Unarmored Talk

Colonel (Ret.) Mark Shuster’s Journey Through Post-Military Struggles

• Mark Schuster • Episode 129

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What happens when a distinguished Marine Corps Colonel transitions to civilian life?

In this episode of the Unarmored Talk Podcast, retired Marine Corps Colonel Mark Shuster shares his journey from a 33-year military career to civilian life. He discusses the emotional and financial challenges of this transition and the importance of handling obstacles with composure.

Mark also explores the often-overlooked struggles veterans face, such as identity loss and depression, comparing past and present support systems. With practical advice on reading, networking, and building a personal support network, this episode offers valuable insights for anyone navigating major life changes.

Video Clip: https://youtu.be/ZXkfyLCtwhI

Guest Link:
Mark Shuster’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mshuster24/

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Mario P. Fields:

Welcome back to Unarmored Talk Podcast. Thank you so much for listening and watching each episode and continue, please, to share with your friends and family members and colleagues, and don't forget to leave a rating or review if you feel this is an awesome show. And you can connect to all of my social media on the Parade Deck Just look in the show notes. Media on the parade deck just look in the show notes. Or you can put in the search engine Mario P Fields parade deck and get all access to my social media. Well, let's get ready to interview another guest who is willing to remove their armor to help other people.

Mario P. Fields:

Welcome back everyone to Unarmored Talk Podcast. I'm still your host, mario P Fields, and I have another guest who's willing to come on the show to remove his armor to help other people gain a better understanding that you cannot control what happens to your life for the most part, but if you're sane, you can think through some things and understand. There's a difference between reacting and responding and learning from each other. Mark Schuster is my guest. He recently retired as a United States Marine Corps colonel. My friend Semper Fi, thank you for your 8,000 years of service. Y'all know I'm going to throw some humor in there. Actually, he started his Marine Corps journey in 1991. And more without further ado, mark, please welcome to the show my friend hey.

Mark Schuster:

Mario, it's a real honor to be here. I'm humbled to be asked to join you on your show and I'm looking forward to just having an Unarmored talk with you, so maybe we can relate some stories to other Marines and sailors and soldiers and airmen and guardians and coasties and see if we can help some people out. Did I get them all right? That's all six right and your Space.

Mario P. Fields:

Force too. I think we got to get this.

Mark Schuster:

It's a guardian.

Mario P. Fields:

There we go. Y'all know I've been retired for some years, so I'm learning. That's why I love you know the choice to learn every day. The other thing too and we'll get into the topic here quickly is I believe that your journey, my friend, could be applied to anyone in any industry, literally. But before I bring our guest on, you guys know the deal. Thank you for supporting this show. Again, this is for charity, for our first-time listeners or if you're watching on YouTube, every time you watch, click on any episode or you share any episode. It is for charity. It goes to my nonprofit. Wwwstillservinginccom is where you can learn more about this amazing nonprofit. That is six years in running this year and we've donated over 20 plus thousand dollars. That goes directly to our future of our world, and that is Pitt County high school students in a low-income community, underserved community, and we've been doing well. I'm done with the pitch. I'm done with the admin. Mark, can you please tell the listeners and viewers just a little bit about you and who you are?

Mark Schuster:

Sure, mark Schuster, retired Marine Colonel, retired 1 February 2024. I come from a military family. My dad was an Air Force veteran. He joined during the Korean conflict in 1952. He served for four years, had an early out due to his father's third heart attack when he passed away in 1955. My brother is a retired Marine infantry officer and much smarter than me, better in the Marine Corps than me, but I always said he had the brains, I had the looks. I mean come on. But my brother retired 2008, had a tremendous career and he was a UCLA ROTC grad in 1988. I spent about three years with him as a high school little brother and then in 1991, I graduated with a commission from UCLA and ROTC as well. Two brother-in-laws that served in the Marine Corps. So we are a military family and I've also got a son and two brother-in-laws that are in law enforcement. So we really are a family of service and very proud of it.

Mark Schuster:

My journey originally came out of the Bakestow School as a 3502. Mario, do you remember what the NMOS is? It's a Motor T, isn't it? Yeah, motor T. And so I served in 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines had no idea there were Motor T officers there, and when I checked into the division and my brother found out I was going to a grunt unit. He just laughed on the phone and hung up on me. But I was very blessed to serve with some incredible Marines and have an amazing journey 36 months at Camp Lejeune, from 92 to 95, and I was deployed almost 32 of them. Two-four Mew CACs operations in Somalia, haiti, kuwait, iraqi border, all around the Middle East. That's my cat and just a really pleasant opportunity to serve great challenges.

Mark Schuster:

And after that I was sent up to RS Springfield and became the XO of a recruiting station and learned a lot. I had a lot of blind spots, I had a lot of immaturity and I got my butt kicked on a daily basis. But you know, in the mid-90s there really wasn't that much going on in the world and the Marine Corps was in a different state. I remember getting issued all types of things from, you know, pens to toilet paper. We had a tough budget and it was hard.

Mark Schuster:

So in July of 1997, I left active duty, took me, my wife at the time and my six-year-old my six-week-old son, who's now 27, and left active duty, drove out of Springfield, massachusetts, stopped in Waterbury, connecticut, and I was able to meritoriously promote Sergeant Wargo to Staff Sergeant. I worked two years to help him get meritorious promotion. He's now a retired master and went back to the Camp Pendleton area and I joined USPA and IRA, also known as First Command Financial now as a financial advisor. And the problem was for me I was not prepared for transition off active duty. I had no mentorship, no coaching, no counseling, no transition assistance, no TAP, no TAMP, none of the processes the processes, procedures and organizations designed to help us transition existed. So I was lost.

Mario P. Fields:

Mario and, if I may, let's let's talk about that. You know, from the surface I believe a lot of folks will see someone like you. A retired colonel has this bachelor's degree minimum, things are in order, you're married and you make this decision to get out in 97. But from my basic understanding, when you made that decision to get out, there was a lot of turbulence that occurred because of that decision and I use that metaphorically. What were some of the challenges that you and your family faced when you just made that decision without doing lots of research or whatever?

Mark Schuster:

Yeah, first thing that happened to me was a complete loss of identity, sense of purpose and a meaning in my life. Sense of purpose and a meaning in my life. I joined First Command Financial. It was in the Oceanside California office because I wanted to help military members Marines specifically and their families learn how to live within their means and build wealth, because that is what it had done for me and my wife at the time. But what I found was that I was completely unprepared for that transition because I didn't have any foundation. I don't think I studied it well, I didn't prepare well. There were no types of bridge programs for us. It literally was.

Mark Schuster:

I went home my last night on recruiting duty on 30 June and I just left on 1 July and took off and there were no resources, no counseling, no shared experience, no social media. So you're on your own and about a year later my home life was in the toilet. I entered a deep, dark depression. I wasn't interested in doing anything. I wasn't interested in my family. I wasn't interested in my new son. I wasn't interested.

Mark Schuster:

My brother was stationed at Pendleton at the time but he was deployed with the MEU and my sister-in-law was babysitting my son. I wasn't motivated to do my job, I couldn't function, I didn't want to get up in the morning, I didn't want to get involved in anything, and I attribute that to a real loss of identity. Next thing, you know, I am in debt. I was debt, we were debt free and because you're independent, I racked up a tremendous amount of debt. I wasn't prepared to run a business and I just walked out one day. Now I'm driving a limo, I'm chasing hot air balloons, I'm trying to pay the bills as best I can. I have no focus, and so what I did was somebody mentioned to me like, well, are you out of the Marine Corps or are you just off active duty? I go, I don't know what you're talking about. He goes well, did you do all eight years of your ROTC commitment? I was like, no, I don't think so. Well, call headquarters Marine Corps and see if you can go back in Marine Corps.

Mark Schuster:

So I called up and somehow I figured out. I got a hold of reserve Affairs and they're like yeah, you're still in the IRR. If you want to affiliate and go, start drilling, go ahead. So I found out about OneMACE, the Meth Augmentation Command Element, and it was a reserve one-star organization that had direct support to OneMF, and I found out that they had a unit there and I went in and talked to the major and he's like, hey, why don't you come on board, start drilling?

Mark Schuster:

Next thing I find out is the G4 decided to go back and act duty. He was an AR Marine Now we call it AR and back then full-time support FTS, I believe was the program and now we call AR and back then full-time support FTS, I believe was the program. And so I put in an AR package and they told me that I was going to get selected and I would stay right there at Camp Pendleton and maybe I go back in Marine Corps, because I didn't want to move again. So my boss called the monitor his buddy and he's like, yeah, schuster's good. And two months later the list comes out and they're sending me to Camp Lejeune out and they're sending me to camp lejeune.

Mario P. Fields:

I'm like you know, if you don't, if you don't mind, what's interesting about your journey and a lot of people I I want to make sure they get it is his shoes. I'll call you shoe, yeah, just so you got it mark's family fell apart.

Mario P. Fields:

You know Mark, literally his entire family structure just fell apart. Number one. Number number two Is I hear a lot, you know, I do part time employment facilitator for US Department of Labor. Matter of fact, I have some workshops coming up this week and I sometimes I hear people say that, oh, these workshops are not all people. But I've heard people say, oh, these workshops are not all people. But I've heard people say, oh, these workshops are a scam or it doesn't really prepare you. And I'm glad that. I'm glad during this, this interview, that you brought up when you got out 97, how the resources weren't available and what happened compared to 2024 and what's what's available. So I just wanted to highlight that because if you believe you would have what you have now, do you believe things would have been a little bit?

Mark Schuster:

different, 100%. One, I might've decided to stay in the Marine Corps. But two, I think I would have been much more prepared. If you're open to listening, because you know as well, like today, I have been blessed and I have the opportunity to teach and coach and mentor transitioning military not always career, but sometimes just that first enlistment or first service as an officer. And oftentimes the most difficult military members we deal with nine out of 10 times are the colonels and the sergeant majors, because you've been a sergeant major or a colonel for 30, 30 plus years or a general officer and it is really hard to take that off right. So look, you and I respect each other as sergeant major and colonel. And if the commandant put you and I back in active duty tomorrow and you and I got to have the pleasure of leading Marines, it'd be right back to sergeant and Colonel, right. But once we retire, once you leave, man, it's Mario and Mark or shoot. We respect it, but it doesn't mean anything anymore.

Mark Schuster:

And that loss of identity is what I struggled with. So everything's falling apart. How do I find work? And I'm trying to build a resume? No idea. I'm trying to interview no idea. And what I'm basically doing is I'm coming into your company. I'm like Mr Mario Fields, you know I'm a captain in the Marine Corps. I can run your company. I'm going to take your job and you're like OK, have a nice day, rather like starting over.

Mark Schuster:

We'll be in touch with you soon.

Mario P. Fields:

Yeah, we'll be in touch with you soon. We'll call you back.

Mark Schuster:

Sure. And so what resulted was I found a job placement agency for junior officers and they placed me. I'm sorry, let's go back real quick. I got selected for the AERA program. They want to send me to Camp Lejeune. It was a big fight and I got so pissed off at the monitor because he's like no, no, he can't do the job at Camp Pendleton, we're going to send him Lejeune. My boss is like what are you going to do at Lejeune? Be the G4 for two mace? And I went, what are you talking about? So they brought another officer in out of who wasn't in the Marine Corps, who's a fantastic officer, retired lieutenant colonel. He's an amazing guy. He took the job, took the job, no problem, but I was done with the Marine Corps. I was so angry, so bitter, that I just left. And so in December of 99, I was discharged, mission complete, no interest in coming back into Marine Corps. And by then I'd been placed and I started selling drugs in LA out of my car Now these are legal drugs for Pfizer and I became a pharmaceutical sales rep.

Mark Schuster:

I was done with the Marine Corps, but my life was still on a downward spiral and 18 months later I left that job and I couldn't hold a job, I couldn't hold a family together and I wound up getting into real estate and I became a realtor in Southern California, had a great mentor and sold a house to a Marine, happened to be an INI at Weapons 223. And in late 2004, he's like man, you should come back in the Marine Corps. I'm like, really you want a former captain who's 37, fat and out of shape to come back in the Marine Corps? He goes wait a minute, I just want you to be my RBE. It's a peacetime, wartime support billet. Just call the PSr who slides me the card and, like most idiots in the marine corps, sometimes I call the guy. Well, thank god I did, because in january of 05 I went back in the marine corps reserve component and mario, I blinked twice, maybe three times, and in february of this year I retired with 27 years of service, three mobilizations.

Mark Schuster:

My last tour was as the IG for 4th MLG out of New Orleans and I have so many more mentors and peers and incredible Marines and sailors that guided me along that path and thankfully the Marine Corps kept lowering the bar for promotions and I kept sliding under there and it's been a wonderful journey. But the most important piece was that I started getting my life back on track. Unfortunately, I got divorced and I'm happily married today. You know my wife, mary. You met her at the ball a couple of years ago. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful bride that's. That's kind of the basis of my journey and work wise. I'm completely settled in my career and love it, and I love.

Mario P. Fields:

I love you know, I love how you are open minded and I love how you are open-minded and you said it A lot of people that I know you have know. Just imagine if you were rigid and you didn't think about that, you know, and and then just to have certain people in your life choose to just engage you because they didn't have to, and then look what we got, because I'll tell you everyone. My wife and I, a couple years ago, had the pleasure of going to a Marine Corps ball with Shu and his lovely wife Mary, and it was memorable and we'll never forget you. I know I'm not going to do this to every guest, shu, I would be so selfish to keep you on and show me your cat. By the way, if you guys are watching, is your cat near you? I want to see. Let me see real fast. If you're watching, look at that beauty, the boy cat. Oh, look at those.

Mark Schuster:

Look at those beauties Spend in line. That's a great thing to do on your show, but I'm happy to do it, oh yeah.

Mario P. Fields:

You know it's on Arbor Talk it's on Arbor Talk Absolutely. If you guys are listening, you better get on a YouTube channel and watch. He's got two beautiful, two PFCs and lieutenant you got a PFC and but no, those two have made it past E3 yet.

Mark Schuster:

So, but before I let you roll and continue to do great things on the West Side of the Hemisphere, are there any books, or any, any books you would like to tell listeners and viewers about? In any? Any piece of advice you would like to leave us with? I would, I think. When it comes to transitioning off military service, there's a couple of things I'd recommend. Number one I will tell you that I personally believe, as a retired senior Marine, I have a duty to continue to serve, and so please think about getting into your local Marine Corps League, your VFW and your DAV. For us, marines and Navy Corpsmen, the Marine Corps League is a phenomenal place because we are amongst our own and we are there to support you and your family in all aspects, but we continue to serve. Find your local Marine Corps recruiters, find your retiree community and find out how to serve when you're looking at your transition. Also, a few books I've got here, absolutely the first book that I recommend. By the way, I've been reading about 25, 30 books a year now since 2020. And remember that leaders read and readers lead. So the first book I would tell you is you want to get who Moved my Cheese by Dr Spencer, and this is one of the most successful books out there. It's nice and easy. You can read it in one evening. You want to follow that up with his follow-on book, which came out a few years ago called Out of the Maze. So I strongly recommend you start with something simple in those two books, because what you're going through is you're going through change. The other thing that you want to focus on is you need a support network.

Mark Schuster:

I will tell you that professional military transition. Your greatest tool is your network Marines and sailors and airmen and guardsmen and guardians and coasties that you have a career in the military. You are most likely not going to find your next career through the internet. You're going to do it through your network with individuals like us. So take a look at this book. Networking is a Contact Sport by Joe Sweeney. It's an outstanding book. Credit goes to my cousin for recommending this book. And then another one that's going to help you out is a good buddy of mine, colonel Ted Studdard. I don't know if you know him, brother. He's a phenomenal Marine. He wrote this book called Depot to Depot or Depot to Depot, whichever you want to say it. He had a great 30-year career, retired colonel, and then he transitioned to Home Depot and now he's got his own consulting business.

Mark Schuster:

Three more books I recommend we'll be done. Admiral McRaven, make your Bed, read this book. You can see the speech online. Make your frigging bed every day, people. And then if you want a mentor on life and business, one of the best out there is a gentleman named John C Maxwell and he's got great books. Make Today Count is a fantastic book. And then how Successful People Think.

Mark Schuster:

And I literally have a list of all the books I've read in the last four and a half years and it's a wonderful journey. And the last thing I would tell you is enjoy life. It's a blessing from God that we're here. This is a journey. We're all from the same. We all come from the same spirit and the same energy and ask for help. And if you want my help, I'll be happy to do anything I could for anybody out there.

Mark Schuster:

And, mario, I'm really humbled that I find myself amongst your environment, your class, and I'll tell you when we were at that ball for CLR 45, and I was there as the IG right, my previous unit had been the XO there. When you got up and spoke, I looked at my wife and said I'm going to add him to my personal board of directors. And that's the last thing I would tell you. We can't walk this journey alone. So create your own board of directors people that you can count on and ask for help and guidance and mentorship, and you will be successful. And stay positive, because negative energy gets negative energy, positive energy gets positive energy.

Mario P. Fields:

I love it and everyone. The books again, great recommendations. They will be in the show notes. Your LinkedIn shoe will be in the show notes and you guys heard all of the wonderful tips and wisdom and advice from Mark Schuster. Thank you so much. Please give my best to Mary, and I feel the same about you, man. You're just a good human. You love people and I'm thankful that the things happen in your life to give you the wisdom to continue to make a positive impact on me and my wife and people around the world. Well, everyone you guys know the deal. In a couple of weeks we'll release another episode, but if you like to listen to me, my voice will be back on. If you like to watch me, please get on that channel. Other than that, may God continue to bless you, listeners and viewers. May God continue to bless your friends, families and any living being around you. Mark Schuster, ceo, cardinal, sir, sergeant Major, says Semper Fi and all secure.

Mark Schuster:

Hey, Semper Fi, my best to you and Nicole, and we might see you in a couple of weeks out there, so you be safe brother.

Mario P. Fields:

You too, my friend. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to this most recent episode and remember you can listen and watch all of the previous episodes on my YouTube channel. The best way to connect to me and all of my social media is follow me on the parade deck that is wwwparadecom, or you can click on the link in the show notes. I'll see you guys soon.

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