To many of us Memorial Day means time spent with family and cooking out. To a Veteran it has a whole different meaning. Jon DeBoe is a Gas Mechanic at Consumers Energy and a combat Veteran. Listen in as he shares his perspective on this sacred day.
To many of us Memorial Day means time spent with family and cooking out. To a Veteran it has a whole different meaning. Jon DeBoe is a Gas Mechanic at Consumers Energy and a combat Veteran. Listen in as he shares his perspective on this sacred day.
Description
To many of us Memorial Day means time spent with family and cooking out. To a Veteran it has a whole different meaning. Jon DeBoe is a Gas Mechanic at Consumers Energy and a combat Veteran. Listen in as he shares his perspective on this sacred day.
William Krieger
The views and opinions of the guests of the Me You Us podcast do not represent the views and opinions of Consumers Energy. Hello, everyone and welcome to this special Memorial Day episode of the Me You Us podcast. I'm your host Bill Krieger. Today, my guest is John DeBoe. He's a gas mechanic from the Groveland headquarters here at Consumers Energy, the financial secretary for local 105, and he is also a military Veteran. So John, if you'll introduce yourself, we'll get the conversation started.
John DeBoe
Absolutely. Thanks for having me today to Bill. So again, my name is John DeBoe. I started 18 years ago, in the Livonia headquarters as a meter reader where I read for two and a half years and took a gas service in Pontiac promotion to get out of meter reading. I spent seven years doing that. And then finally got the opportunity to become part of the distribution family, where I've stayed, and I thoroughly enjoy, met a lot of good people there. Unfortunately, they closed down the Pontiac headquarters. So I was forced to Royal Oak, as a street utility worker for a year. And once the big hire happened, I was able to transfer to Pontiac, excuse me to Groveland the headquarters I wanted to be at. And that's where I've been ever since. And also, you know, the union background, I started as a steward in Pontiac, when I first got there with, you know, Mike Nelson, and Jeff McCurry and how Hal Malar and those guys, they grabbed me up and pulled me in and said, hey, we need some more stewards and I said, well, I didn't really know what a steward was, I didn't grow up in a union household, I didn't really understand, you know, a whole lot about the Union. But, you know, they were my forefathers, more or less with, you know, introducing me into the Union. And I've rode it ever since then from being a steward to a chief steward to delegate to financial secretary for going on seven years.
William Krieger
So in addition to kind of moving up and learning a lot of things about just the work itself, you really understand kind of the inner workings of the union and how all that pulls together to, to take care of our workforce.
John DeBoe
Absolutely, Bill, um, you know, we went from those of you that are from Pontiac understand the mentality in the fight that was always in Pontiac, and we've grown so much since then, into the partnership where we have more of a cohesive unit, we work together, and we and we battle out our differences when we need to, but a lot of times, it's just a simple conversation, and we've grown so much as a company in a union. And I really can appreciate that.
William Krieger
Well, I think that helps out with getting the work done safely and efficiently. And it just makes it so much easier when we're on those good and friendly terms. You know, John, I heard you talk about coming in through meter reading. And I gotta tell you interviewed a lot of our coworkers on here. And a lot of them came from meter reading, so I bet you got some great stories from your days in meter reading.
John DeBoe
Oh, you know, I mean, I'm not going to lie. It wasn't my favorite job here at consumers. It was very grueling every day with the weather being too hot, being too cold, you know, being away from your car for long periods of time. Dogs, I did get bit one time, my dog and I swore it would never happen again. And it didn't, thankfully. But yeah, I mean, you, you see a lot of crazy stuff, specially. You know, when I started, we still had inside meters. So you're banging on somebody's door. I don't think anybody's home and you might have a key for that door. So you enter and you know, you yell meter reader. And next thing you know, you go downstairs and it's in a bedroom and you're waking somebody up. So yeah, I'm glad those days are, are long gone.
William Krieger
Yeah, I think we all have to pay our dues to appreciate where we're at maybe. Maybe that's how it works. So, you know, today, we are talking about Memorial Day. And you know, you and I met a few weeks ago doing some interviews to hire Veterans into the company and I found out that you're a Veteran yourself. So you talk a little bit about your service and what branch and where you served and all that.
John DeBoe
Sure, absolutely. So I did 13 years in the Army. Did my basic training and all that at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Basic an AI T there and I was a military police officer, graduated came home. Did the whole Pentagon tour after 911. We were stationed right there outside Arlington at Fort Myer. actually kind of a funny story. They were set to tear those buildings down. And then 911 happened and so when we first moved in, there was no doors. There was no running water. I mean, it was a pretty, pretty rough situation there, but I met a lot of great people. I, that's when I kind of started to understand, you know, what our service meant from all the support that we had from, you know, just the random public to even officers inside the Pentagon, you know, I can remember holidays, being the new guy, you know, low, no seniority, so to speak, and I worked all the holidays. And they just were really appreciative that we were there looking out for their safety. And, you know, I got a lot of coins. I mean, I, I know how you can appreciate a good coin. And I got a lot of them just from being there. And I can remember this one time, I was working with SGT Ettinger, and I was just a private and this two-star general came in and his boot laces were untucked. And he bet me I bet you 20 bucks, you won't go and tell that general his boot laces are out. And I'm like you're on and I went right over to him. And I just said, you know, excuse me, sir, you might want to step aside and square yourself away before you go into the Pentagon. And he thanked me and gave me a coin right then and there, you know. So it was just one of those things, I don't know, I've always just kind of been that forward person. And what's right is right, and if I can help somebody square himself away, I absolutely will.
William Krieger
So you mentioned coins. And for the members of the audience who are not in the military aren't familiar with what we're talking about a challenge coins, and they're carried by different people in the military. And when someone has done something above and beyond, or you want to recognize something that's been done, you hand them your challenge coin, as a company commander, I had a challenge coin that is gone out to a lot of different people, I've kept challenge coins. But the other side of the challenge coin is you're supposed to carry it with you. Because if someone challenges you, and you do not have your challenge coin, and you have to buy the next round if I understand that correctly.
John DeBoe
Absolutely. We always did that, you know, with who carried the, the more weighted coin, meaning from a higher level, which the highest one I have is a presidential coin, I was on a detail where we provided security for Air Force One. And you know, they gave us coins for doing that. So I always carry that around with me. And you know, very, very few people could match that. So needless to say, I did get a lot of free beverages in my time.
William Krieger
You’ve got me be like, I thought I was a top guy because I've got the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Mullins coin, but I think the President tops that, so you win on this. So in your in your time, now you served with the 1775th If I'm not mistaken.
John DeBoe
Um, that is accurate. I started out with a 210th Military Police Battalion where I was actually a major’s driver. And then we deployed and Major Potter, then great guy didn't want me to get a bad opinion about what we were doing by just driving him around. So he actually loaned me out to the 144 MP Company, which was already there. And then that's where I met a lot of my friends that I still call friends today from the 1775th MP company out of Pontiac. And when we came off of that deployment, I transferred into that unit as quickly as I could. And 1SG Russo you know, he was the one that made sure he made that happen for me. So great, great guy. He actually pinned me when I got my E-5. So I got I got my blood rank from 1SG Russo.
William Krieger
And it's interesting because these names I know these names, too. So when I, when I came into Michigan National Guard, I was a staff sergeant in the 144th MPCO. And then I left there, went to OCS went to the 76th and then came back as the commander of the 144. So, I think we know a couple of the same people anyway.
John DeBoe
Yeah, absolutely. I don’t know if you remember or not Bill, but when we served in Mississippi, Biloxi, Mississippi, we our paths crossed. I was brand new to the company. And we deployed for Hurricane Katrina. And I don't know that my boss at the time knew. You know how the military worked so much because we deployed without orders because it happened so fast. And we made that terrible drive in those Humvees all the way down there. And because I wasn't there and there were no orders, it was almost like a no call no show. And I remember distinctly you know, first time I don't think I officially got to meet you. I just heard well that guy there works for consumers go and talk to him. And that was the first time all those years ago that our paths crossed.
William Krieger
Yes. And I you know, I that I maybe I'm repressing that that memory. When you were talking about that a couple of weeks ago, I remember that that particular situation and you're here today, so we've obviously got things worked out. Now I know that there was a deployment to DC and then we all got to go down to Biloxi for a couple of months and hang out down there. And then I know that as a commander, I actually deployed to Iraq and 2006-07 In you deployed as well.
John DeBoe
I did. I didn't deploy until December 2010. But we went to Afghanistan, we were stationed right in the heart of Kandahar, about a half mile down from FOB Walton. And I was positioned in a small, concrete structure that they call the police station. We didn't have any fortified barriers, we so we had pretty much had to start from scratch and build this up all we had were, you know, little fences and four guard towers. So you know, no, no running water, no bathrooms, we had porta Johns. So it was tough. It was tough. Definitely. Like I always like to say, you know, it was the best, worst time of my life. You know, I mean, there's not really any way to explain it. I mean, and then I also did some other things. We went to Samna in the Dominican Republic, where we pulled security for the Army Corps of Engineers, where they were building schools and stuff on the border of Haiti. So we did that. And, gosh, there's, there's so many things, Bill I don't even know where to go. There are so many things to talk about. I mean, I did way more stuff, you know, as National Guard soldier than I ever thought, in a million years that I would, you know, be in QRF for the state of Michigan and the surrounding areas. I mean, there's just so many, so many things.
William Krieger
Well, I think, and I think when, when people think about military police, they think about a couple of things. One, they think about the guys that drive around in cars and write tickets, and they do exist. I actually did a little bit of that myself up at Camp grayling. But in the other thing, I think I was the guy at the gate that says, you know, the PX is that way, the PX is that way. But really, what people don't know is that when we were deployed to the Middle East, our job was to train and equip the Iraqi police force. And they were really a quasi-military force. It wasn't like a regular police department with patrol cars and that sort of thing. And so it was definitely probably well, it was definitely a different experience for us as MPs than maybe it had been in the in the past, because we do a lot of things that you don't traditionally think of as military police having done in all the places, we've gone to things that we’ve; we've seen. It's interesting, you talk about like you did all these things as a Guardsman in I don't know about you, but I always thought, well, gosh, I didn't realize the National Guard did all this stuff. But I did a little research. And if you look at the units that were landing, during D Day, the majority of them were National Guard units.
John DeBoe
See, I didn't know that that is an interesting fact.
William Krieger
Yeah, the National Guard has a rich history of being involved in more than just taking care of business at home. So you know, as a, as a combat Veteran yourself, you know, in, we're looking at Memorial Day, many of us are going to have cookouts or we're going to hang out with our families, and we're going to take the day off and, and enjoy it. And I'm just wondering, what does Memorial Day really mean to you? And how do you celebrate it maybe differently than someone who's not a Veteran?
John DeBoe
Oh, that's a that's a good question, Bill. I mean, I to do the barbecue thing. You know and enjoy some time with my family. Everybody that works here understands how, how busy this place can get. And sometimes your family time gets taken for granted. But those of us that are Veterans, and I can I mean, I can speak for myself as a Veteran. Memorial Day is really special for me. And I'm sure it is for you to Bill. I know we've both lost some people that we have in common in our unit, whether it been combat related or self-inflicted later because of the demons that you battle when you come home. But it gives me a time to take a moment and reflect and remember them. I think it's important to remember our history, I think it's important to remember the people that lay their lives down for us. I think it's important for us to remember those that had succumb to their own demons. And you know, Bill, I know we both have our own and we deal with them the way we deal with them and everybody's different and we do what we do, and we drive on. But one of the biggest driving forces for me is my family. You know, my beautiful wife Katie, almost seven years now. It's crazy how time flies. And then my four children I mean, I don't know what I would do without them. You know, they they're what get me out of bed in the morning. Get me to come home. At the end of the day, you know, so that I'm not battling my demons in a bar or in, you know, an unsafe situation, they bring me home, I come home for them. So that that's the thing for me, but, but Memorial Day is important, you know, to just take a moment and remember our history, and those people that lay down their lives for, you know, for America, for everyone to have our freedoms.
William Krieger
Absolutely, and when you talk about battling our demons, you know, I'm, I feel the same way I have a family I've been married for it will be six years this year. So when you talk about time flies, but we also have each other, which is something that is sometimes difficult to relate to, but I know that I can pick up the phone and call a buddy of mine who I served with, and that conversation just picks up where it left off, it might have been a year ago, or even four years ago, but it's like we were never ever apart. And if you experienced that with some of your, your Veteran buddies, as well,
John DeBoe
Oh, absolutely, there's a few of us that still remain in contact. And, you know, we, like you said it could be a month, it could be two months, it could be a year, I mean, time flies and you, you pick up that phone, and when you need them, they're there. I do have a person that I consider my best friend who's not a Veteran who's also been there for me, you know, I mean, and my wife, she's been very supportive. Um, but yeah, we have a very unique I don't know how to say we have a very unique diversity. Inside consumers, you know, in diversity is not just about color, it's about everything. And we have a very big group of Veterans. So it is very easy to turn around and find somebody amongst your peers amongst your work group amongst management, that is a Veteran. And when you are struggling with something that I like to refer to as a demon, they understand and you can take that pause, you can take that time out and have a conversation, get whatever's on your chest out, reach out for help. We have a very unique work group here. And it is comprised of a good majority of Veterans. So yeah, you there's always somebody, I'm running into new people all the time, within our local Local105 that are Veterans that I didn't know. And you know, you strike up a conversation and find out that your past probably crossed on a deployment somewhere. Yes, it's very unique.
William Krieger
Yes, it is. And I think that's a that's important to realize, as well. And I'm glad that you brought up as part of Memorial Day, not just those we've lost in combat, because we've, we've lost a lot of those. But those we've lost to the, to the reaction to combat, to coming home, and the difficult, it's so difficult to go to war. But it's really, really difficult to come back. And so to recognize and to be thoughtful of those folks as well, is important. Because there's lessons to be learned in all of that.
John DeBoe
I know, when I came back, it was really difficult, you know, because everybody's lives continue your personal life, not your family life, not, you know, your friendships, your personal life, pauses, and you go off to war to defend our beautiful country, or to assist another country with their battle. And when you come home, you try to pick up where you left off, but it's almost impossible because I don't want to say you get left behind. But that's what you feel like when you come home, you feel like you're left behind because your immediate family unless they're Veterans also they don't understand. And you try to explain it, but they don't get it. So I think that is where some people choose to go down the wrong path and look to some sort of a substance to help them cope with what they're dealing with, where there's lots of programs that you can reach out to and lots of people that you can talk to, I mean, within your unit, within your friends within, you know, different VA benefits, things like that. But you just you feel like you don't fit in anymore. You know, I don't want to say you feel hardened. But you do. You know you're not. You don't open up and share your feelings. You don't want to talk about it. It took me a long time to talk about things that happened when we were deployed. But my one memory that always comes back to me was we were doing a RIP, which is a relief in place. We are replacing a unit that was at this police station already. And we took our key leaders which was our platoon sergeant, our platoon leader and our two squad leaders which I was our first squad leader to the site to get it on and kind of get a feel for what the area was. And we were going to spend a good three, four days out there before we brought our troops in, just to get a lay of the land, you know, start doing up our own overlay maps and such, getting our key points. And that first day, we were there, we weren't there more than an hour. And we ended up getting into a nine-and-a-half-hour ordeal. There were some vehicle bombs that blew up, we refer to them as VBIED at the FOB Walton across the street down away a little bit. And that just started a chain of reactions with, you know, the small arms fire the mortar rounds, I mean, one thing after another running and ammo to towers, and well, then we have one that went off of VBIED, pretty close proximity to where myself and my lieutenant were coming down out of the guard tower. And the percussion of that blast was so powerful, that it actually threw me off the stairs of that tower. And I want to say I was probably like, five, maybe six steps from the bottom. But when it happened, I actually injured my right ankle pretty severely. I can remember thinking to myself, like, what did I just get myself into, I didn't have to come on this deployment, my I was actually getting ready to get out of the military. But because of the camaraderie and the Brotherhood and the blood, sweat, and tears of the years’ worth of training, to take my soldiers over there, I couldn't leave them. So I had to make the decision to leave my two children. And then you know, my current wife, which obviously since been divorced, but I had to make that conscious decision, and I made it and I, so I was in it, there was no getting out. Well, that next morning, I went over to the aid station at FOB Walton, and the doctor that looked at me wanting to send me home, he's like, you've got a class three sprain, and you probably have some stuff torn. And I told him that I wasn't going to accept that, and I wasn't going to leave my soldiers behind. So we made a deal that I would go back. And I would come back and see him in three weeks. And if it wasn't any better, that he would send me home. And so I tried, I tried really hard to stay off of it. But you know, we did foot patrols, that's what we did. We were the ones that were kicking in doors and looking for the high value targets that that's what we did. For the first six months, we were there until we switched from a combat zone to the stabilization zone where we started doing the training with the local Afghan police. But it's that kind of a commitment that soldiers make that people don't understand, you know, somebody might look back and go, Man, you just went through all that had a ticket home, and you didn't take it. No, because I wasn't going to leave my men behind you know no man left behind. I know that sounds cliche, but we live by that I wasn't prepared to leave them.
William Krieger
Well, and you know, John, that you were this is going to sound weird to people. But you were fortunate that you had a way to stay. Because many of my soldiers while we brought everybody home, didn't all come home in one piece. And it was so hard for them to get on that plane and fly to Germany and leave behind their squads, or their teams or their platoons because they felt that, that commitment to the team and they had to go I mean, there was just no way they were going to stay. And now it's your right, like, people, people who don't understand it think well, yeah, why wouldn't you want to get out of there as quickly as possible? Just get this over with but you love those people.
John DeBoe
Oh, absolutely. And then there wasn't a day that went by that we didn't tell each other that we loved each other. And I mean, take it for what it is. But when you are that close, I mean, my whole squad lived in a tiny little probably. And we had super squad, so I was 18 people now living in probably 300 square foot. I mean, we had they were like the Air Force bunks, right? I mean, that's what we lived in. There was no protection there. So we had to rely on each other. And we lived amongst 50 Afghan police officers that you didn't know if you could trust them. I mean, they change sides, like the wind blows. I mean, it was it was rough, but we made it through. We had just one person that left early on, due to an injury and some infections. But other than that, yeah, we were able to, to all come back home together and that's what was important to me was, you know, seeing it through making sure that my guys and girls I mean we have females in the MP Corps, and I had two of them my squad. And I mean, I don't want to sound like an old man, but they were like my children. I mean, I literally, I was there that I was there to protect them. And I was there to make sure that we did everything right and we came home in one piece and that we were safe and, and that we did our job, and we could feel good at the end of the day. And feel like you made a difference.
William Krieger
Yeah, and it's, you know, to me, it doesn’t sound so odd because not only have I experienced it, but I there's a guy named Simon Sinek, who did a talk about witnessing a captain of after a battle, and he's having to load some of his injured soldiers onto a helicopter. And as he's putting each one on the helicopter, he says something to him, and he kisses him on the forehead. And he puts him on the helicopter because that's his family. And it's that kind of a bond that allows us to work together in a very tense situation and do things for each other that people don't understand. But, but even those concepts today, when I worked as a field leader, and my guys and gals were getting ready to go out to the field, I would always tell them, when you're out there, you're all that you have. And so you have to take care of one another. And that was a lesson I learned from the military. And it carried over into to what I do today, management unit, it didn't matter when you're in that crew room, you're a family. And when you go out to the field, you have to take care of each other.
John DeBoe
Absolutely. You have to. I mean, like you said, we rely on each other, I need to know that you have my back. And you know, it's a lot of people may think, you know, people have nicknames or people you hey buddy, hey, pal, whatever. When I call you, brother, that means something. That's not just another word that is thrown out lightly to a Veteran. If I call you brother, then your part of my family, you're my brother, you know, we might have different religion, we might be a different race, we might come from a different country doesn’t matter. If we serve together. You're my brother. And that and that's all there is to it.
William Krieger
I couldn't agree more. I never really looked at it that way. But yeah, I don't I don't call everybody brother that I see. No, that's for sure. That's for sure.
John DeBoe
You have to earn that.
William Krieger
Well, John, we are getting close to the end of the podcast has happened so often the time just kind of slips away. This has been a great conversation. But before we go, is there anything that you would like the audience to take away from our discussion today?
John DeBoe
Oh, I mean, really, the only thing I can say is, you know, Memorial Day, just take that minute. Take that second. Take, you know, as much time as you think you need Veteran or non-Veteran. And just, even if it's not out loud, even if it's just in your head, just you know, give that respect. And in that prayer for all the people that did what they did, so we can be where we are.
William Krieger
Thank you for that. Thanks for coming on the podcast. I appreciate you sharing your personal story. And it's always great to get to know people. I thought I knew you after all those interviews we did. But I feel like I know you even more now. So I think I have another friend out there in the field. So appreciate not only coming on the podcast, but everything you've done with your service to our country and now your service to our customers. So thanks, John.
John DeBoe
Thanks for having me, Bill. I really appreciate it.
William Krieger
Thank you to the audience for listening in today. The Me You Us podcast is proudly sponsored by Consumers Energy leaving Michigan better than we found it. Remember, you can find the Me You Us podcast on all major podcasting platforms. So be sure to go out find us and subscribe. If you or someone you know is in crisis, please contact the Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. That's 1-800-273-8255 If you are a Veteran or know a Veteran who is in crisis, you can call 1-800-273-8255 in press one for the Veterans Crisis Line. And remember to tune in every Wednesday as we talk about the things that impact your personal world.