Making a Difference

James is a founding member of Boots on the Ground, which he helped setup in 2010 after his first deployment to Haiti in the wake of the earthquake that destroyed much of the already beleaguered Caribbean nation’s capital city, and surrounding areas. An estimated 300,000 people died, another 1.5 million were displaced, and hundreds of thousands of children were orphaned. James arrived with a small group two days after the disaster struck, beating the US Army’s 82nd Airborne to Port-au-Prince, and immediately began providing medical care to injured survivors. Previously, James had deployed on his own to help others during other disasters to include Gulf Port, MS and New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. His actions in New Orleans earned him significant news coverage and a subsequent Hero award.

Service as the Standard

Those who know him best have long said that James displayed a strong propensity towards helping others. His involvement in the church, with the Royal Rangers, the Boy Scouts, and the years he spent as an Explorer with an Army National Guard infantry unit before he enlisted on active duty, instilled within him a strong desire to serve.

Though James describes his time in the military as being “exceedingly average”, he does believe the experience and training he gained while in uniform helped lay the foundation for the work he now does as a humanitarian. He credits early accomplishments such as earning the EFMB with opening the door for service schools and the supportive, leadership, and cadre roles that ultimately gave him the confidence and skills to deploy to major disasters around the world—skills he naturally recognizes of and values in other veterans.

James is fully dedicated to helping other veterans transition into civilian life and to recapture some of what they lost when they hung up their uniform for the last time; he drives BOTG programs to help them develop a new sense of purpose, to participate in something larger than themselves again, to reconnect with others to enjoy the sense of camaraderie that’s entirely unique among military personnel, and to fully empower them to use the skills they honed in the service to prepare for and deploy to disasters and support missions all-around the world.

Education

His fourth grade teacher once remarked of James, “…[T]his student will never amount to anything…”. Given the fact that he struggled to maintain even below-average grades throughout his entire secondary education, such an assessment might actually be understandable—if it weren’t such a glaring indictment of the modern school system itself and how it routinely fails young students.

On a whim during his Sophomore year, James decided to take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery—and scored significantly higher than anyone expected. A recruiter told James that he could pretty much get any job he wanted in the military—once he graduated. But faced with the prospect of impending Summer School to make up for failing grades, and then another two or more years of high school, James began looking for another path.

He approached his Principal and and told him that he was thinking about dropping out to join the service. The response was actually quite supportive; the Principal said, “If it were anyone else, I’d say it was a really bad idea. But I think you could do it.” So with virtually no preparation, and a age waiver in hand, James easily passed the nearly 8-hour, five battery General Education Diploma examination. In fact, his scores in several topics were above the national average. It was the first time he ever felt like he might be able to do something with his life, and that just maybe—education wasn’t such a bad thing.

The reality is, James began to discover what so many others have before him—that if he could relate to a given topic, or if a course helped him pursue a goal, he not only could learn it—he could excel. To illustrate this point, James once completed 28 units in a single semester at three different institutions simultaneously that included four 5-unit science classes with labs alone—and earned just shy of an A average. Academically, he is tremendously well read and as much at home in the discipline of humane letters as in that of business, information technology, military science, jurisprudence, and medicine. His personal, undergraduate, graduate, and professional studies along with his entrepreneurial ventures are nothing short, some say, of awe inspiring.

Since dropping out of high school, James has graduated from numerous service schools, a police academy, flight school, studied law, earned an MBA in an unprecedented 10 months from start to finish, and is the first American to graduate from the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, at the Royal Military College of Science in Shrivenham, England, with a Master of Science Degree in Global Security under Professor Richard Holmes. Fortunately, his 4th grade teacher was mistaken in her assessment.

Parallel Lives

Military service is unlike any other job in the world; it is difficult, demanding, and sometimes very dangerous. Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airmen become accustom to a way of life that is entirely unique to serving in uniform. Consequently, returning to civilian life can often pose significant challenges for many veterans—especially those who’ve served on active duty or were mobilized for extended periods of time for combat operations.

James understands the transition from active duty too; going from full time to serving in reserve components is, in many respects, fraught with it’s own unique sets of obstacles, peculiarities, and problems. Becoming a full-time student and taking on civilian employment however, is just different. Like other veterans, James experienced some of the normal frustrations associated with change. But they eventually subside as one learns to manage their thoughts. However, they can resurface or become exacerbated if you’re called-up again—just as you’ve started to adjust.

For James, one of the keys to moving forward and succeeding was to focus on things that mattered to him and gave him both joy and a sense of purpose; he invested himself in studying religion and psychology to better understand human behavior—especially his own; as a husband and father, he learned how to connect with his family in more meaningful ways; to make an income, he studied business, sales, and marketing, and began to put what he learned into practice as an entrepreneur; and he started sharing his experiences and investing his time in others. By actively participating in this manner and taking responsibility for his own life and actions, he was able to create opportunities and outcomes that he might not otherwise had available.

As a result, James has owned successful businesses, written books, appeared on television, lived and traveled all over the world, and most importantly—he’s had the freedom to go and help others, at the drop of a hat, when disasters strike. This never would have been possible if he hadn’t taken active steps and fully resolved himself to be a better person every day—to learn how to cope with the things life throws at you, set-goals, and stay focused. One of James’ missions is to help other veterans not only transition, but to succeed in life and pay it forward.