as we segue into that because there are opportunities Galore you talked about it uh listen from a traditional Soldier right I been uh in the Ada I've been an engineer I've been a public affairs NCO uh not even talking about the opportunities I've had as a commission officer from a full-time perspective we have roughly about 1100 full-time positions wow so those are federal technicians and agrs and uh it's both the Army and the air guard okay um and the way I explain it to people is you look at the organization like a microcosm of any other larger organization because that's you know a thousand employees is a lot of folks not you know even to include the part-time M or the traditional or dual status Guardsman which add on you know 2, 2500 for the Army and another thousand for the air I mean you think about it's 4,000 full-time and part-time uh employees in this organization so with that you need people to do Logistics you need people to do Personnel you need people to do human resource and I don't want to confuse the two uh for anybody um but when you think about most of your traditional folks are going to work with their s one sections right they Personnel is um in in the human resource side of things we deal with civilian humaning resource issues and and and whatnot so that's everything from um onboarding benefits uh retirements right um you know for for you know dual status technicians at buying your time back from deployments and things like that so you know I I when I stepped into this job here a number of months ago I came home one night told my wife I said there's nothing I've done in the army that has really prepared me to do civilian Human Resources work you uh both the Army and the air have unions and I've really had never worked with the unions before true true um so the opportunities within the organization are opportunities like you would find in any medium to large size uh organization and really you just your first job likely is not going to be your last job true and we've talked about it already a little samry take chances and take opportunities take an opportunity to get into the organization you get a wide-eyed view of really what the organization does and the different sections and departments and much like you did you kind of gravitated towards public affairs work from you know a S1 personel side of things right and and so you found that you know in your heart it's like yeah this is really where I want to go the Unique Piece of the Guard is I can have one job Monday through Friday and do something completely different which I do which you do right completely different of sorts um on on your weekend position right so uh you know I I encourage those that will listen to the podcast those that wear the uniform um if your heart is in service uh then I think you're really going to enjoy a full-time career and an opportunity uh because you'll have those chances every day to help somebody and serve somebody so true I've I've met so many people I mean from the first job that that I had at RNR as a human resources technician to now being in the visual information public Affair Affairs well realm excuse me that so many people will go and do so many different things and take those chances um if you start out in the little cubicle and are doing paperwork well maybe a year or two you're going to have another opportunity arise that you've been indirectly training for to take you somewhere else whether that be a unit on a mobilization or whether that be just another mos in the military another job um and that's that to me is one of the most valuable things that I think the military as an organization does very very well and that and I'm not trying to diss on the civilian sector but like if you apply for a job it seems like you're stuck there and you're only going to climb that particular jobs ladder but in the military it's okay you're in the door you've got your foot in the door okay well what are you good at and then your supervisors and your PE just people around you are going to say well you should try try this opportunity try this and you have to me have said hey you should take this opportunity and you know you say yes sometimes sometimes you say no um you know those are things that can happen it's no different than telling an enlisted Soldier hey you've got the qualities to be an OCS grad or be an officer absolutely take the OCS option yes you know and listen I spent 18 years inlisted and loved it right and there's still a ton of my makeup that feels I'm more enlisted than I am an officer right right and and and that's okay right all of us are are just designed in our own way right and you have to look to to capitalize on those skills and try and improve uh the things you feel you're a little deficient on and I've had uh mentors tell me be as universal as you can and what they mean by that is just keep Taking Chances keep building your resume keep looking for opportunities right um I've explained to a number of of folks that have said do you think I would really qualify for that position or how do you think I would be right my response to that is like you know we can teach you almost anything in the Army except ambition and except will yeah right so if you show up at work every day thinking this is my job interview uh you know bully for you that's fantastic I can teach you how to fix widgets I could not necessarily me but organization can teach you how to do almost anything mhm except that ambition and that will to get up and do your best every day yeah you got to want it um now's almost the time to start getting your foot in the door Sam there's opportunities glore yeah right there well and you've got a you know an Ever evolving force and what I mean by that is you know you've got retirements and you've got folks that you know need to that are going out the back door we need folks coming in the front door right um for us to be successful and uh and again if you look at it from the scope of uh you know we're like a you know a civilian organization sorts where there are all those capacities where where we need that support and I said it once I'll say it again right your first job is not your last job yep um you know Sam I'll use you as example right when you came into troop command uh and and you uh were there for not really that long when you think of things and then the next opportunity came up and I see that time and time again um and I think that's part that is a big part of of our success is that we encourage that right listen you you have you have cut your teeth here and you've done a great job right here's a position that just opened up I think you'd be very good at right uh and the other piece of it is from a from a full-time perspective we you know we kind of Saddle right up with your traditional um additional education or whatever it is right so if you want to be an you know an equal opportunity leader if you want to be a whatever um has hasmat qualified unit movement officer qualified or whatever organizationally when you're a full-time we encourage that right because it brings that benefit right back to the full-time organization it's a little bit different and I spent like I said I spent a lot of time uh in the civilian world before I came full-time and you know it's it's explaining to your your uh you know employer let's you know I I got to go away for two weeks and then maybe another two weeks here and you know and that's that's tough and that's challenging I know that cuz I've walked in those shoes for a long time yes uh then when I came on full-time I realized that my supervisors were encouraging that no that you that's a benefit you'll bring immediately back to the organization go get that training right right we we will figure out a way to you know make things work for a week or two weeks or whatever because the value that you're bringing back um so uh you know our jobs are posted on you know North Dakota job service it's posted on the North Dakota National Guard web page uh so uh it's likely posted on a lot of bulletin boards yeah if anybody reads bulletin boards anymore um but you know so the access to find out what jobs are available is very very simple right and we have we have vacancies and and those jobs they're not necessarily um you had alluded to civilian civilian unions as well so a lot of our jobs you can be a uniformed member whether it be air or Army but there are opportunities for civilian too right aren't even enlisted 10 11% of our full-time force is true civilian wow now they can wear the uniform but they're hired into a true civilian position unlike you and I as a dual status Guardsman right for us to have our full-time job we got to keep wearing the uniform correct right so so that number sits about 11% right now of our force that is uh is straight on civilian um and that that brings a lot of unique to it currently in the human resource office which was unique to me when I got uh when I came into the position um primarily that entire Workforce uh SS just a handful of folks they're all true civilians yeah so but they are experts in what they do right subject matter experts that build that longevity certainly get to understand the organization I don't if you remember day one of basic training I certainly don't a long time uh but I you know could guess that when I walked in I didn't know all the military rank structure um I didn't understand how the organization really worked right and the longer you do it the more you know it and it's same for our civilian Force right they start to understand the acronyms we use they start to understand uh the uniqueness of of the organization and all of that is just it's just mutually beneficial and it works really well right so when we talk about uh we we talk ly about from then and now how have you seen and obviously you haven't been in the current position director at hro for all that much time so you really don't know but um the exact stats but from your perspective have you seen that civilian job opportunity increase um or I don't know like was it mainly full-time military at the time or are we now opening a lot of doors to civilian employees so Etc yeah so the they call them Title Five employees okay so Title Five would be straight civilian you and I are title 32 dual status technician and I don't want to use a bunch of acronyms or whatever um yeah uh but the fact of the matter is uh I think I believe again from memory it was maybe three to four years ago was when um the civilians positions opened up in the organization oh okay so it has not been that long no not at all holy cow no so so you know that growth from Zer four years ago to where we are today again just about 11% % of the full-time Force um is is uh it it has provided a lot of stability in some certain sections um and I you know I'll use uh Human Resources as an example there's a lot to civilian human resources that just is not intuitive oh yeah um but to have uh a civilian Workforce that you work side by side with that have done it for more than a hot minute and understand you know some of the nuances of it all to a very very deep degree is absolutely invaluable and organizationally that's that's that's what employees expect when I ask a question I I I expect to get a professional and you know well researched answer right um because from an HR perspective it impacts your benefits it impacts your retirement right it impacts the things that will impact your life forever right so if you don't understand those things up front uh or if you AR able to reach out to somebody that is really really good at what they do and our staff is really really good um then you know you just end up being behind the eightball and and might lend you to become frustrated right and then potentially seeking uh employment outside the organization which is not what we want we've brought you in here we've trained you um you know we think you're doing a great job so you know stick with us there's great opportunities yes and that's it's interesting to say um interesting that you say that because you know when you had talked about a little bit about your deployments and things like that things will get stressful and that's okay but stick with it like you'll get there we'll get through this wherever what time whatever climate we're in we'll get through it but I just need you to stick around and and that will just make you that much more of a person or makes you a better friend yeah right makes you a better uh Mentor leader uh whatever you want to say right as as you've kind of you know walked through or forg yourself in that fire of sorts and you come out on the other side and realize yeah you know what for example basic training was hard but I made it right yeah Advanced Training OCS what what you know whatever you know level of military school you're going through um you emerge on the outside and and you feel so good about what you've accomplished yeah and then you become that encourager to others like happens like do it it does it just a snap of the finger I blink my eyes three decades Plus have passed jeez y I mean for B being almost a decade now you know myself but it feels like yesterday I was in Fort Jackson sweating my butt off getting screamed at and now I'm here 10 years later never thought I would be here and and that's interesting you say that um it's a great correlation to you know you're going to go through hard times and all these different I guess you could say pillars will come into your play and you'll have to get over them somehow um and then you'll look back on at the end of the day and you're holy how I I did that yeah I'll tell you in anybody's career obviously you're not going to hit every goal that that you set out to accomplish right and that's you know on purpose you should set lofty goals to make sure that you are scraping and climbing to try to achieve them um my goal when I when I kind of got into the organization uh traditionally and uh and kind of figured out who's who in the zoo is I my I wanted to end as a first sergeant right that that was my whole goal right because they had the ability to have some influence still got to work with soldiers every day handson you know right and uh and I came up just short of that um and and now as an officer I continue through my career to reflect back to that as far as why and the why is because I want to take care of people right I want to do good by people train Mentor you know and and impart the things that I've learned in my career to that next Generation right train two two levels down um and and so now I sit here you know as a lieutenant colonel uh you know I've had a chance to to be a battalion Commander at the RTI and and do some just unbelievable had some unbelievable opportunities in my career and honestly if you know if it ended all tomorrow Sam I would look back thinking yeah you know what I I didn't quite meet that goal I met and I you know again often still reflect back on on uh missing that because again you set goals to to ACH them uh but I look back and think you know what I hope in my career that that there are folks that think um you know what I I actually learned something from that old man and and uh and you know I appreciated whatever he passed along well I'll say this right now I I like the Ring of Lieutenant Dan more than I do yeah I still hear it a lot I had a legacy I had to poke so and that's I'm I'm so glad you say that um just just thinking about all the different things that can happen in one person's life sometimes we get stuck on on one thing and then you just completely forget about everything that you've done I've I've been there where I've literally looked at just reflected back and I'm stuck oh my gosh where am I at what am I supposed to be doing and all these things are just hitting but I've NE like recently I've holy cow I've done all these things and there's a reason for all these things um and it's it's cool that you say that because sometimes we get so stuck up in the now and all the crazy things that life brings us whether it was from you know whether you I don't know you know whether it's social media something or you know you're moving and you don't know what to pack what to sell like there's so many different things but then you look back on it and you're like oh this is awesome this is crazy but you know I think uh you know most of us that wear the uniform we're inherent planners yeah probably Drive our spouses and you know boyfriends and girlfriends crazy right because you know we want a conop we want a a plan laid out right you think about it how does the military work well there's a plan a and then there's a plan B and then there's a plan C and A majority of the time plan C B and a both come off the docket because something else came up and you have to redirect fight and the irony is that we're still running through the door exactly you got to push it there's a goal you got sometimes it drives my wife crazy and on a rare occasion she's appreciative of a plan so and I'm kidding about that but yeah so no she's great lady obviously we good so um let's look what over the time you said three decades now um what is one thing that you always look back to for inspiration mentorship words of wisdom I mean I'm sitting with you and we've been recording now for 36 minutes and I feel like I've already gained a whole novel worth of knowledge and just experience well that's pure luck yeah uh there's a couple uh culminating points in my career that I can look back on right I if I've early on I sought out mentors yep and not just mentors in my you know peer group or or a level above right I S out some very senior folks in the organization both on the traditional side and on the full-time side and um uh because uh as with anything U and a technician uh career and retirement is is no different um you have to manage your own career right and if you're not willing to manage your own career and and then you know on the Army side we we do career management plans we do you know things like that that that help lay out the next two three years of sorts um and if you're not responsible to managing your own career uh then it's hard for you to come back and and say yeah I fell short of this that or the other um when again you're not willing to you know take those chances mhm uh but I think honestly Sam the the best time in my career a few years ago was the latter part of my time as a public affairs officer I got a call from the Department of army to serve as the uh public affairs representative for Mr Clint romet he's a metal recipient U and I had done I had done some training with the Department of army I brought them to North Dakota to do some training and we had a very good relationship and as they were getting ready to announce that uh that he was going to be awarded the Medal of Honor they called and said you know can you work with with Clint and his family um to do some public affairs training because obviously as soon as the announcement would hit they're just overwhelmed with media inquiries right it was crazy um so myself and at that time another gentleman that worked in the public fairs office Bill peric uh we spent week or 10 days uh with Clint and his family and did some public affairs training and then at that point I thought my mission was done and you know a number of weeks later I got a call U from headquarters Department of the army saying have do you have your plane ticket to come out to DC for the event and I was just floored and and uh of course I checked with my boss be like what do you think of this and and you know as a great you know mentor and supervisor would do is happen to be General sprinson addict at the time yeah he's like Mur this is an opportunity you really can't pass up yeah and I absolutely support you know you and and and this effort and uh so that time period of of being involved in something at that level and being at the White House and and um and then after the event uh they they had tapped me on the shoulder two minutes before we were walking out saying you know why don't you step in front of all the cameras and introduce Clint and and uh you know kind of kick off the press conference and uh you know I was you know wide eyed and yeah and kind of what we talked about earlier it's like I don't know this is going to go uh but anyway stood up to the mic gave it my best shock and um and and that was I and I've had a lot of fantastic uh points in my career where I can reflect back to again if it ended tomorrow I'd look back and think you know this was fantastic and uh but that is certainly one that sticks out just because the magnitude of that event and and just uh all that goes into it yeah so the time that was something else yeah that's insane first off I mean oh my gosh um I hate looking at emails I can only am imagine the amount of phone calls and like physical like I don't know that you could say like physical items of letters and yeah wow that's you know in some sense uh you know I would say the second one was again during my public affairs time but um when Mina was flooding and just a tragedy of all that right and general spry walked down to my office one day and he he said hey I you know I think things are turning kind of South and why not why don't you head up there and see if you can support their their public fairs effort um and so i r a team with me and uh and you know we proceeded for a couple of weeks to facilitate uh you know public affairs efforts and that included you know calls and and whatnot all hours of the day from literally across the globe especially uh after they had U you know turned a siren on to evacuate m not um and just that's the real moment I mean I can kind of get chills talking about it right now because I can remember you know standing there you hear those Sirens go off and you you know then fully grasp the magnitude of what has just happened to this community yeah uh but then on the flip side um you know you scan the Horizon with hundreds and hundreds of uniforms uh that are in Min not to help support yeah and try and help build back that community and you know if that doesn't fill your heart with pride to be able to serve your state help your you know fellow North Dakota citizens uh um to try and make things at least one or 2% better um then I I I I think then probably something's lost on you cuz uh I mean that was just a fantastic time in my career right exhausting like none other U I've I've I don't think I've ever worked as hard as I have right those two weeks I mean it was literally in just insane but you look back now and as you kind of talked earlier it's like you snap your fingers and it's like hey I made it out the other side of that man I I you know yeah that's a pretty good deal nothing worth nothing worth going for is ever easy it's always it's always the the toughest the toughest situation where you just find yourself at the lowest point or you feel that you're at your lowest and then coming out on top of it you're just just that and that's again to caveat to what we had said before to kind of reflect back on what was said is everything that you do will just build you another step and another you know you'll become this Fortress of just experience knowledge and impenetrable when it comes down to any question or any other Tower or pillar to come your way it just makes you that much more durable and that's what thing that the military has always done very well and a lot of people give it Flack you know friendship is sometimes caused by trauma you know but it it's so true if you think about it um they may not be the best of days but it's Joe Snuffy to co Jette iner Bretton Joe snuff um on and and all these other different people that will make that the best part of your life and it's you mentioned it right it's about a team there's either somebody trying to hoist you up uh or push you or whatever it is and you know that's that in in my career in my experience that that has been the best part of all of this um is the friendships the teamwork and boy when you you know put a you know a few folks together just really what you can accomplish yeah you know all of us hit that wall where you're like man I don't know if I could take another step and then there's always that guy or that gal that's like oh yeah you could take one more step and then maybe mile whatever seven or 10 um you're that person where you catch that bit of energy and you're like all right you had me I got you let's go let's go and that's to me that that that just epitomizes you know kind of what we do every day right we're always lifting somebody up we're always pushing somebody along a little bit to be just a little bit better even when they don't think so and you know so then you just oh yeah that's just a little encouragement and they they'll get there man this has been awesome and I appreciate you so much for being on this podcast I I I can't find any other way to have ended this podcast any better um I guess the last thing I'll just open up the floor to you is there um is there any anything you would like to say to anyone out in the force in regards to hro um we'll definitely put some links in the comments for um sites to USA jobs as well as our ND guard page um but is there any last thing you would like to say um you and I could talk for oh my gosh hours hours and hours and hours um but that was such a what we've talked about in this 44 minute span I feel like oh gosh we could just keep going but I love it I love everything about it I would say sam to end it uh stay the course love it take chances seek out mentors mhm ask questions about your career and just enjoy the ride because it's going to go fast yes all right well you heard it here everybody um thank you so much for listening to guards podcast this was Lieutenant Colonel Murphy um and we will catch you on the next one [Music]