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Words from the Wise
Join Words from the Wise with Gary Wise, a retired Navy Command Master Chief, for authentic leadership insights forged in real-world experience. Through engaging discussions and actionable strategies, Gary empowers you to master emotional intelligence, build resilient teams, and unlock your full potential. Tune in for practical advice on delegation, conflict management, and inspiring others, drawn from his over 28 years of service and ongoing leader mentorship headquartered now in Ocala, Florida.
Words from the Wise
Why I Stayed: How the Military Transformed My Life When I Wasn't Looking
What happens when your reasons for joining the military have nothing to do with patriotism or service? In this deeply personal account, retired Navy Command Master Chief Gary Wise takes us through his remarkable transformation from troubled youth to dedicated leader.
Gary's journey begins with brutal honesty – he joined the Navy to escape his self-destructive path, not out of love for country. His early years aboard USS Belleau Wood in Japan brought technical competence but personal struggle as he battled the "lifer" mentality, convinced he would escape the military as soon as possible. With minimal savings, poor credit, and no real plan, his decision to reenlist came from necessity rather than commitment.
The unexpected turning point came during recruiting duty in Florida, where exposure to personal development concepts and meeting his future wife Erica began shifting his perspective. But it was Chief's initiation – nine years into his service – that truly transformed everything. In that crucible of leadership training, Gary finally found the belonging he'd sought since childhood as an adopted kid who had moved frequently and struggled to find his place.
What makes this story so compelling is its universal message about finding purpose in unexpected places. Gary's transformation from reluctant sailor to passionate Chief demonstrates how our initial reasons for major life decisions often bear little resemblance to the meaning we eventually find. His journey reminds us that growth rarely follows our planned timeline – sometimes we must simply take action, remain open to change, and trust that purpose will reveal itself along the way.
Whether you're in the military, considering service, or navigating any significant life transition, this episode offers practical wisdom about moving forward without perfect clarity. As Gary says, "Don't wait until you're ready. Make the move. Let's figure it out." Because sometimes, the most meaningful journeys begin for all the wrong reasons.
And I know I was born for this. I know I was born for this. Don't care for the critics my words and my physics are for us and they can't stop. They just don't get it. I think they forget I'm not done till I'm on top. I know I was born for this. I know I was born for this. I believe I believe we can write a story. Hello everyone, good afternoon to you, good morning, good. Whatever time it is that you're hopefully listening to the sound of my voice. It's Gary Wise once again. Wise Leadership Solutions, words from the wise Coming to you to talk about, you know, just some of the experiences that I've been through in my life, and today's topic is something I used to give, as far as training, to some of the people I served with when I was in the military, and it was why did the reasons why I chose to serve change throughout the years?
Gary Wise:Right, a lot of people think that when you join the military, you might just immediately have this patriotism that you just want to go serve. And that's great if you do. I mean, I've met those people and that's phenomenal, but for me, that was not my experience. It took time for me to develop the patriotism and the love of country and the loyalty to the organization which is the United States Navy. It was not something that I just came immediately with into the Navy. We talked about in a previous video why I joined the Navy. I'll probably make more videos about that in the future, but it was complicated, right, Like for a lot of people when we joined the service. We have very diverse reasons why we all decided to go ahead and join the military and leave our home, leave our family and go out and do great things in the world. Right, whatever the reasons were, I can guarantee you that when I joined the Navy, it was not because I was really passionate about the government, about the politics, that I was worried about patriotism. I was selfish. I'll be honest with you.
Gary Wise:As a young man, I was making horrible decisions. I was jacking up at a high rate of speed. My parents were awake a lot of nights worried about me and hoping I was going to do something to change my life. When I decided to enlist the first time, it was, truthfully, just to change my situation in life and to hopefully put me in a better place in the future. Did I know what that would look like Nope, had no idea. I just had the idea that I had to get out of home. I had to change my circumstance, and I didn't have any other way to do it.
Gary Wise:The reason why I picked the Navy was relatively simple. The recruiter challenged me, and then I had a family connection. My grandpa, my mom's side of the family, my grandpa Puckett, served in World War II, and so I grew up on stories of him and his journeys throughout the Navy. And then my dad, gary Wise, served in Vietnam. So I, of course, grew up hearing his stories. So, of course, I had a connection to the military, to the Navy in particular, which is something a lot of us recognize.
Gary Wise:A lot of people, if their family has a legacy of service in a certain branch, it's typically where they choose to go, and so when I joined the Navy, it was to change my life. It was to get a better opportunity. It was to hopefully do something about whatever was going to be my future, because in my heart, I was so scared I was afraid. I wanted to be a dad someday. I wanted to be a husband someday. I wanted to be a person that my family was proud of, and I knew that that was not who I was, nor was I doing anything about it. I just I needed something drastic and the military was that drastic choice.
Gary Wise:Thankfully I was able to pass the ASVAB. Thankfully I was able to get the waivers for my police background and all of my unfortunate choices I've done as a teenager, for my police background and all of my unfortunate choices I've done as a teenager. And thankfully I made it to boot camp. Because you know, a lot of things could have happened in between my joining the delayed entry program and my shipping off for the Navy. Because I was in the delayed entry program for 12 months right, I had asked for as long as possible because, truthfully, when I was at MEPS that day I didn't think I was going to go. You know, my best friend was supposed to go with me. He didn't, he wasn't, he didn't pass the ASVAB, so he wasn't at MEPS, so he wasn't going and I just I don't think that day I really thought I was going to go.
Gary Wise:And then I had to committed to doing a bunch of adult education classes because I was a high school dropout and I had to go get a bunch of high school credits done so I can take the GED and I had to pass the GED and I remember my recruiter would come hunt me down and like make me go to adult education classes. He would literally knock on my window, wake me up out of my bed because I was working as a baker at the time midnight to eight o'clock in the morning. He would make me get up and go to adult education, year one on. And as I did the things that I had to do, it just got closer and closer and I remember calling my parents up and asking them if I could come home and I could get squared away, get in shape, make sure I was healthy, and then I'd take the GED. Man, if I had to pass that GED I would have never joined the Navy. It was just like the ASVAB. Thank God I had taken enough classes in high school to have the aptitude to be able to pass that GED without having to do a whole lot of extra academia.
Gary Wise:Because, again, if I had to do that on my own in 1996, there was no internet back then, there was no wifi. There might there was. I mean, there might have been a book at a bookstore. Yeah right, I'm not going to do that, but thank but, god willing, I passed that test. And so when I left for basic training on March 18th 1997, I was going to hopefully change my life, change my circumstance, and we would see how that was going to work out. You know, basic training eight weeks I'll give you a video someday about what that was like for me Wasn't too much, right.
Gary Wise:I come through all basic training. I'm undesignated at the time, so I have no rating. I have no job in the Navy. So they give me a really quick school. They send me back home for 30 days of leave because they're shipping me off to Japan. Okay, and I didn't ask to go to Japan, I didn't want to go to Japan. That's just how things are sometimes In this service. We need a certain amount of people overseas. We just do. The ship requires a certain amount of bodies, we just do. The ship requires a certain amount of bodies and a lot of those bodies are coming to the Navy, coming to the fleet right out of boot camp. Why? Because we're young, we don't have families, we don't have a lot of challenges and we're fully medically qualified and they send us right that you have no reason not to go.
Gary Wise:I remember I was actually in debt at the time for a car that I had bought when I was 18 years old, that I had paid like $250 down on the car and never made another payment on again. It got repossessed about eight months later, you know. And so when I came back from bootcamp, going to Japan, I called up the debt collection company, said hey, my name is Gary, I want to go ahead and start paying off this debt that I owe and this car that I had bought. And they were like we need all the money today, otherwise you're going to go to jail. Who knows if that was true or not, I don't know. I'm 18. Actually at the time I'm 19. Because I land in Japan on my 20th birthday in 1997. I tell the person on the phone look, take me to jail, all you want. I'm going to Japan tomorrow. I will talk to you when I get back. Got on a plane the next day, flew to Japan Again. No internet, no email. This is all before those things happened and that.
Gary Wise:But that was the kind of a person I was coming into the Navy in 1997. My first ship, uss Belleau Wood, home port of Saspo, japan. I learned a lot about the Navy on that ship and honestly, I got worse on that ship than I was at home, you know, because before I joined the Navy I didn't drink. I did things, but I wasn't drinking alcohol like that because it was just harder to get than other things, believe it or not. Well, in the Navy, when you land in Japan on your 20th birthday well, that's not the legal drinking age and I can now go out with all the people and do all the things, and primarily those things were in bars or in clubs and I can now go out with all the people and do all the things, and primarily those things were in bars or in clubs and that was a primary part of our culture Before deployed Navy. We work hard, we play hard and I got all of that experience. I promise you that we saw more seats I'm with the Bellowood from 1997 to 2000 that a lot of people see in a lot of their career. If you ever go to serve in Japan, especially in the Navy, you're going to get a lot of time at sea and I got a lot of experience.
Gary Wise:I remember we got deployed to the Persian Gulf my first time in 1998 in support of Operation Desert Fox. We were supposed to be going to Hong Kong for a port visit, turned around, kicked one group of Marines off, picked on the 31st Mew we went to the Persian Gulf it was a six-month deployment that we did not see coming. Came back from that deployment and I remember I was supposed to go home on leave for the first time so I had to cancel my leave because of that no-notice deployment. Came back from the deployment, got the chance to go on leave, went home on leave after having been gone for about 18 months by this point in time. Got back to Japan and we rapidly deployed again for four months Right, for four months in support of East Timor, indonesia, because there were Christians in East Timor being killed by Islamic extremists in Indonesia. And so once again, the United States Navy, the United States Marine Corps, the Blue Green Team, we all get sent down there to help those people out. That's a four month underway. So in that 98 to 99, we spent 10 months away from home port, underway at sea. That's just an example.
Gary Wise:And so, as we're pulling into these other countries and we're doing all these things and I'm getting a lot of experience, but I'm also not really personally progressing. I'm not really finding the person that I want to be when I grow up someday. And I remember and there's a lot of experience somewhere in the Velowa that I'll talk about in future videos. But the moral of the story of this video is that on my first ship, I'm working a lot of hours right. I'm learning to stand watch in the main space begrudgingly, because deck play leaders second class patty officers are really essentially inspiring me and making me do it, which is one of the things I loved about the military, and I tell this to my students, I tell this to sailors all the time is we will make you better. You will get better. I tell the cadets that join my ROTC program you will get better by being in this program. Maybe you don't think you want to, but you don't want to fail on purpose. I don't believe anybody wants to fail on purpose and by you just doing what you have to do to get that passing grade, you're going to improve. Oh, by the way, leaders are going to inspire you and we're going to convince you to do things that are going to help you get better. The challenge is you figuring out how can you leverage that getting better experience for what you want to do in your life right.
Gary Wise:The areas the Navy was making me better on personally was at engineering, at turning wrenches, at learning how to mechanically work things. I didn't join the military as a person who thought he was good at fixing cars. I've never been the kind of person that wanted to do electronics, but the Navy taught me how to work on boilers, feed pumps, deaerating feed tanks I mean tons of big things and I was good at it. I had an aptitude for it. I had a critical thinking mind for it that I would have never, probably ever stumbled upon if I hadn't joined the military. But I got there because they would pair me up with some third-class petty officer, some older person, some mentor, and I would go be their person to help. And eventually I wanted the recognition of being a person that could fix the things. And so by the time I was getting to the end of my first tour in the military, I was very proud of my reputation as a technician. I was a good technician, I was a good watch stander. I was a good engineer. I was not a good sailor. That's a whole different conversation. Right, I was not a good sailor, but I was a good engineer. I was a good watch standing technician and I was good in the casualty situation. Right, I'd done a lot of casualties on my first ship because we're an old steam propulsion ship. I'm standing watching the main space. A lot of things can go sideways on you. I'm standing watching the main space. A lot of things can go sideways on you.
Gary Wise:Eventually I get out of the pit and I become a damage control man which is essentially the first responders on the Navy. And I do that really because I think I'm going to get out of the Navy and go become a firefighter in the civilian world. How many times have you heard that we're going to get out of the military and go become a firefighter? That's my plan. I hate the Navy, so I'm going to get out of the military and go become a firefighter. That's my plan. I hate the Navy, so I'm going to get out of the military, go become a firefighter. And I am scared to death.
Gary Wise:I'm getting to the end of my time in the Navy and every time I go home on leave, I don't do anything constructive, I don't do anything productive. I just go home, see my family lay on the couch, go visit my friends in the city, hang out with them act like I never joined the military. And then, you know, try to act like I'm a. I'm a big shot. I remember I came back home off of leave the first time and I and I immediately paid the debt, right. I called up the company, said I got all your money. So that was all the money I'd saved for the first leave paid off the debt that I owed to that car that was off my plate right, came back on my second leave and I just wasted my money that I had because I was trying to act like I was a big shot but I really didn't have very much money to begin with. So now here I am, the end of my first enlistment and I'm looking at my bank account. It's pretty empty.
Gary Wise:I'm a third class petty officer. Now. At the time I'm a damage control third class petty officer that did not have a lot of experience and I am unsure what I'm going to do. But I'm getting out of the Navy. I'm like I refuse to be a lifer. I refuse to be somebody who had to depend upon what I used to say was the welfare system of the armed forces because I was afraid to get out and try to be a civilian or a free person. Now again, that's how we essentially treat each other in the military. That's what we would say to people that were going to reenlist oh, you're a lifer, you. You get out because you're afraid to get out, you're institutionalized, and I was afraid to be that person. On the reverse side, I remembered all the reasons why I joined the Navy and all those reasons were still at home. The only thing different now was I was 23. The only thing different now was I was 23. I was three years older and I had no real plans and I had no money because I had saved nothing up during that whole couple of years I've been spending it all.
Gary Wise:So I remember the recruiter selection team at this time was coming through Japan and I got flagged by them because I was a third-class petty officer with an enlisted circus warfare pin, which means I had chosen to get the qualification, to get a qualification that was a little bit above and beyond what I had to get. And I got that warfare qualification because let's, I'll be honest my best friend was going to get his warfare pin, so I wanted to do it with him, and the senior chief that was in charge of the damage control men basically said, if I wanted to become a DC man, I should get my East wasp pen because it would help me to look better and I just I'd like to get calls. I mean, I liked, I liked to be qualified, I like to get new qualifications. It was like boy Scouts I was. When I was at the Boy Scouts as a kid, I was very, very good at the Boy Scouts. I was really good at taking a checklist and doing what it said.
Gary Wise:I used to find the merit badge people all across Salt Lake City. That would be the people that you had to go see to check out the merit badge, to get the final qualification, and I would call them up on the phone, like 12 years old, calling up adults saying, hey, my name is so-and-so, I'm a boy scout and I'm trying to finish this merit badge. Can I come see you at your house and do it, ride my bike up to their house, wherever their house is located, and go through the certification so and get my merit badge. So I'm like 13, 14 years old. I got a merit badge sash from like my shoulder to my hip, just full of merit badges. Of course, that was before I discovered my girls and that's before I discovered like being bad and not being good in school.
Gary Wise:But I thrived in those kinds of structural environments, like I really appreciated that structure. The Navy oh, you want to make third class petty officer? Do this list of structural environments? Like I really appreciated that structure. The Navy oh, you want to make third class petty officer? Do this list of checkpoints? Got it? I did all those. Okay, get these things signed off. Got it. Get all those. Study for this test. Okay, pass the test. Got it, get it right. Okay, get your ESWAS qualification. Take these books. Get them all signed off. Okay, no problem, I've always been able to do those things, so I. But here's a lesson that I've learned in life Do as much as you can with as much as you have so that you can generate as many opportunities in the future that you may have no idea are going to be out there.
Gary Wise:Period, I had no idea that by me working to get these high qualifications or working to get this experience, I was going to get future opportunities, like the opportunity to go be a United States Navy recruiter as a third class petty officer, because, mind you, I didn't make second the first time. I took the second class petty officer test, I missed it by a quarter of a point. Let that sink in. I missed rank by a quarter of a point 0.25. And I was just so sad I had not been in the repair division the majority of my time for that year because they kept me in the engineering plant because that's where they needed me as a watch stander, that's where they needed me as a person to support the ship's mission. And so I was disgruntled about that and I felt like it was because of that lack of experience. That was a reason why I didn't make second class first time up. Right, I remember the senior chief at the time.
Gary Wise:Um, I got offered the orders to go recruiting duty and he says I don't. I don't know that you should do it. He says I think you should stay on board the ship for another year and if you do that I'll give you an award, we'll backdate it, I'll make you a second class petty officer and then you can get the experience and go on with your career. And I was just like no, no, no, I'm getting out of the Navy. I don't know if I'm going to be a recruiter or not, but I'm definitely not staying on this ship any longer. Because if you could give me an award to backdate my freaking point so I can become a second-class petty officer and get paid more money and get more opportunities in the future. And you guys kept me in the pit for a year, you know it was like eight months. I was down there in the pit as a DC three. Why don't I get recognized for that Right?
Gary Wise:No-transcript, I think when I was as a CMC I would 100% fight to get all my undesignated sailors, as soon as they got their rate, into that ratings division, because I knew how much that sucked and so I had that connection. But when it came time for me to decide, will I really accept that recruiting duty? Truthfully, it was all about the day I called the detailer. I called the detailer up. I'd call my mom and dad first. I told my mom and dad hey, I got the opportunity to go be a Navy recruiter. What do you think they were like yes, do that. Do not get out of the Navy, do not come home.
Gary Wise:I talked to my friends back home and said hey, man, I got the chance to stay in the Navy a couple more years. What do you think? All my friends yes, do that, do not come back home. And this is because all my friends, they saw what was going better for me than what I saw was going better for me. I resent, I resented all of these things that were making me be productive and that were making me get better. But what all my family back home saw was that how bad I could be if I didn't have all those things in my life. And I I appreciate that their mentorship and their advice was to keep me in a structured environment.
Gary Wise:So I called the detailer and I said hey, my name is Gary Wise. Do you have my information on your little list? He actually he says, yes, I do, you're right here. I see you've been tagged in a recruiting movie. You're highly recommended. Do you want to go home? I don't know. That would ruin everything. He says, okay, would you want to go? Do you speak Spanish? I said I do not. I speak pretend Spanglish, I do not speak Spanish. And he says okay, do you want to go to New York? No, do you want to go to California? No. He says do you want to go to Miami? And I said to California? No. He says do you want to go to Miami and I said, yes, I would like to go to Miami. Of course I have no idea what Miami is about. I've never been there. I'm from Utah, grew up in Salt Lake City, right. Well, they give me the opportunity to go to Naval Recruiting District, miami and I re-enlist for those orders.
Gary Wise:So my first re reenlistment. My second enlistment was because I was afraid to get out. I had gotten almost worse, unfortunately, in some ways for having served in the Navy and I had not. I wasn't prepared to take those areas on yet on my own, and I had. My family was guiding me to stay in and I think in my heart of heart I knew that it was not right for me to get out of the Navy, right, and so I chose to reenlist and go be a Navy recruiter.
Gary Wise:And I remember thinking, okay, I'm going to go do this recruiting job. I'm not going to put anybody in the Navy because I don't like the Navy, it's not for me, it's not fun, but I'm going to go do it. I mean, it's not for me, it's not fun, but I'm going to go do it. And then I'm going to get out of the Navy and me and my buddies are all going to get small business loans and we're going to open up a bar and that's what we're going to do because that's what all of our ideas were. And so I get to recruiting school in Pensacola and that's a very inspirational place. If you ever get the chance to go to Navy recruiting school.
Gary Wise:The Navy recruiter people are very inspired. I mean, of course, they never have to go to sea again, so I can see why they're inspired. I kind of have a beef with them because they're selling a product and they never want to live again and they take sailors on shore duty and make them just work all kinds of crazy hours doing one of the hardest jobs in the world, and they don't have to ever return back out to the sea duty. That being said, choose your rate, choose your fate. That's a Navy-ism. They chose to be in sales for the United States Navy for the rest of their life. I only had to do it for three years and I will tell you they did a great job of inspiring me during that two-week recruiter school to want to be a freaking Navy recruiter. I mean, recruiting changed my life. Recruiting 100% changes my life. It's not so much about the job of the recruiters. It's more about the ideas that I come in contact with during the time of this tour.
Gary Wise:While I'm in recruiting school, my orders are changed a few times. So NRD Miami means the headquarters are in Miami, but at first I'm going to be in Fort Pierce, florida, but then they get changed to St Petersburg, florida. So I remember I land in Tampa airport. It's the August of 2000. I land, I have two sea bags, which are these green duffel bags, and I have about $4,000 in the bank and that's all I have.
Gary Wise:And I land, I get picked up by this second-class petty officer. Maybe he's a first-class, I don't even remember. He picks me up, I have no car and he basically says you're going to be going to a recruiting station in Clearwater so you can stay at my house tonight. Tomorrow I'll drop you off with a recruiter in Clearwater and then you're on your own. And I was like well, was there a barracks? He's like no, it's independent duty. You got to buy your own car, you got to get a place to live, you got to figure it all out. Here we go, right, I remember I get dropped off at my buddy's house the next day. I didn't know he was even my buddy. He became one of my best friends. But at his house his FT2 the next day. He's a submariner and he's like look, my wife's not here. She's not going to be here for a couple of days so you can sleep on my couch. Our apartment complex is right across the street from the recruiting station and you can probably get an apartment here and then away you go, and so I did.
Gary Wise:I went and I went, walked down to the apartment office, paid the little deposit, got my little one-bedroom apartment, went to go buy a car, found that I had warrants for my arrest in the state of utah because of traffic tickets that I hadn't paid or whatever it was. So I had to resolve all those issues before I could even buy a car. Eventually I find out my credit is completely upset. I mean, my credit score was so bad. My first car that I bought was probably like an interest rate of like 28% interest that I buy here, pay here a lot Because, again, consequences from the life that I lived before I had joined the Navy were now finally catching up to me because I'd been living abroad for the last three years, I had never had to get a credit check. I'd never had to buy. I mean, I never had to deal with any of those things.
Gary Wise:I remember I went to Big Lots. I bought a box spring and a mattress which were on the ground. I bought a four-drawer dresser combo with a TV-VCR combo because I had a bunch of video cassettes and CDs that I'd bought in my first ship. And that's what I had in my apartment no furniture in the living room. No, nothing in the kitchen. I just had a box spring mattress on the ground, mattress on top of that and a tdvcr combo and four drawer dressers. I didn't have hangers. I didn't have hangers like the hang. Only hangers that I had were the hangers that I had got from like a dry cleaner for my uniforms and so like. When I first met my wife Erica, that's what she saw when she saw my apartment.
Gary Wise:Thankfully, my buddy Andy and his he had come down to visit me from Jacksonville and he saw that I had no furniture in my house and he took me to rooms to go that I had no furniture in my house. He took me to rooms to go and he used his credit card to buy me living room furniture which was couches and whatnot. I had to pay him back because my credit was so bad I couldn't even get a line of credit at rooms to go. That's how bad. I remember I wanted to get a computer. I went to Dell. I couldn't even get a line of credit to buy a Dell computer. So I can have a computer at my home with AOL dial up internet. I mean I was in a tough spot, I just.
Gary Wise:But I'm a third class petty officer, I'm a Navy recruiter and here we go. Right, it's of course, none of that. I guess I don't know why that stuff didn't come out during screen, who knows? I mean, I just I'm looking back on it and who knows it was. I mean 2000 anyway.
Gary Wise:Uh, during the recruiting tour, man, I had a good time. I got, I got. I got into Zig Ziglar, I got into Tony Robbins. I loved recruiting people to join the Navy. I found out that I was really good at it. I was really good at talking to people, listening to people, finding out what interested them, connecting with them at a bunch of different levels, and I didn't like the Navy anymore, but I loved putting people into the Navy, if that makes sense. Thought about going to become a career recruiter. Thought about it. A couple of different things happened during my recruiting tour. I'll probably talk about that in the future. That really soured me on the career recruiters and really it comes down to some of them ethically just were not healthy. They were not good people ethically. But what I found out as well throughout my career is that's not just any one particular group of people. There can be people with unfortunately not good ethics a lot of different places and, truth be told, my ethics even at that time were not all the way aligned, dialed in with where I was going in my life.
Gary Wise:But it's during this tour that I met my wife Erica. Right, and again, I'll make that how I met Erica someday in a future video. But I met my wife Erica and I'd been a recruiter about eight months at that point in time. And I meet Erica and it's not even six months after meeting her and we're talking marriage and I, actually we got married on our one year anniversary of meeting. So I, we only have one anniversary right. We met, uh, in March 2001, right Before 9-11. 9-11 happens. We get married, march 2002. And I'm ending up my recruiting duty in 2003.
Gary Wise:And Erica taught me to really value the military. Fun fact I met Erica, my wife, at a high school Navy junior ROTC competition. She was a junior college student at the time who was there helping out the Clearwater High School Marine Corps, jrotc, and I was there as a judge, as a recruiter. So when I first met Erica I didn't understand what JROTC even was. But beautiful young girl, something told me that I needed to talk to her. God knew what he was doing.
Gary Wise:And here we are married and I'm thinking about getting out or staying in and my wife is very supportive of a military career. She has a good awareness of it. She has ROTC experience. She did ROTC for four years and she sees it as an opportunity for us to go travel and see the world, all the while having a stable life, because there's a lot of stability in our instability. And I remember saying well, you know you're not in the Navy so you don't understand.
Gary Wise:But she taught me that there was a lot more than just some of the pessimistic perspectives that I was having Right, some of just a bad attitude that I was having. And of course, a lot of that got changed while I was a recruiter, because I learned about taking accountability. I learned about controlling my emotions. I learned that I can't control everything that happens to me, but I can't control how I respond. I learned about how to better focus my energy and my intention. I had made second-class petty officer, a lot of things were working out and I knew I had. I said you know what, I was good at the Navy back on the ship but I didn't even like it Right. What is it going to be like when I go back to the ship and I'm actually like I'm into it, like I'm like I'm focused, I'm here to make this thing work, and I said it might work out pretty good. So I re-enlisted again. That's my third re-enlistment. So remember, I joined the first time and it was just changed. My environment changed my situation. Get the heck out of Dodge. It was not because I care, it was not for all the right reasons.
Gary Wise:My second re-enlistment to go recruiting duty. It was, you know, I was afraid to get out. That's. That's a true statement. I'd gotten worse for having been in the military. I'd gained some bad habits because for four years, three and a half years, I was consciously not always doing my best. I was not trying to be the best that I could be. I was drinking way too much. I was smoking way too much. I used to smoke cigarettes. I don't smoke anymore, but I smoked for a long time in my life. I'd just gotten worse. So I stayed in because I was afraid to get out.
Gary Wise:Now here's recruiting. I have this young wife, I have this young family and I don't have anything else to care for her. The Navy's all I got. I'm a second class petty officer. It's given me the ability to get a nice apartment, a decent car, the paycheck is fair, it's consistent, she likes my job and I have no college. I'm a high school dropout. I just barely find out at the end of my recruiting tour that I have a high school diploma. I don't know what I'm going to do when I grow up, but the Navy is what I got.
Gary Wise:So we decide to stay in the Navy and I get orders to a ship called the USS Ogden out of San Diego. Now a fun fact about the Ogden I was born in Ogden, utah. That's the city that the USS Ogden is named for Right. So when I got the opportunity to go serve on the Ogden, I felt like, hey, you know what man this can be, almost like fake. This might be a good sign like go to the Ogden, gary, and do good things. The Ogden station is San Diego.
Gary Wise:I wanted to go to the West Coast because my family's in Utah and we're just a lot closer. I've been in Japan for three years Now. I've been in Florida recruiting for three years. I wanted to get closer to my mom and my dad and San Diego was a close shot, right. So I got orders to the Ogden and San Diego, but the ship is deployed to the Persian Gulf, of course.
Gary Wise:Now it's 2003,. Right, things are a lot more active after 9-11 and I've been sidelined. I've been recruiting throughout this whole period of time. So I've been sidelined, I've been recruiting throughout this whole period of time. So I'm finally about to now get back into the swing of things. So I move Erica in with her mom and her dad and I pack up my sea bags, I fly to San Diego, I get checked in and then they booked me a direct flight from San Diego to Norfolk and Norfolk over to Bahrain to the ship, to the USS Ogden LPD-5. And I get out there. They're about three months into their Western Pacific deployment in support of the global war on terror, operation Iraqi Freedom, and we're out there and I do about four and a half months on that deployment. We finished that deployment up and it's not nearly as busy as my 2006 deployment to Iraq as it wanted to be, but it's busy right.
Gary Wise:But what I loved about that first four months being back on the ship was I got four months at sea to learn everything I had to learn because there was a huge learning gap for me because the majority time my first shift I'd been in the pit in engineering in the main propulsion space. I had only been in our division for about six, seven months but thankfully I had been a what's called a DCPO or a damage control petty officer, which meant that as a collateral duty, it was my job to take care of all of the portable damage control equipment in the engineering spaces. So when I got to the Ogden as a young second class petty officer which I'll have to go over this in another video do a deep dive on that ship, but I get put in charge of the DCPO shop. I get put in charge of the DCPO shop so I didn't have to learn all the damage control things right away. I knew how to be a DCPO maintenance man, so that was easy. Then I had to learn how to manage people right and I had arguably one of the most challenging shops on the ship, because everybody that works for me is temporarily assigned to me. They're not permanent. Typically they're the people that the people in the other divisions can afford to let go and they come work for me and you will learn real quick how to lead when you have to lead people. We're going to find out how good of a leader you are when you're leading people that do not want to be there but they want to get the paycheck and you can't even fire them. That's a complicated position to be a leader in and that's the position that I was in.
Gary Wise:But by the time we got back from the deployment to San Diego, all those tools I learned as a recruiter, all of those tools I learned through communication, all of the skills that I had learned on my first ship, had all come back to me. And by the time we got back to San Diego, I was doing pretty freaking good. I was cooking, the DCPO shop was solid and my chief and my DCA, which is the officer in charge of me. We were all in a really good relationship and a really good place and I was already looked at as an up and comer Great things. So I moved Erica out to San Diego. We get our house. I do three and a half years. San Diego, we get our house, I do three and a half years, four years almost. On Ogden. I decommission that ship. But three and a half four years later and I'll do another video on that someday I did another deployment to the Persian Gulf, 2006 to 2007. That was a tough one. That was a tough one and that's where I made chief petty officer. So I go to the Ogden as a DC two, as a second class petty officer, and I I rise through the ranks in three years from being an E five to being a chief and that's where I'm going to re-enlist. Finally and I'm re-enlisting um because I really love the Navy I went through Chiefs Initiation and that was the thing that really, really, really opened my eyes to being thankful to have been joined in the United States Navy.
Gary Wise:Chiefs Initiation changed my life. You know I can't. Everybody's got different opinions on initiation, but I will tell you, for Gary Wise and anybody that I've ever been around, the chief's initiation process was one of the most important leadership development processes of my adult life. Now I wasn't supposed to make chief. I'd only been a first class for a year and a half, right? I mean, I took the test early for LDO purposes. I wasn't even up for chief, nobody had told me I could be a chief yet I just took it for LDO purposes. I wasn't even up for chief, nobody had told me I could be a chief yet I just took it for LDO purposes.
Gary Wise:Then, after I make board for LDO is when the CMC says hey, wise, why don't you want to be a chief? I never even thought about it. I'm not eligible for it. They put me in for a waiver. They backdate the waiver. I guess it gets approved. I have no freaking clue. No one tells me any of these things. They justdate the waiver. I guess it gets approved. I have no freaking clue. No one tells me any of these things. They just come tell me that I can put in for chief. My chief tells me well, you're never going to make it because you're too young, it's not your time. I'm thinking, okay, maybe he's right, I don't know. I mess around and I make chief petty officer right.
Gary Wise:Go through initiation, get exposed to these ideas of brotherhood, which for me resonates because, for those of you that know, adopted at birth, right ran with street gangs as a teenager, moved a lot as a kid. I really just wanted to belong. I really wanted to be accepted. That's what I thought I was going to find from boy scouts didn't work. That's what I thought I was going to find from Boy Scouts Didn't work. That's what I thought I was going to find from being involved in my street, in my neighborhoods, growing up. That didn't work. Found it in the pit, but it was for the wrong reasons. Right, we had a brotherhood, but it wasn't because we were sailors, it's because we were snipes, it's because we were engineers. So when I went through Chiefs initiation, I bought into the Chiefs mess.
Gary Wise:Through Chiefs initiation, I bought into the Chiefs mess, hook line and freaking sinker. I was like, oh man, go officer. No way, I'm a Navy Chief and I'm still screaming that to this day. Just being honest with you, I love being a Navy Chief, even when we're not good. Even when we're not good, we own it. We got to take care of it. And then there's different flavors.
Gary Wise:I've worked with a lot of chiefs throughout my career, but that was what I would tell you was the first time I re-enlisted nine years in the Navy and I was proud to be a sailor. I was proud to be an American. I've been to war a few times. By that point, I've been out to Iraq a few times. I mean, I've unfortunately taken Marines to Iraq a few different times to come back with less Marines each time, and so I had a strong connection to what the country was going through and I was proud to be out there doing what we were doing, whether it was a support of Meals on Kills, training the Iraqi Navy. I was out there when chaos blew up and maybe someday I'll tell some of those sea stories right, but it was the end of that tour aboard the Ogden that I could actually say that you know what this is, what I do. I'm proud of it as I moved throughout my career.
Gary Wise:You know, to finish this video up, I knew when I made chief that I wanted to become a command master chief because I knew I love damage control, I love firefighting, I love the emergency response. But I was not so so in love with my, with my job, that I could not look at the bigger picture, which which for me, was, if I believe so much in what this chief's mess thing could be. Then what I needed to do is rise up through the ranks, make master chief and then lateral, convert over to the command master chief program, which for the other services that's like choosing to go sergeant, major or something like that in the Marine Corps. For us it's the Command Master Chief program. You give up your rate, you change into the Command Master Chief rating and there's no take-backs, right? There's no take-backs, and your job after that is only going to be leadership at the command level, working with the commanding officer in the XO. But I knew as a young chief petty officer that I wanted to do that job.
Gary Wise:Going through initiation opened my eyes to that. It was no longer about the money, it was no longer about the paycheck, it was because I wanted to be the best chief, I wanted to be the best sailor that I could be, to take care of my people, and that's what I did, and I'll tell that story one day in the future. But why I tell this story today is I want people to understand that you can't always know what things are going to come at you in the future. And so people think well, if I make this big life choice. Right now. I've got to have certain levels of conviction and it's OK to not.
Gary Wise:If you wait until you're ready, you're probably never going to make a move. I tell this to the students all the time Don't wait until you're freaking ready. Make the move. Let's figure it out and let's listen to one another, let's talk, let's communicate as we get to the end. But if we know we've got a good plan, we've got good reasons, we've got good goals, let's put the work in. Let's go. Let's not wait, because the longer you wait, the more time you lose. I'm not saying just go to a bunch of debt. I'm not saying go out there and just start making poor choices. But I'm saying, if you feel the need or if you've got a plan, get to work. It's okay to get to work. Make the best of the opportunity that you have and if you don't like the opportunity that you have, strategically come back, circle up your wagons, figure out who you got behind you, figure out what you need, learn those things and then move. But at the end, if you do that, you're going to probably make some progress and eventually you're going to be able to look around like, well, we're better and keep it going.
Gary Wise:I'm 47 years old now nowhere near done. Nowhere near done. I just retired from the military. Now I'm working with high school kids, and God only who knows where this journey is going to take me. But you have to have. You have to have faith right. You have to believe. You have to put the work in. You have got to want to get up out of bed and work. You cannot just think it's going to, that things are going to come your way by just sitting around all the time. You've got to have faith that if I put the work in, if I take the time to educate myself, if I take the time to treat people well and to help people, that that's going to be returned to me and that I'm going to find opportunities in the future to help other people. And then oh, by the way, I will get blessed in return. And then when I get those blessings, it's not just because of the work that I did. No, it's not just because of the work that I did. No, it's actually that I'm being favored by my God and that I want to show everyone that it's because of my beliefs that I'm receiving these blessings. But I also have got to do my part right and I've got to believe in the plan, in the vision, in the future, and I've got to appreciate the opportunities. I've got to be grateful to the people that helped me.
Gary Wise:We have a saying in the chief's mess about never forgetting where we come from, right, and we will never forget. We'll never forget, we'll never forget Right, and I believe that you've got to always remember why you, why you're starting something, where you're hoping to go and right, and what you want to be once you get there. And then, when you look back on it all, you've got to be thankful for the times you got to help to get across the hard spots. I want to share this with people today in this video, because I just want you to understand that you just never know where you're going to be.
Gary Wise:It's okay to change your mind. It's okay to adjust your plans. It's okay to recognize like, hey, you know, I was afraid to get out of the Navy my first enlistment. What if I had got out Right? What if I don't think? I don't live life like that very often. I don't live life of regret. I don't look back and think that I wish I would have done it. No, no, no, the decision is made. The rear view mirror is only about this big and the front mirror window is way bigger. Looking forward, right, but definitely be appreciative and grateful to God or to the people that you're working with in your life when you get the opportunities to look back on life and be like man.
Gary Wise:We dodged a bullet there, or, thankfully, we left this at a right, or thankfully we went left instead of right. You know, I'm thankful I went to that ROTC competition that day, saw my wife had something tell me that I needed to approach her and to be authentic and not try to run any of these games that young Gary Wise would have tried to run. Right, because something told me that's a special person. You approach her the right way, treat her the right way she needs to be treated. Always, be yourself and she'll change your life. Right, so, but you have to be able to listen to that, you have to be able to hear it and you have to be able to be willing to do what it says. Okay, so that's the end of today's video. I'm going to wrap this up now. I thank you all If you watch this. I thank you If you listen to this. I really appreciate anybody out there that finds value in the words that I'm saying. If you get the chance, if you're listening to this on the podcast, if you're watching this on a video, please like it, subscribe to it, share it, tell somebody about it.
Gary Wise:My name is Gary Wise. I'm five foot six. I'm just trying to be the best person that I could be to help bring people to life in a way that's positive, that's inspired, and that they're feeling confident in their future, that they know that there's opportunities for everybody, right, especially if we're willing to connect, to work with other people. I'm in Ocala, florida. I'm a high school instructor for Navy Junior ROTC. I'm a dad, I'm a husband, I'm a believer in Jesus Christ and I just want to use all of these things that I have, plus the experiences of my life, to hopefully connect with people and serve them in whatever way I can serve, appreciate everybody.
Gary Wise:You can check out my links, you can check out the bio, check out the books, check out whatever. Just thank you for any support you can lend to a brother. And I'm going to wrap this up. Here we go. Let's see if I can end that. Let's set that up, do that Boom. Set that up, do that boom. I was born for this. I know I was born for this, I believe. I believe we can write our story.