[Interview begins]

SPRAGUE: Today is September 15th, 2023. This is an interview with Cory Geisler, who served in the United States Army from April 2005 to February 2012. This interview is being conducted by Luke Sprague at the Veterans Home in Hartland, Wisconsin for the Wisconsin Veterans Museum Oral History Program. No one else is present in the room. Okay, Cory. Uh, where did you grow up?

GEISLER: Uh, I grew up in small town Eastman, Wisconsin. Uh, about 75 people in the town. Um, on the southwest corner along the Mississippi River.

SPRAGUE: Uh, and what did your family do?

GEISLER: Uh, my mom, she worked and in the county clerk's office. And my dad, he worked in construction at the time, so he was really heavy in work in the summer and then much later work in the winter months.

SPRAGUE: Uh, and what schools did you attend?

GEISLER: Um, when I was growing up, uh, in grade school, I went to Eastman Elementary School and then for middle school, down to Prairie Sheen, um, for at Kennedy. And then I graduated from high school. Um, from Prairie senior High in protege.

SPRAGUE: And, uh, what, uh, made you initially think about maybe joining the military?

GEISLER: Uh, well, I had uncles who had been in the military, um, two of them who had both been in the National Guard, uh, during the Vietnam era. Um, never went overseas, but, uh, they were they served during the Vietnam era. Um, my, both my grandfathers served in World War two. Um, my one grandpa on my mother's side was in the Navy. Um, he actually lied about his age to get into the Navy. Um, and my other grandfather, uh, he actually be my step grandfather on my dad's side. He was a bomber pilot. Uh, flew missions in Africa, uh, Italy, France, and I. I grew up, like, listening to their stories and going through. Spent a lot of time rummaging through their stuff. I guess you might want to say. Um, the uniforms, the pictures, uh, reading everything I could on World War two. Uh, because they just inundated with me with stories, and I just. I couldn't get enough of it. So from, uh, from a very small child I'd always dreamed of, you know, joining the service. Um, that kind of changed throughout time. Like which one? I actually wanted to join. Um, you know, kind of had them float on, you know, kind of what you saw on the TV for advertisements. Um, but I always knew that eventually I wanted to serve in the military.

SPRAGUE: Um, so when you did join, what did your family say?

GEISLER: Uh. Uh, so when I joined, I was what they like to call a late bloomer. Um, I didn't join the military until I was 30. So I had a graduated from college. I had a career. Um, and it was really 9/11 affected me a lot. And from that point forward, I, I just I was like, I got to do something. You know, and I thought about it for a while before I eventually joined. Um, they were obviously not happy. Um, because you're like, why are you leaving your career? I mean, you're over six years at this company. You know, you're moving up. You're you're doing good things. Why would you enlist and give all that up? So there was a lot of a lot of tough conversations. Um, a lot of me basically telling them that, hey, I'm 30. I do what I want to do, and then me just telling them, guess what? I signed the contract. I'm going in. Um, at the time, uh, my wife was just my girlfriend. So there was an uncertainty there of, you know, is she going to stay with me? You know, when I leave, is she just going to say, I just can't do this? Um, so I, I really had to be kind of prepared for all of those things to take place, because there was there was not a lot of support, um, from the family when I initially joined, just because they didn't understand why I was doing what I was doing. Mhm.

SPRAGUE: So that would have been – you would have – like you had said be prepared for that because that sounds like a momentous decision given where you had already been. And please tell us a little bit about going to college and your professional career at this point, if you would.

GEISLER: Yeah. So, uh, I went to college. Uh, graduated in '98 from UW Whitewater. Um, with, uh, bachelor's degree, actually in history. So I loved history, and I thought my life kind of stayed with it through college. Um, had a great time in college. Uh, ran, you know, track and field that all the good things that, you know, I love to do. Um, and then after I graduated, um, probably about seven months later, I think it was, uh, I started at Generac Power Systems, which is, uh, a local company here in Wisconsin, and I started there and sales and just eventually worked my way up through the ranks. And, uh, you know, my time I left, I was the senior regional sales manager for an entire division. So I had hundreds of people that worked for me. And it was there was a lot of tough conversations there as well. When I was getting ready to give my notice that I was leaving. Um, after a little over six years with the company, um, because I was one of the ones they considered a year. He's never going anywhere, you know, he he's going to stay with us, we're going to grow with him. And all of a sudden, I dropped that bombshell on him that, hey, I'm giving my two weeks notice. And this is why, um, the only person who really understood, uh, was our senior vice president. Um, he had been in the Army in Vietnam, had actually served in Vietnam. He was, uh, uh, noncommissioned officer. So while he wasn't happy about it, um, he was about the only one who really kind of understood what I was doing. So it was it was tough to give all of that up. That's why it was, uh, a lot of decision making. Um, is this really going to be the right choice for me? Um, but I had to do it. Yeah.

SPRAGUE: And that was driven largely by 911. Yeah.

GEISLER: Yes, yes. Uh, I don't if 911 had never happened. Um, I don't think I would have joined because at that point in my life, at 30 years old, well-established in my career, um, uh, joining in the peacetime military just to join. Um, I don't think I think it would have been worth it, you know, to serve. But I don't know if it would have been that pushing point that would have gotten me there. Um, but 911 definitely did. Okay.

SPRAGUE: Um, and that's there's a little bit of a reverse question. What skills did you learn as it was senior regional? Uh, what was your title again?

GEISLER: Your regional sales manager.

SPRAGUE: Sales manager. Okay. Based upon that, later down the road, when you became a senior NCO and you were in those leadership roles, did you end up applying any of what you had learned in that role in the Army?

GEISLER: Yeah. Uh, I tell you what, um, it really prepared me to deal with, uh, diverse people because with all the people that work for me, not everybody was the same. Different backgrounds, different beliefs, different religions, different everything. So I really had to be able to manage all of that, and I had to be able to put a team together that could work together. So, you know, over years, it taught me how to do that. So when I came into the Army, I, I don't want to toot my horn, but I had, I think, better leadership skills and some of my drill sergeants, because I'd had to really be in charge of so many people. And it was everything with with them. I mean, if I had to fire somebody, if I had to hire somebody, it was no different than with a soldier. If I had to, you know, write them up. If, uh, you know, any administrative action had to be taken with them. You know, it was all those things I had already done before. So I was fully prepared on really how to handle the situation. You know, how to do a write up, how to, you know, praise someone for doing something good. Um, but also how to deal with a soldier that was not doing the right thing. So I had a lot of experience with it, and it really helped my went in in the Army. Um, plus going in a little bit later, I was, um, I was much more mature, so I wasn't easily rattled by a lot of things. Um, not to say teenagers aren't mature, but, you know, it's been a lot different. Me going in at 18 versus me going in at 30.

SPRAGUE: Okay. So, um, you enlist. Where do you enter the Army from?

GEISLER: Uh, I was living in, uh, McGuane and go at the time. Uh, so. Entered through Milwaukee, went through, um, maps and then from maps on down to Fort Jackson.

SPRAGUE: So tell me about wonderful Fort Jackson, South Carolina.

GEISLER: Uh, I have in in Jackson. Um, you know, they that's what they usually call it. Um, I don't remember any relaxing parts. Um, it it was interesting. Um, it was summer when I went in, so it was, uh, like May. So it was May, June and July was my basic training part of it. So by June, when we were getting towards the end and we were doing our last fuel training cycle, they were experiencing temperatures down there that they had never had before. I mean, it was so hot that we we actually had drill sergeants dropping from the heat from just exhaustion. So we actually they cut it short to bring us back because we had I mean, even our first sergeant went down, so to had the first sergeant of the company go down was like, all right, it's time to come back. But Jackson overall, uh, I it was a great experience. Um, uh, I loved it. You know, the whole, uh, you know, the first day there, stepping out on the line. You know, everybody's yelling at you, and you're just like, okay, I just want to stand here, and I'm just good. As you know, you know, blend in as much as I can. Not not this is not the time that you want to stand out for anything. Um, and then, you know, the home, you know, the shark attack. You know that they do at the very beginning. I don't, you know, I don't think they do that anymore. But, um, you know, the drill is you run a back and forth grab and bag and you're doing it wrong, and then you're humping all your bags over to your area, and you got to dump all your bags out, and you got to repair it. It was. It was chaos, but I, I didn't mind it. I knew it was. It was for a reason. Um, but Jackson was I enjoyed it. You know, other than it was hot and muggy, I enjoyed Jackson.

SPRAGUE: Did you, uh, ask your family or get any information from your uncles or grandparents about how to behave at basic? Did you ask them for information on how to behave and not behave?

GEISLER: I didn't go to them. I actually I went and talked to my my cousin, uh, who was in the Marine Corps at the time. So I was kind of a marine Corps. Basic is different than Army Basic at every all the services are a little bit different. Um, but I, I went and talked to him about, okay. So, you know, based on your experience, you know, what did you do to kind of get through it? Because the first two weeks can be really mentally tough. You know, even though I was used to traveling all the time with my company, you're you're away. You know, you're in a very different environment and you're there. There is no like, all right, I've had enough. I'm going to go home now that you don't get to do that. So I went to him for advice, really, on how to be able to handle those first couple weeks.

SPRAGUE: Uh, at the time, were you training with other genders, uh, women in your unit, or were they still separated?

GEISLER: No. Uh, we were we were all one. Okay. Oh. Uh, yeah. Um, now we had, uh, different, um, sections of the barracks. So, um, one section was all male. One section was all, um, female. Um, wasn't that many in my basic training company? Um, I want to say out of, uh, I mean, there was probably a hundred and 5060 of us. Um, there's probably about 15, 20 females. Mhm.

SPRAGUE: So they were they were you were in the same unit. Same company.

GEISLER: Yeah. Same unit, same company, same platoon, same squad. I mean you trained side by side.

SPRAGUE: Okay. Uh, did your family come down for graduation or not or.

GEISLER: No. Um, be quite honest that it wasn't that big of a deal. Uh, and I didn't want them coming down to Fort Jackson just. Just for that. Because, really, you you graduated, and then that very next day, I mean, you were gone to wherever you were being sent to for, um, your, you know, your badge training or wherever you're going after that. So. No, I just did my thing that day.

SPRAGUE: Okay. And, um, tell me about, in your case, what happened where you went after basic a little bit, if you would. So.

GEISLER: Uh, when I first went in, I went in through the, um, OCS program officer candidate school. So at their graduation from Basic at Fort Jackson, I went to Fort Benning for OCS. Um, got there and, uh, I was, I enjoyed it. I loved what I was doing. I was, I was very much focused on. I wanted to be an officer. I wanted to, you know, really make a difference. And then after about four weeks at OCS, I was like, I was kind of taking a look at, you know, when you're an officer, how much time do you actually get to make an impact with soldiers? I was like, all right. So as a second lieutenant and a first lieutenant, as a platoon leader, you get to do that. You move out to be a captain, which is after three years, and then you're more administrative. And then beyond that, you don't. So I really started taking a look at the NCO side. I was like, okay, so I mean, you really as an NCO, even after 15 years, 14, 15 years, you're a sergeant first class, you're a platoon sergeant. You've had all this time to be able to train, mentor, you know, help soldiers long really develop leaders. And I was like, I think I would rather do that. So I actually after six weeks, I dropped out of OCS to stay over on the enlisted side.

SPRAGUE: Okay. Um, so tell me about, uh, after that, did you attend it immediately or did you? What happened next?

GEISLER: Uh, so right after that, I had about a week, um, lag time in between there. Uh, because y'all process for most years, they put you over in this, um, replacement company. And then from there, they they definitely want to push you out. They want to get you out to wherever you're supposed to be in the army. Now, the one thing I will say is that your options are very limited. You don't just get to pick anything you want. Kind of like when you first go in, you can really pick, uh, what career field you want to go into. Um, you're giving options that are more at the needs of the military or the needs of the army. So I really I had three choices. So they're like, you can be a 19 delta. I was like, what's that cab scout? I'm like, okay, cap Scout, that sounds pretty cool. Combat arms. I was looking at what they did and I was like, all right, you know, you're out in front of the army scouting. And I'm like, well, there's no war is going on right now. No, no major movement, I should say. I'm like, so I don't know about that. Um, what's my next option? Well, you can mean 88. Mike wants that truck driver. I'm like, no, I didn't. I joined because I wanted to fight. I didn't join because I wanted to drive a truck. And to be quite honest, when I was in Iraq, we used to make fun of them. 88 makes me school target practice. So I was like, I want to be able to shoot back. I'm like, what's my third option? Like 31? Bravo. What's that? Military police. Uh, I don't like that option either. I'm like, I don't I don't write, I don't want to write tickets. I don't want to go enforce, you know, laws on a base when I'm in a combat zone. But I started taking a look at it and what military police were doing over in Iraq at the time. And I was like, oh, they're doing convoy operations. They're doing route reconnaissance, they're doing walking patrols, roving patrols. I'm like, okay, so. They're more of, uh, more of a combat unit than when I thought they were going to be. And I was like, and you get a little bit more training. I'm like, so I said, I'm going 31 Bravo! I'll be military police. So from there, they shipped me off to you for Leonard Wood or Fort Lost in the woods, as we like to call it, because it's down in Nowheresville, Missouri. And, uh, that's where I went to eat at.

SPRAGUE: Okay. Um, how did you think the. The training was at Fort Leonard Wood?

GEISLER: Uh, I thought it was great. Um, you know, I came in there. Um, the only disadvantage I had was that, um, military police school was what they used to call also one station unit training. So basically, you did your you did your basic training and your aid all at once. It was 16, four weeks. So when I got there, the company I got put in was just getting out of basic training. So these people involved kind of had been in the same sucky environment for nine weeks together. They all knew each other. And here I just kind of came floating in for the last seven weeks of, um, the advanced training, but, uh, it was great. Um, I mean, it was winter time. We were there. So, uh, once again, our last field training exercise got cut short, um, because it was so cold at Leonard Wood that, um, they couldn't keep any of the water from freezing. They out in the field, they couldn't keep any of the heaters going. They couldn't get engine started. So they actually pulled this in, um, a few days early because they couldn't have a bunch of basic trainees out there with frostbite.

SPRAGUE: Understand? So, uh, after that, um, did you, after you left, I t did you attend any schools or did you go to your first, uh, duty station?

GEISLER: Uh, I went to my first duty station, which was in South Korea. Uh, so that was, uh, kind of an interesting time because with going from OCS to then I t um, they had changed my orders so many times, um, that when I got to Korea, uh, after about a month of being in Korea, um, all sudden I didn't get a paycheck, and. Yeah. So. Exactly. And so my, uh, I went to all my squad leader at the time and my platoon sergeant. Hey, soldiers get paid. No need to go to, um, camp. Uh, I forget which camp was over there. Camp Carol, I think it was, uh, get your pay straightened out. So I get over there, we go to the payroll area, talk to the sergeant that was sitting there and gave my ID. Everything, and he types everything in you. Wait a second year old, you just. Just wait one second, okay? Gets up, walks back, come down the back room. Outcome's a sergeant major, a first sergeant and a captain along with him. Uh, and he they're like. And they hand my hand, have my ID and they're like, this is you, Geisler Correo. You know, they read off my, um, serial number and everything and like. Yes, that that's me. You're like soldier, you're a wall. I was like, what? Like the army says you're a wall. Like, uh, well, I'm here in Korea, but if I'm going to be a wall of all the places I'm going to go, I'm not going to go to South Korea. Uh, so they hadn't actually changed my order so many times that the Army had lost track of where I was at, even though the Army had cut the orders for me to go to Korea, had paid for my ticket. You know, I in processed in Korea and had been there for a full month. All of a sudden they're like, we don't know where he's at. So that was uh, quite the experience. Try to get all that figured out. Um, it took them a couple of days and then, you know, I had to produce my travel orders and everything that got me there. And then you're like, okay, we we haven't seen anything like this in a while, but you're straightened out now. So. Yeah, for a while there, the Army had me listed as a while. They had no clue where I was at.

SPRAGUE: Oh, wow.

GEISLER: Yeah. Even though I was assigned to a unit, I had been there.

SPRAGUE: So I have to ask when that sergeant major, first sergeant and captain walked out of that office, what was the expression on their face? Were they.

GEISLER: Very serious? Oh, yeah. Like like you're you're about to get lit up, soldier. And. Yeah, I'm just specialist guys were at the time little E-4 Geisler and um, you know, you got all these people standing in front of you that have a lot more rank than you do, especially when you're talking about a first sergeant, a sergeant major. And, uh, yeah, there was there was not a smirk or a smile or anything on there. It was all straight face like, no, we're gonna have to call and get you arrested. Almost.

SPRAGUE: Wow. And, uh. And that unit was. What was that unit? You.

GEISLER: The one I was assigned to was the 188th Military Police Company. Uh, it was based out of Camp Walker, uh, down south. Uh daigou. So, uh, we were probably Middle South, I would say of Korea. We're probably about, um, an hour northwest of, uh, Pusan.

SPRAGUE: Mhm. And do you know, uh, by chance, I know we talked a little bit about this, uh, pre-interview, and it's okay if you don't know what battalion or brigade that unit reported to, or.

GEISLER: It was the, uh, seven 28th Military Police Battalion, um eighth Military Police Brigade. Okay. Um, which about halfway through my time there, uh, got sent over to Hawaii. I got reassigned over to Hawaii, Schofield barracks area. Um, but they left three companies behind, and we were assigned to the reassigned to the 94th Military Police Battalion. And then, I'll be honest, that the brigade that we got assigned to, I can't remember, um, it was, uh, old National Guard unit patch that had been resurrected, and they recreated it as an active duty brigade. It was just basically everybody who was left over got thrown into this thing. So it was everybody. It was engineers, military, police, ordnance and all the, uh, air guys. I mean, it was everybody. So it was kind of weird, you know, there was it was it wasn't like an eight MP brigade where everybody was MPs.

SPRAGUE: And so and and when you reported initially down to Tae go, you were what what when was that roughly if you remember.

GEISLER: Uh, that would have been about mid January in 2005.

SPRAGUE: Okay.

GEISLER: Oh sorry. Mid-January in 2006.

SPRAGUE: Okay. And then if I understand the sequence correctly, what you just told me was you were initially in 188th Police Company. Then those they their headquarters redeployed, except for three companies. You were reassigned while you were in Korea to the 94th Military Police Battalion. And then following that, uh, you were that was assigned to a National Guard brigade or that a third unit, uh.

GEISLER: Under assignment.

SPRAGUE: Or what's the 94th tucked up under.

GEISLER: The 94th was tucked up underneath there, and the 1/88 stayed. Um, we were just it was the 1/88 and two other companies. One, um, both of them were up north, were all just tied into the 94th MP Battalion.

SPRAGUE: Okay. And do you think anything of this had to do with, uh, what was going on in the rest of the world in terms of the Army realigning its assets?

GEISLER: Yeah. Um, at the time, uh, you know, Schofield Barracks was a no more units were deploying out of there. And with Korea, Korea was always this it seemed like kind of this way stop for soldiers that were just coming off deployment as like, hey, I get a year break from deployment. I'm in Korea because we don't deploy from Korea. Um, or, you know, people that were getting ready to go on deployment were going from Korea to deployable units. So it seemed like it was almost kind of this rest stop area. Um, but yeah, at the time they were reorganizing a lot of units, um, because there was such a shortage, uh, people in Iraq and Afghanistan, especially MPs, we were what was called a star mos um, meaning we were in high demand, but short supply. So once you were, once you were an MP, you were not getting out if you wanted to re-enlist but reckless to something else, it wasn't happening. Hmm.

SPRAGUE: So what did you do while you were with the 188th and the subsequent units while you were in Taiko?

GEISLER: Uh, so we did a lot of, um, uh, field training, so really kind of getting ready for deployments, uh, spending a lot of time out in the field, whether it was up north near Camp Humphreys or we had a big training area that was down near us. So lots of time out in the field training. Um, did do some actual military police work. Um, I think I had my 12 months there. I did about three, maybe four months of actual military police work, patrolling on bases, working shifts. Um, but to be quite honest, not a lot. Um, I did get I got taken off the, uh, roster for about a two month time period. Um, I was training for the. Eight Army ten miler. I was on the, um, the Army ten miler. I was on the eighth Army ten miler team. So we were doing all the training for that. Um, plus I was also going through the, the boards as well, um, for soldier of the year. So they took me off the roster just to let me be able to study and run. That was the two things I did all day long study and run.

SPRAGUE: So tell me a little bit about this. Uh, USA soldier of the year, December 2007.

GEISLER: Yeah, that was a kind of a unique honor. Um, I it was my first sergeant, and my captain put me in for it, um, along with, you know, pretty much every other company or a battalion could put soldiers and NCOs in for a USO soldier of the year. It was really based on all the things that you've done, um, within your time period. So, you know, at that point, I had I been on the eighth Army ten miler team and we had won the Army ten miler. Um, I was the they call it, uh, the Rocha MPV of the year, which was the Republic of Korean Army. So that was actually going up to the, uh, their particular, uh, military police Regiment association, along with another NCO and probably about eight, um, Korean military police soldiers. So whole ceremony, they had no clue what was being said because it was all in Korean. But, you know, it was an honor. Um, and plus a bunch of other things that I had done. Uh, so I was selected for that, and it was quite the honor.

SPRAGUE: Yeah. Um, you also made it looks like soldier of the quarter in 2007.

GEISLER: Yeah. Uh, actually, it was in 2006, actually. Okay. Um, yeah. I, uh, worked my way through the boards. Um, I one company, Battalion brigade. Um, then I won the, uh, division board. Um, and, uh, one of the things I always kind of laugh about after winning the division, um, board was, uh, you know, they, they put your picture up at the division headquarters, so it's your picture and then the NCO that one. So your your two pictures are hanging up at division headquarters, which is kind of weird when you walk in up there and, uh, the, uh, um, division commander at the time, uh, general McHale was impressed with me, apparently, somehow. And, uh, I was asked to be the general's driver, and, uh, I, I told him no, so I told the general no. And, um, the sergeant major was standing there, and he was like, um, soldier. Uh, you you you want to reconsider that? And I'm like, no, sir. Major, I, I, I can't do it. I've just been appointed, uh, team leader. Um, I need to be a team leader. I need to do this in the army because I'm not staying here in Korea. Um, I'm going back stateside where I can deploy to Iraq, so I'm not going to re-up here for Korea. And so I told general no.

SPRAGUE: And, uh, you mentioned division. Which division was that?

GEISLER: Um, it was it was called the 19th. Yes, Expeditionary Sustainment Command. Okay. Um. So it wasn't actually like, like up north was, uh, the second Infantry Division. Um, down south was the 19th SC, um, it was made up of, uh, a lot of different units.

SPRAGUE: Okay. Um, so at that point, you because you had mentioned it, you were already thinking through what your next moves were in terms of. And where did you where did you have that? How did you develop that?

GEISLER: Well, I, I had always said in my mind that if like in the very beginning, if I'm enlisting, I'm enlisting because I want to deploy, I want to go to Iraq or Afghanistan, I'm not going to join the Army just to say I joined the Army, you know, after 911, I wanted to fight. And that's why I got into, actually the military police, because they were such shortage that you were you were guaranteed to get deployed. So that's one of the things I had always been looking at. Um, Korea just happened because they had changed my order so many times that they say, well, we're sending you to Korea, because that was not where I was originally supposed to be going and supposed to be Fort Drum, where I definitely would have deployed with them somewhere within the 10th mountain. So yeah, I, I was not planning on staying in Korea. I wanted to go somewhere because I wanted to deploy.

SPRAGUE: Okay. And, uh, while you were in Korea, was that a company tour? Unaccompanied tour.

GEISLER: Unaccompanied tours? Okay. So, um, that was, uh, that was kind of an interesting year. Um, you know what the time difference I at there in the morning. Now, we had that time to kind of get ready and then, you know, before our actual first formation. So I would be calling my wife who would be at home. And because she's now done with work because of the time difference. And then at night, I would call her before I went to bed, because that was about the time she was getting up here stateside. Um, we saw each other. I with the Army, ten mile an hour. I was back in DC. I was able to take four days leave after that. I think in 2006, we saw each other like five days in the entire year. Mhm. That was uh, that was that was tough on first year anniversary is. Hey, I'm in Korea.

SPRAGUE: Yeah. Uh, yeah. Anything else that, that you care to share about that separation and being away from your spouse.

GEISLER: Uh, it was it was tough. And you're especially you're newly married. Um, because I had gotten I come home on special leave at basic training to get married in August, and then I went right back. And then I didn't see my wife until December, when I graduated and I was done, and I had two weeks, and then I was gone for a full year. So it was, um, it was interesting. I didn't know if we were going to make it or not, um, just because it was so new and but yeah, I think both of us kind of being a little bit older, um, and really kind of understanding that this is what we want, and we got a plan for the future, that that's what kept us together.

SPRAGUE: I understand. Okay. Um, so, uh, what was it like leaving Korea?

GEISLER: Good. Uh, good. Um, I, I don't get me wrong. I enjoyed my time there. I didn't, I didn't think I would, especially in the very beginning when I got there. Um, but I made the most of it, you know, I got kind of got my groove and really got into things over there. But, um, by the time, uh, end of December rolled around in 2006 and they were like, okay, you're you're going back stateside and this is where you're going. Um, I was like, all right, I'm ready to go.

SPRAGUE: Where are you counting the days with a little Korean calendar crossing them out there? Were you?

GEISLER: Yes. I was definitely counting the days. Um, they did it really? Kind of like. All right, now we we got to get going. Because then when they start packing my stuff up to go to, uh, Fort Bragg, and they were shipping it out, I was like, all right, my stuff's leaving now. It's time for me to be following it. Mhm.

SPRAGUE: Tell me about, uh, your next duty station, Fort Bragg.

GEISLER: Uh, well, that was, uh, my number one choice, so I had three choices. It was, um, I had Bragg as number one. Then it was Fort Hood, and then it was for Stuart. Um, three places I knew that I, I went to, I was going to get deployed from, um, and I got my number one choice, Fort Bragg, uh, arrived there. Oh, probably about the second week of, uh, January. I took a couple days leave after I got home, uh, that we could drive down together. Um, my wife and I and, uh, kind of enjoy the trip along with each other. Um, and then, uh, it was about a week and a half, two weeks of processing. So you get to get through all the paperwork and all the gear and everything like that. And then I got assigned to my company by about the last week of January of oh seven.

SPRAGUE: And that company was.

GEISLER: That was the, uh, 108 Military Police Company airborne aerosol.

SPRAGUE: And what brigade or battalion did they follow up under?

GEISLER: Uh 503rd MP Battalion and Boer airborne. And, uh, that was a 16 MP brigade. Airborne.

SPRAGUE: Quick question. How does it functionally work if the company after it has both airborne and and air assault? How is that? I'm just curious because I haven't seen many units like that. Does that mean that both everyone's qualified in both or in theory, the unit is in.

GEISLER: Theory, yes. So everyone is eligible to go to both. Um, in fact, we were the only military police airborne aerosol company in the United States Army was the one away. Um, within the 503, uh, every EMP company was airborne, but we were the only airborne and air assault, uh, company.

SPRAGUE: So did they end up sending you to airborne school or Air Assault school or.

GEISLER: Uh, unfortunately, I did not get to go. Um, when I got there, we were already in what was called blue cycle training. And Blue cycle training was pre-deployment training. So they it was a stoppage on all schools, everything. Um, the entire focus was on training to go to Iraq, um, which is where we're head to. And they didn't want anybody, uh, obviously getting hurt during any sort of training because then you're trying to figure out, okay, they're not going, who do we find you to go for them.

SPRAGUE: Without, uh, revealing any operational security issues? What what general things did you do for, uh, blue cycle training?

GEISLER: Uh, you know, I don't think there's anything secret about it. Uh, you know, it was, uh, a lot of scenario training. You know, a lot of, you know, you're you're pulling up into, um, the all the buildings down there, which was supposed to be like a village and then going through all the, uh, scenarios of, you know, if this happened, what would you do? And if then if that happened, what would you do? And you were you weren't talking through it, you were actually doing it. And you had observers with you who were from units that actually had already deployed. So they were kind of watching you on, you know, hey, this is what you're doing, right? Hey, this is what you're doing. But that's not going to work over there. Um, you know, training doctrine says this, but reality is this. So we did a lot of that. Um, there was a lot of, um, urban assault, you know, going into buildings, which is what we anticipated we were going to be doing. Um, and then, uh, yeah, that's a lot of learning how to, uh, patrol and vehicle walking all that through villages and dealing with people. Um.

SPRAGUE: Now, at this point, you were E5 or you were about to be E-5 or not, or you were.

GEISLER: I was about I was, uh.

SPRAGUE: In for promotable.

GEISLER: Yeah, I was in when I went to the promotion board, um, in November that year. But then they maxed out like they, there was nobody getting promoted to NCO at there. I went, um, but then in the next year I was um, March was when the points went back down to normal and I was promoted to sergeant. So I was getting ready to be. So that's why they sent me to the one to wait, because they were short team leaders. So when I went there, I was, uh, a team leader as a specialist, which there were quite a few other that were specialist, promoted all the team leaders. But by the time we went over to Iraq, they were either if they were promoted, they were sergeants. If they were promoted because they didn't have enough points, um, they were made corporals. So we always had NCO was in charge.

SPRAGUE: Okay. Uh, and uh, what what were, uh, what were some of the feelings, uh, as you got closer to that time to, uh, deploy from Bragg.

GEISLER: Uh, you know, from the soldier side.

SPRAGUE: Yeah.

GEISLER: You know, as we were getting closer, you could tell there was a lot more anxiety, uh, among our soldiers, you know, there was more, you know? Hey, it's about. Get real. That's not going to be training anymore. It's about to get real. There could be bullets flying this dead body that you were dealing with as a supposed dead body could actually be a dead body. You know, there was. We had a few soldiers who, you know, they wondered if they were going to be able to hack it over there. You know, hey, we've been training, but when I actually have to be in that gunner's position and watch over you, am I going to be able to pull the trigger? So there was a lot of anxiety right before we went over of, you know, we trained to do our job. Now you got to actually do it. But it's different when you're actually there. And you have to react because it's real. It's not okay. Well, let's we didn't do this right the first time. Let's go back and do it again. It's it's on. So yeah. But once we got there a lot of that went out the window was like I think that's the best thing that happened to us is we got there. Everybody's anxiety level went down. It's like, okay, we're here now, set, do our job.

SPRAGUE: Okay. And when you came in theater, where did you go first?

GEISLER: Uh, well, we flew into Kuwait first. That's where everybody goes into. You're flying to Kuwait? Um, that's sort of that acclimation to the heat. Um, because I will tell you that when you first get off that plane, it's like that heat just punches you right in the face. You know, it's 115, 120 degrees when you land. And it's just like, whoof, Holy cow. And you go down the stairs on the plane. And the first thing to hand was that bottle water. All right, here's your water. You know, by the time you get from here to your this tent over here to kind of start your in processing, you'll have drank all of it because it was that it was that hydration thing that, you know, you see in the movies all the time that you want to get started right away because you can't have soldiers dropping. Um, but yeah, it was Kuwait. We were there for probably about, uh, a week. Um, a lot of it had to do with, um, the orders, because at the time when we first got our orders to go to, um, Iraq, they were 12 month orders, one year orders, and we were falling in on our sister company, the 1/18, who was over there already. Well, our orders got rescinded and they got changed to 15 month orders. Well, then everybody who was overseas already like the 1/18 that we were falling in on, they got pushed out to 15 months. So we couldn't fall in on them because they were going to be there three months longer. And basically the Army had to figure out, okay, they're already here in theater. What are we going to do with? And we can't have them sit in Kuwait for three months. So that's when they sent us from Kuwait all the way up to, um, five Key West, um, to do a three month mission up there for another company that was just actually getting ready to come home.

SPRAGUE: And, um, so you found out when you arrived in Cedar you were going to be there 15 months? Ah, you knew before you deployed you were going to be there.

GEISLER: We knew before we deployed, um, about a month before. So that was, uh, that was a tough phone call home. You know, my wife wasn't happy when I got there, and I had to call her at there a couple weeks and say, hey, guess what? I'm going to Iraq and me for a year. And then they had to call her up, you know, right before we're getting ready to deploy. Like they are not going to be on a year. Those orders are canceled. And that's good news. Um, bad news is, uh, we're going to be there for 15 months. So, yeah, about a month before we found out we were going to be three extra months.

SPRAGUE: Wow. That's got to be tough.

GEISLER: Well, it was, and that's I think I had a lot to do with the anxiety with a lot of our soldiers is like, yeah, now we're there for 15 months, you know, am I going to be able to hold it together for 15 months and do this job? Um, but I think reality kind of set in when we when we got there on the ground, it was like, all right, we're we're going to be here. Let's make it. Let's make the best of it. That's what you might want to say. The only thing you could do.

SPRAGUE: So in the future, it sounded like way down the road or a couple more years down the road. The army then decides to go back to it sounds like 12 months tours maybe. Um, what are your thoughts having served the 15 months versus the 12 month tours? Uh.

GEISLER: Well.

SPRAGUE: If you have any.

GEISLER: It's it's tough because you get death once you hit that year. Mark. So I've been here a year and I you could start to see in some of the. Soldiers and airmen and NCOs who had been there, you know, already deployed before me, um, who were on their second and third deployments. Now you that next three months was tough because you're you're you're tired, you're tired, you're you're mentally tired. You're physically tired. Your company has completely changed due to soldiers going home. So I'm going, you know, I'm going home permanently. Um, and new soldiers coming in. So it's not the same company that you deployed with. So it it's tough. It's like you almost go through a whole reshuffling of your roster and, uh, and then when you come home, it's like it's not the same company in name, but not the same company that you deployed with. So it does make it tough because it was that extra three months, I think is where we were. Yeah, it was the toughest.

SPRAGUE: So if I've understood you correctly, you're rotating new troops in and out while you're there. Or was it a whole. Yeah.

GEISLER: Uh, well, you know, over the course of time, uh, people get injured and also, you know, wounded, injured. You know, some can come back, some can't. So we had a number of those soldiers get sent home. Um, we had officers and NCOs who got promoted. And sometimes that, like our first sergeant, got promoted to a sergeant major while we were there. Well, you can't have a sergeant major in charge of a company, so he had to rotate home. You know, we had a couple officers rotate home because they got promoted. Um, our XO got promoted to captain. Wow. You can't have two captains in the same company. So he got rotated home to start his time as a, you know, company officer. So yeah. And then you get new soldiers that come in and then you're trying to integrate those new soldiers and those new NCOs. Um, plus you find out when you're there that, you know, little personality clashes that were happening in the rear, um, become big personality clashes when you're in theater and you can't have a dysfunctional squad or platoon. So there's some of that reshuffling of people that takes place. And, uh, I want to say of our, of the original 12 that were in our squad, my team was the only one that was left by the end. Everyone else was brand new, including our squad leader at the time.

SPRAGUE: Wow. Huh. That's interesting. So you go to, uh, FOB Key West, and how do you pronounce. I've got the name here written. And how do you pronounce the airfield? Does anyone even go say that? Or that? You just say quest. Looks like quarry era airfield.

GEISLER: Yeah, we just got a of Key West, is all. We ever called that?

SPRAGUE: Okay.

GEISLER: Um.

SPRAGUE: I've also heard FOB endurance, but mostly referenced Key West.

GEISLER: Maybe that that might have been a previous name or maybe name afterwards. Okay. It was Key West the entire time I was there.

SPRAGUE: Okay. And to backtrack just a smidge, and then we'll go ahead. When you were in Kuwait, where was that at? Do you remember by chance? Sometimes people just have a general name for it, like Tent City or something here.

GEISLER: It probably was something like that. I'll be honest. With the week we were there, it was so go go go. I didn't even pay attention.

SPRAGUE: No worries. Okay, so hopping back to FOB quest. Uh, you were there. When did you get there? Actually.

GEISLER: So we got there in late May, uh, 2007. Okay. And we were there until August.

SPRAGUE: Okay. And what were your first impressions?

GEISLER: Um, it was big, but I was like, it's just out in the middle of nowhere. I'm like, you look out beyond the wire and it's just sand for miles. I was like, wow, this is pretty desolate at. And there was no cities. There was nothing around there. So I was not impressed the least to say.

SPRAGUE: And how did you get from Kuwait up to quest?

GEISLER: Uh, well, now I see 130, um, doing the old, uh, combat take off, uh, popping the players and back and forth and up and down. And by the time you actually got to cruising altitude, your stomach had gone from your toes to your head to, uh, side to side, and everybody just kind of queasy their way on up to, uh, you. Then we landed.

SPRAGUE: Did you have to do an approach there? Combat approach as well?

GEISLER: We did not. Um, I think because it was out in the middle of nowhere, um, because, uh, there was no place for any insurgents to hide. Um, they actually shoot at us. We missed landing like a regular airplane when we flew out of Kuwait. Um, we actually proved from Kuwait to Baghdad and Baghdad up. And when you're in Baghdad, you definitely. You're doing all that fun stuff that the Air Force likes to do to try to make us Army guys puke.

SPRAGUE: That seems to be a recurring pattern.

GEISLER: Yes.

SPRAGUE: Um, I suspect it was probably for your safety, too.

GEISLER: Yeah. Yeah. It was. It really was.

SPRAGUE: But I can appreciate the back of a birdie not being fun. So. Yes. Yeah. Uh, so, uh, you get to have a request. Uh. Q sorry. Um, what was, uh, what was a normal day? Like, what did you do on a if there was such a thing?

GEISLER: Uh, well, I wouldn't say things were normal. Um, there was no normal day ever. Um, but our our main operations that we did there, we did convoy operations, convoy escorts, and we did route reconnaissance. So convoy escorts always took place at night. Um, because there was a, uh, um, a curfew. So anybody who was out on the roads was considered a bad guy. So that's why we did them at night. It was easier to move convoys up and down without having to deal with that, without having to deal with any traffic. Um, so that's how we roll was pitch black.

SPRAGUE: Um, and I assume that was with nods or blackout lights or what?

GEISLER: Yeah. It was.

SPRAGUE: Or not.

GEISLER: Yeah, it was tough. Uh, so the vehicle I was in is called an ASV armored Security vehicle. So it was a light armored vehicle. Um. Pretty safe, pretty high up. Um, it was much bigger than our Humvee. Um, had light armor on it. Um, had a turret on it. They had a 50 cal and a mach 19 in there. Um, so it was it was fast. It was made to take a little bit of a hit. You know, you could take a hit and keep on going. Um, so for that type of vehicle, um, I was either the lead scout for the convoy, which we were three miles out in front of the rest of the convoy scouting the roads. Um, or I was the lead convoy vehicle. Um, which was back with the convoy, but the very first vehicle in the convoy. So it was mentally draining. Um, you're driving at night. Your lights go about 15ft in front of you, maybe probably about ten, 10 or 15ft in front of you. And you are you're clearing homes by basically pulling up kind of next to it and looking down into it, making sure there's nothing inside of it. Um, you're clearing any ambush points? Oh, and along the way, you're looking for any wires it might be coming across the road for IEDs. A black wire on a black road going about 20 miles an hour. And you got 10 to 15ft of light in front of you. Not a lot of room for error. So by the time you actually got from Key West to wherever you were, we were going. I mean, physically, you've been sitting in a vehicle for anywhere between 16 to 24 hours in one spot. But mentally, you were you were tapped out. You were done. Sleeping was very easy. Um.

SPRAGUE: How did you stay awake?

GEISLER: Uh, you know, you you tried to, uh, play music a little bit. Um, obviously couldn't have music on too much because you got to listen to the comms. Um, you tried to have as much conversation as possible. Um, but there wasn't much because gunner had their job. My driver had to stay focused on what they were doing. I had to stay focused on what I was doing. It was a lot of a lot of caffeine. Um, a lot of just snacks where you just kind of chewing on something just to kind of keep yourself awake. But yeah, it was it was tough. Um, there was a lot, a lot of hours.

SPRAGUE: What, uh, did you have any run ins with things you found on the road? Things?

GEISLER: Yeah. Um, I will tell you that my first experience with an IED. You know, there's that old scientific thing that we learned about way back when we were in middle school. You know, light travels faster than sound. Um, that is very true. Uh, the first IED we hit, um, that we didn't find. Um, it was basically it was a wire going across the road. And I saw it and I was yelling as I was yelling, stop! We ran over the wire because you're like I said, it's very little room for error. And all of a sudden there was just this blinding white light in my eyes, followed by the loud kaboom! Uh, knocked the turret off the track. Um, peppered our vehicle. I mean, the right front tire was completely shredded. Uh, and then you just hit the gas and you tell your driver, just go. I mean, it's 300m is where you want to go to get out of what we call the kill zone. And unfortunately, um, that first time we ran into what they call a daisy chain. So it was multiple IEDs. So we hit that one, and then we hit another one. Because you're going fast at this point to try to get out of it. And then you hit another one. Then we hit another one. And then we finally got out of the blast area. And uh, even after we called in EOD because we had to stop the convoy, um, they found more. So it was. Yeah, they, they had they had their stuff together that day. And, you know, every once in a while we find them. Every once in a while they find us. Um, but we did find more than what we actually had go off on us, uh, which was good. Um, but it was always interesting, you know, where, uh, quite a few, what we call those, uh oh, shit moments. Um, we had one where we were stuck on the other side of a bridge. Everyone else, the convoy, all the support vehicles, everything were on the other side of a bridge because we found the IED in the middle, which meant we went streaking fast. And then other vehicles went backwards. That's a lonely feeling. Feeling. Being the only vehicle on the other side of a bridge out in the middle of nowhere. And, um, you know, bad guys are around because they don't. They just don't lead those things on intended. So. Yeah. Um, there was that, um, there was a time that, uh, pulled up to a hole and I just randomly said, go left, and we got up to and I looked down, I was looking at three artillery shells, and the wire was going off to the right. We never saw the wire, you know, and it was just randomly that we were going up. And I said, go left to go around the hole. I said, go right. We ran over it. So it was just, you know, it's it's a flip of a coin. That's all it was. It. And unfortunately on convoys, it wasn't. If you were going to get hit, it was when you were going to get hit and how bad, you know. And that one was, uh, interesting because I had to pull up the other vehicles went back. So there was this big gap between us. We were sitting near, um, an Iraqi police station, and the convoy commander said, you got to knock out those lights because we were sitting out in the light, basically just viewable for everybody. So here I am, getting out of the vehicle, running up by myself to knock out these three lights. And by that point, I'm like a quarter mile by myself up the road. Um, yeah, you find out. Uh, you know, I thought I could run fast and track in college, but, um, you really can't find out how fast you can run with this because the extra pounds were the gear on. Um, when do you do that? Um, there was a time that, uh, they had blown up all the culverts along, um, one of the routes leading up to, uh, Bob Sykes, uh, because of an incident that happened, and we had to take a route going around Mosul called Route Santa Fe. And, uh, the holes there, they were. They weren't fooling around in there. They were the holes were big enough to drive our vehicle into that. They were blown ordnance up. And, uh, we found I found c wire in the middle of the road. Just random C wire in the middle of the road. And, um, I had to get out and run 100m up the road, and I grabbed it, and I came running back. And as I came running back, you know, you hear that sound that you never hoped. You ever hear that ping? That's when the, uh, the pin pulls on a grenade. And they'd had the grenade on the one side of the road, and they had it strapped to the, uh, c wire. So there was C wire is only halfway across the road, just enough to make a stop, and I ran. I just ran up and grabbed. I stupid me, I'm a sergeant at the time. Stupid me. I get out with none of my protective gear on which I was like, I'm just going to get out. I'm going to run up and I'm going to grab this thing. I got a nine millimeter pistol. Still is all I got. Stupidest thing I ever did. And, uh, could have cost me my life. But luckily, uh, when I, I was running back towards my vehicle. So when the pin pulled and I was running with, uh, c wire, the grenade was. The blast was much farther away from me. And, um, all I felt was the, um, concussion from. It didn't even. I don't generally knock me down, but, uh, definitely made me run faster.

SPRAGUE: And, uh, what what routes were there? Routes that you used regularly or things that they had ordered? Yeah.

GEISLER: Uh, a lot of stuff we ran up and down was, um, route Tampa. Um, was the main was what we call an MSR main supply route. Um, we were up and down that constantly, whether we were going south to what we called LSA Anaconda, which is, uh, logistical supply area. Um, or we were running north all the way up to a place called, um, ibogaine, which was on the Turkish border. That's. So Tampa was our main route. But, um, we did a lot on, uh, up to, uh, Bob Sykes, which we were taking to alternative supply routes. Um, Birmingham and Alabama were the two that we were on.

SPRAGUE: So, uh, within the as a lead convoy element, did you, um, injuries? Okay. What what happened with your unit?

GEISLER: Uh, we were we were very lucky. Um, we only had, um, we had, uh, a couple people with minor stuff, uh, minor injuries. Um, nobody seriously hurt. No, no. Killed in action? No. Wounded. Um, I would say we were beyond lucky because there was a time a convoy went out ahead of us. Because three of the vehicles that we were supposed to be escorting were having mechanical issues. So they sent the convoy out ahead of us, and we went up and we had to cross over because that convoy was stopped. And we went by the lead vehicle, which had been my vehicle, and the whole thing was blown up. I mean, it was gone pretty much, and that would have been mine. So, you know, you just look and you go, wow, it's it's it's wasn't my day that day, which, you know, cross your fingers and anytime you go outside the wire, you're taking your life. And while your life's in someone else's hands sometimes.

SPRAGUE: Yeah. What, uh, when you saw in that one incident where you saw those artillery shells in that in that hole, and you said go left instead of right, could you identify the artillery shells or not? Or was it too quick?

GEISLER: Yeah, it was too quick. All I did is I looked down and I could see the three tips, you know, coming out. And they were all like pointing straight up. And I would just like go. I just yelled go, go, go! And we went and I called on the radio, IED and the other two vehicles and the scout element pulled back.

SPRAGUE: Mhm. What, um, life wisdom, what lessons do you draw from going through that experience as the lead lead vehicle out in front of the lead vehicle in the middle of the night, going through Iraq at 20 miles an hour or less than that? What what lessons did you bring home with that?

GEISLER: I you know, I mean, it's. When I went out, when I'm at work and when I'm when I'm doing stuff with my, my, my current employment, you know, people get all wound up about certain things and they'll just be like, this is, you know, we we got to do this is this is so bad. This is so bad, you know, and this is going on that's going on. And, and and they do look at me sometimes like, do you even care? And I'm like, I care. But believe me, there's worse situations. Um, I just I look at it sometimes and I think it, it helps me with my job now because, um, I look at things as, you know what? It's not as bad as what you think. I've been in worse. I've seen worse. Let's work through this. Um. And it just is. It's taught me patience. It really it really has. Because that was the ultimate patience right there of just staying focused and, uh, really paying attention to detail because it's the littlest things that you think are nothing that turn out to be that thing that could blow you up and kill you.

SPRAGUE: You had mentioned the pre-interview did while you were doing the convoy and route reconnaissance, and this may not be the case. Did you have much dealings with the Iraqi police or Iraqi army, or was that later?

GEISLER: Mostly that was that was later. Mostly we dealt, uh, with them. Uh, when we got to checkpoints and a fair they were being manned. Um, you know, a lot of it was just are are these good guys or are they potential bad guys? Um, because you never knew, um, especially up in that area. But, uh, we didn't have a whole lot of in person dealings with them, because the whole mission for a convoy is to get it from point A to point B, and to keep it moving.

SPRAGUE: You know, any, uh, dealing at all with the the burn pits at Key West or not?

GEISLER: Uh, not a cu West down in Anaconda.

SPRAGUE: Okay.

GEISLER: Um, that was the, uh, man when you were down there. It was like the air. You could taste it in the in the air. You had a really, really bad smell down there. Um, you know, I remember being down there, and, you know, we get a convoy down there, and we might have to wait an extra day for everything to get gathered up and then go out the next day. She'd be there for a couple of days, and, you know, everything on you just smelled funky. Um, you'd get back in your uniform and you just smell and be like, oh, my God. And yeah, it you could taste it in here and you could see him doing all the burning. But to be quite honest, I never thought much of it. You know, my only thought was, okay, well, that's good because, you know, then they can't use that stuff against us, which they would, you know, uniforms, batteries, gas, oiling, all the leftover stuff. They definitely find a way to use it against us. And but yeah, I did not. Anytime we had to go to Anaconda, it was just like, oh, really? I just don't want to go down there cuz we were on the opposite side of the base or they did everything, so we didn't really have much to do with it. Mhm.

SPRAGUE: Did you, uh, experience any shelling or mortar rounds while you were at CU ust.

GEISLER: Uh no not at CU West. Um, when we got down south to Baghdad. That's a different story. But, uh, yeah. No, no, not up at Key West. I think it was because we were everything was so far out. We were so desolate up there that there was I mean, the closest like that, like route Tampa, which would have been like their main highway was a good mile and a half away from, um, the base. So they couldn't get close enough without getting taken out.

SPRAGUE: Mhm. Uh, wrapping up the the time you spent at FOB Key West, uh, is there anything there you'd like to share about Key West?

GEISLER: Um, you know, I guess. You know, it was a base. It was just like any other base. Um, you know, when we left, uh, happy to go, um, happy to get down to what we were actually supposed to be doing. But I was really, you know, proud of my my two soldiers. Um, both of them, uh, by the time we left, uh, were getting recognized by the, um, the battalion that we fell under, um, one of them, uh, got, uh, a battalion coin, uh, from the battalion commander, and the other one had. Received an Army Commendation Medal. Uh, so I was, uh, I was very proud of those two. And, um, I knew heading down to Baghdad that, uh, I had two solid soldiers.

SPRAGUE: And what was the, uh, the battalion while you're epics that you were falling under?

GEISLER: I couldn't even remember. Um, it was, uh, some sort of logistical supply battalion. We were just throwing up there because, like I said, they were one company was leaving, and they needed to put us somewhere. Yeah.

SPRAGUE: That's right. Okay. So, um, August, mid August 2007. You leave FOB quest, right? Mhm. And then you go down to Baghdad. Yep. Okay. Tell me about um, and it sounded like to me, um, you were doing convoy missions down there also or what were you doing there?

GEISLER: Well, uh, we weren't doing convoy missions down there. Uh, we were doing, uh, the walking patrols. Okay. Roving patrols with the, um, Iraqi police. Uh, we also did the training of the Iraqi police and the Iraqi national police. Um, we did a little bit very sparingly, um, with the Iraqi army. Um, not much with them. Uh, because our main mission was to get the police force, um, up and running and doing what they were supposed to be doing. Uh, so those were our main missions down there.

SPRAGUE: Did, uh, what were some of the problems that you ran into or issues you ran into with training the Iraqi police? Uh.

GEISLER: Man, some of them, I mean, we could probably go through a whole laundry list of when we were there. Um, yeah, it was them actually being there, you know, who was going to show up that day? You know, just the basics of they had no clue what they were doing. You know, none of them had ever done any of that work before. Um, you know, it was quite honestly, there was a lot of laziness. Um, the officers that were there, I would say, for the most part, were garbage. The officers were, um, it seemed like everybody was a general or a colonel. It was like, jeez, Louise, do you have anybody that's not a general or a colonel, you know? So it was, you know, they loved their ranks. They loved their ranks. You know, in the higher up in the officer side, the better. You know, uh, sometimes you'd go into a base or, uh, on a into an IP station and like, you have a general and two colonels, it's like it was just absolute chaos there. They had no logistical systems. They had no way to supply their people with anything. You know, getting getting in to actually get to their vehicles to go out and do a patrol. It was like herding cats. And sometimes it was almost like we were forcing them to, like, shove them into their vehicles like, no, we are going, this is what you're supposed to be doing. This is your people, you know, not mine. Not my people. You know, I'm leaving here eventually. You're not, you know, and there was a lot of a lot of frustration, um, on that, um, especially very early on because we were at that point, we were in the surge. Um, we were part of the surge. Troops going over. So it was it was tough getting them to go out because they they were in little Toyota trucks. They had no armor and no protection. I mean, I saw guys going out that had like they an AK 47 with a 30 round clip and they had two rounds in there. It's like that's all I could get. I'm like, who really? So you're basically worthless when it comes to a firefight. You're going to be the guy, you know, hiding or probably taking off. And a lot of times it was trying to figure out who was good and who wasn't good. There were so many times where, you know, the insurgents were actually within the efps, and I was trying to figure out who was the good people, who were the bad people. Mhm.

SPRAGUE: What were what could you do if you thought this was a bad person or.

GEISLER: Very, very limited on what we could do. Um, which was very frustrating. The only thing we could do was we could try to pull them from any sort of training, pull them from any sort of patrols. So that way they had no idea what we were doing. Um, they definitely if we thought one of them wasn't good, they weren't allowed anywhere near our vehicles. Not not even close. Um, but then other than that, the only thing we could do was go to whoever the officer was in charge, and. Tell him. Hey, you know, this guy's not good. He's probably insurgent. And then let them deal with them. Which nine times out of ten, nothing happened. So that was the frustrating part, is that we had very limited control what we could do. And unless they actually did something that we could prove. They were there. That's it.

SPRAGUE: And who was paying the Iraqi police at that time?

GEISLER: It was the supposedly the Iraqi government. But, um, you know, man, we found out so many times that they hadn't been paid in weeks. They hadn't been paid in months. Um, we go to the main, um, Iraqi police area, the headquarters area, which was, um, in downtown Baghdad near, uh, Fab Shield. That was kind of in the middle. Trying to work with those clowns. I mean, they they were probably taking the money for themselves. Uh, and, uh, you know, that average police guy who's down there who might be trying to do something good isn't getting paid. Eventually, they just go. So there was a lot of times we had to do force payments, almost force payments, being basically telling that officer, like, give us the money, we're going to go pay them. Sometimes, sometimes with a gun pointed at the table, sometimes with a hand on a pistol, you know, for a little persuasion of like, yes, you're going to do this for us. Mhm.

SPRAGUE: At the time, did you have time to think about what, how this was going to end or how what the end state would be if, if, you know, if you had to do payments at the barrel of a gun, what was going to happen once we were gone as a country, what, what the situation was going to be?

GEISLER: Well, the hope was and actually what was starting to happen as we got more towards kind of the end of our tour in oh eight, um, was there was there was a lot of cleanup going on. Um, things were night and day different, uh, from when we first got to Baghdad versus when we left? Um, they were actually starting to clean up a lot of the corruption. It was still there, don't get me wrong. It was still there. But, um, they had really started to clean it up. We weren't having to do any of that anymore by the end. Um, they had kind of a semi good payment system going down. Sometimes there be some hiccups, but that was really what we were hoping for is, you know, if we can get these people trained and get them paid and get them equipped, that they can do the job so that we can go home. We were going home eventually, but that, you know, we don't have to do this anymore as a country.

SPRAGUE: Uh, what what you're dealing with, like, uh, translators. Did you deal with translators much?

GEISLER: Yeah. Um, every time we went out, we had a translator. So we had, um, four of them assigned to our platoon. Um, yeah, because you had to. Every squad was always going out for every platoon. So it was never really a time when there were people just sitting in the rear. Um, so we were always out. So you had to have an interpreter with you because you had to be able to talk to the Efps or the Iraqi National Police, or just the regular civilians when you're out there. You had to have someone that could translate. Um, we had really good ones. Um, I can think of two that were really good, um, that were with us the entire time and did awesome things. Um, in fact, one of them, uh, was former, um, medic in the Iraqi army and one of our one of the, one of our guys got shot. Uh, he actually helped in the wound and picked up the weapon to fire back at the insurgent. Um, so he was a good one. So we we had two that we really trusted. We had two that, um, we eventually, uh, got rid of because, uh, it was like, we don't think that, uh, they're doing the right thing. They actually did have one that we arrested because we found out that they were informing. And that was the reason one of our vehicles got blown up on a patrol.

SPRAGUE: So that's got to be tough.

GEISLER: It is. And, you know, the worst thing is, is they're leading him off in, you know, every instinct in all of us was like, just give us a minute with them. And, uh. Well, fortunately, that's the way it is.

SPRAGUE: How are your, uh, walking patrols? What was that like?

GEISLER: Uh, hot. 60 extra pounds worth of gear on, um, walking around in 120, 130 degrees. Um, it was, uh, hot. It was exhausting. Um, it was, um. It depends on what area you are in. You know, some areas. Uh, by the time we left, we could get out of our vehicles and we could walk a for, you know, 5 or 6 blocks and be completely safe knowing that. Hey. We're good. Um, I would say, and when we first got there, walking patrols were a little iffy. Um, you know, trying to jump, go in neighborhoods, you know, who are the good people there? Who are the bad people there? You know, watching every corner and, you know, watching every window to make sure, you know, someone didn't flop a grenade out a window, you know, or poke out the window and just randomly shoot at you. Um, so it was, uh, a little harrowing in the beginning. Um, but, you know, we we got lucky and we didn't we didn't have any casualties and walking patrols.

SPRAGUE: And, uh, or these patrols, mostly around Baghdad or the elsewhere.

GEISLER: Uh, most most of them were in Baghdad. Um, we did do some up in the, uh, it was called, uh, the, uh, it's a horror district. Um, it was kind of a wide open area. We had, uh, an Iraqi police station up there was kind of the main one in that region that we'd go up and, uh, do some walking patrols up there and some of the small little villages. Um, those weren't too bad. They were pretty small. Um, but because they were also pretty far out there. Those are the ones you had to really keep your head on a swivel, because they were probably the ones that got more infiltrated by the insurgents because they were so far out there.

SPRAGUE: Um. Well, you were, uh, in Baghdad. Were you that whole time working out of the, uh, the cop mode in the Ministry of Defense? Or was that elsewhere?

GEISLER: Uh, the entire time we were at, uh, it was called cop or mod couple. So cop was just combat Outpost. Um, mod stood for Ministry of Defense. So it was their own Ministry of Defense. It was like, I it was like their version of the Pentagon. Um, but it wasn't a big building like our Pentagon. It was kind of a series of buildings that, um, went around in a circle. And then there was a main building in the middle, and it had like, uh, a drive that went around that building. So, uh, and it was right along the, um, Tigris River, which always made things interesting. Um, because that could be anybody on the other side of the river. It could shoot out over at you. Um, and we were we were on a base where you didn't salute officers. Um, because we were downtown and you had so many taller buildings that were watching down on us. You didn't salute. That, just made them a target, which made it interesting, too. When we went to the big bases, um, like, uh, down here, uh, Baghdad, um, the, uh, airport down there by up, um, the big bases down there where, you know, everything was military formal. And, um, there were a couple times when I walked by officers and I didn't salute them, and it was like, hey, Sergeant, you you forget something there, you know, you just get used to not doing it.

SPRAGUE: Mhm. Um, what, uh, what were, uh, the effects of the surge while you were there? Uh, and did you see, what were you what were your observations in terms of the situation there? Uh.

GEISLER: You know, it was and we had all these troops coming in and, you know, it was sometimes it was just chaos, um, just trying to deal with the locals, um, and, you know, trying to impress upon them that we're, we're we're here in bigger numbers because you're allowing these bad guys to run around your neighborhood, basically, and cause chaos. You know, they wanted us to leave, but they also wanted us to stay. So I was always that fine balance of, hey, you know, you're here. That's great. We're safe. But we also want you to leave. Um, and, you know, you tried to form relationships, especially with the, um, the local, uh, uh, um, uh, religious leaders, um, they were the ones that kind of ran the neighborhoods. Um, and you try to get a good relationship with them so that that way they could smooth over relations with the people in the neighborhood or the people in that town. But, um. I mean, they were we had a lot of insurgents running wild and free and, and, um, you know, we we had some neighborhoods where, you know, I mean, we had, uh, one that we'd always go to and we always brought stuff for the kids. You know, we bought ice cream. We always kind of support the local economy by the ice cream for the kids and, you know, school supplies, you know, things for the adults to kind of help make life a little bit easier. Um, and there was this, uh, 16 year old girl who she saw me reading a book. Um, and it was on the American Civil War. I just I'm a history buff. So I was reading on the American Civil War, and she knew kind of broken English, and she took kind of an interest in talking to me about the Civil War, you know, kind of, you know, what was it about? And then she'd be like, oh, kind of like, this is what's going on in Iraq, you know, you know, Shia, Sunni and all this kind of stuff. And, you know, so every time we went out there, you know, I talk with her, um, get her parents permission, you know, talk with her for a little bit. You know, she come up by the vehicle and we chat back and forth about history. Um, and then one day we show up and she wasn't there anymore. And, uh, the insurgents had basically taken her because she was talking to Americans. And it was about two weeks later. Um, I you work a 24 hour shift at the Joint Security station in Armenia to. Basically identify bodies when they come in. And, um, about two weeks later, uh, they brought her in in the back of a pickup truck. Beaten. Shot multiple times in the face. I mean, you know, it's just. Stupid. You know, I. I. It was senseless. I still don't get it. She's 16 year old girl, you know, just all she wanted to do was just have a conversation. All she wanted to do was just, you know, when we went to the neighborhoods, you know, all just like all the kids. I just wanted to be able to run free for a little bit. And, um, for them to do that, I, I still, to this day, I can't get her head picture out of my or her face out of my head. You know, I'll never forget that day when they brought her in and I. And covered her body. And it was just. Irons they'd beaten her with. They'd burner, they'd. I mean I in somewhere along the way she died. And then they dumped their body like a piece of trash out in the middle of the road. I just. I don't get it. And that's why I would get frustrated over there with those people. It's like we're trying to help and you can't even help yourselves.

SPRAGUE: Do you need a break or you. Okay. Um. What did you. What? Uh, with that happening, what did that make you think about the people you were up against and the insurgents?

GEISLER: Um. No mercy. If you're going to do that to a 16 year old girl, don't. Don't let me catch you. Don't let me catch you. And I know it's wrong. I know that's not what we stand for and what we do. But I'd like, if you're willing to do that to a child. No mercy.

SPRAGUE: Um, you had also mentioned in the pre-interview, uh, you had some, uh, PSA dimensions maybe.

GEISLER: Uh, yeah. Uh, I got I was assigned to the, um, company commander's, uh, personal security detail, um, for a few months, and that was getting him around to all of his high profile meetings. All the meetings with the generals. Um, the Iraqi ones. There was a lot of them, um, going to a lot of different places in Iraq that I never would have gone to. Um, because when you're assigned your certain area as a squad, you work that certain area, you know, and every squad had a certain area within their assigned city that they were working because then all the IP stations you kind of have familiarity with. You're always working with me. Um, but I was able to do a lot of different places in Baghdad, which, you know, some of them were good, some of them, you know, you go to some of those places and you're, you know, starting up a whole new IP station and it's just trying to get stuff done. Um, but mainly making sure that, uh, the company commander gets from point A to point B and comes back alive when.

SPRAGUE: You have anything happen during any of those details are pretty, pretty uneventful. Uh.

GEISLER: You know, for the most part, those were uneventful. I will I will say that our company commander was garbage. More interested in trying to earn medals and anything else. Um, so there were a few times I was like, man, if I could just find a way to leave him out here in, like, oops, it's an accident. Um, yeah. That was a sentiment among many of us.

SPRAGUE: That's got to be tough dealing with that. If your company commanders in that situation or of that situation and that that's your your company commander.

GEISLER: Yeah. Yeah. The only thing that was, was good is that our platoon leader, our lieutenant, was awesome. And he was topnotch. He was great. Our platoon sergeant that we had at the time was great. So I just look at his. You know what? I'll deal with those two. I don't want anything to do with the company commander if I don't have to interact with them. I'm not going to. Mhm.

SPRAGUE: While you were downrange, uh, where they're both men and women in your unit, or was it just men?

GEISLER: Uh, military police. It's. It's men and women. Men and women. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So.

SPRAGUE: And what were there though, if you can speak to it at all, the women's interaction with the Iraqi nationals.

GEISLER: Yeah, that was always, uh, a hard one. Um, you know, it was great to have, um, them along to help deal with, you know, how do you search? Because men don't search women over there. So it was very taboo. So having them with us to be able to take a female Iraqi off to the side, to be able to do any kind of a search was very helpful. However, Iraqi men have a very low opinion of women. And we had a couple of incidences where, you know, Iraqi soldiers would say or do something. And I mean, it was, you know, we'd had to step in or there was one time where I was just basically I just I let the female soldier handle it because I'm like, she's tough as nails. You screwed with the wrong one. I'm just going to let this happen. And she dropped him on his backside and he got up and a bunch of them came over like they were offended, like they were going to do something. And we stood up and he went scampering off. So. Yeah.

SPRAGUE: What, uh, did you you had also mentioned pre-interview the, uh, ITP missions, uh, maybe, uh, international transfer point operations, if I've got that right. Or maybe I'm misreading that, um.

GEISLER: ITP mission.

SPRAGUE: I would have been dealing probably with, uh, EP maybe, or foreign nationals.

GEISLER: Uh, yeah. Um, that was a very small part of what we did. And there were, we had times where we would. We call roll people up, which means you're arresting them. Um, we capture them out on a raid, or, um, they would get somehow turned in and we would find out that they were foreign nationals. Um, Egyptian. Um, we had, uh, a couple of Saudi Arabians. Um, I mean, we had one, one guy from Libya. Uh, so, yeah. So, you know, if there are foreign national and they're there, that's they're not there for sightseeing. Um, so, yeah, there was, uh, we had quite a few times where he had to, you know, call in, you know, Special Forces or some special teams be like, hey, Egyptian National, we captured him on a raid. He's we're going to turn him over to you for interrogation because he's here for other reasons. Mhm.

SPRAGUE: You had mentioned, uh, things shifting over time from when you got there to later, uh. How if you could comment a little bit more on how things improved or didn't improve with the Iraqi police and the Iraqi army over time?

GEISLER: Um.

SPRAGUE: Enough or not?

GEISLER: I don't know if it ever got as good as what we wanted. And know I can say it never got as good as what we wanted to get. Um, we tried to make it the best we could for them. Um, I mean, we tried. I mean, different construction projects in the area to get to make the locals feel more, you know, open and coming out. And then we'd have we're trying to get the Iraqi police to really mingle and interact with the locals, to trust them. Um, we had a lot of in the very beginning when we were there, there was a lot of us leading everything because they had no clue what they were doing. And then towards the end, it was us basically pushing them out in front. So, you know, you need to be the face of this. These are your people. You're the one who's got to deal with them. You're the one protecting them. They need to see you. They need to trust you. Not me. You. So there was a lot of us trying to push them out in front. Um, didn't always go so well, you know, they they just. It's a different culture over there. Um, you know, you get some 20 something year old Iraqi police officer who is trying to tell, you know, maybe an older gentleman who is. That you're doing something wrong. This is what you're doing. It's not right. And they have very much have a culture of kind of the older you are, the more seniority you have. And they just they couldn't quite get past that. Like I can't tell him. I can't tell him. He can't do that. It's like, yeah you need to. So it was it was tough. It it got a little bit better, but it was still it was not even close to what we needed. It. Um, there were still a lot of corruption. Um, you're never going to get past that with them over there. Maybe they have at this point, I don't know what they do now currently, but, um, still a ton of corruption, weapons going missing, ammo going, missing with a truck go missing the one time, you know, probably got sold on the black market for all we know. Um, you know, we they always wanted stuff from us. Hey, we need more equipment. We need more of this. More of that. It's like, no, we're not going to because we know what's going to happen to it.

SPRAGUE: Um, anything else that you would like to share about, uh, your tours in Iraq?

GEISLER: Uh, you know, it was it was long. Um, it was, it had some good points, you know, it had some times where you just wanted to luckily, you know, you kept your hair nice and short because I wanted to pull it out. Um, dealing with, uh, the insanity, uh, you know, it was it was tough on soldiers. Yeah. It was it was tough on marriages. I saw a lot of marriages collapse, um, while I was there. So trying to deal with a soldier who, you know, whose husband is left, um, or wife has left them. And now they got to go out on mission the next day and stay focused on the mission and not on I'm getting a divorce. It was it was kind of that balance right there. I it was, uh, it was just a lot to do for 15 months. And, um, you're at such a high up tempo that it becomes normal and, you know, then you get home and you just pause, click, turn it off. Um, doesn't quite happen like that, but I don't regret it. Um, I do regret seeing some things that I saw. I do regret, you know, there are some things that I probably did over there that. You know, would not cast me in a good light, but you kind of had to do what you had to do, um, to get through it. So. Yeah. Um.

SPRAGUE: What, uh, starting in Iraq, uh, what was a sequence and what was it like coming home?

GEISLER: Uh, I tell you what, uh, when we actually left back, I don't think it was real until we. Even when we were still in Baghdad. Um, hour by up, I think it was. It wasn't quite real that we're leaving. It really hit me when we got to Kuwait, and we got on that plane, and once we took off on a regular commercial airliner out of Kuwait, it was like, this is. I can relax for a second. And I think it was the first time in 15 months, actually longer than that, that I actually just relaxed. And the next thing I knew, we were in Ireland first for a for a layover. Um, because ah, not Ireland. Sorry. Hungry, hungry, then to Ireland, then to Maine, then to Fort Bragg. Um, but every stop in between I was out. It was like I was trying to catch up on 15 months of sleep, um, you know, and then when you land, it's. There's a lot of adrenaline going on. You you're getting off the plane, everybody's cheering. You still have to go to formation. Um, but you can see your family like, you can see and, like there, right there, it's like, uh, I can see my wife. She's right there, but I can't get to her. Um, but, uh, I tell you what. When they released us, um, and we could actually go to our families, that was probably the first time I smiled in 15 months. Um, it was just great being home.

SPRAGUE: Um. How, um, you come back. You're doing recovery. How how are those first couple of weeks, uh, with your family? What is that like?

GEISLER: Uh, it it goes by fast. Um, you know, when you're when you're back and, you know, you've got to do the recovery, you've got to, you know, offload all the equipment and everything turned in. You're moving back into, uh, you know, your room in the barracks. Um, there's a lot of things going on in your with all the people that you are with. So the two weeks that we had before we got to go on our, um, 21 days post deployment leave. It went by fast. Um, and it was just a lot of trying to catch up. I know, because I the only time I saw my wife was mature leave for 12 days. Um, and that was it. So just trying to catch up, just enjoying, uh, a meal out at a restaurant was weird. You know, sitting at a restaurant table and being able to just relax and have a regular meal. So it was. It went by fast. And then the, uh, three weeks that we had for post-deployment leave went by even faster. Yeah, it was because everybody wants to see you. You know, you're you're home. You know, everybody wants to see you. You know, my parents wanted to throw a big party for me coming home. My wife wanted to throw a big party for. For me back for all of our friends. It was 21 days of constant go. So it really kind of felt like I was deployed, still deployed, because it was just I never got the rest. And then I was back at Bragg because I had to finish up my, uh, time.

SPRAGUE: Right. So, uh, that time at Bragg, that that must have gone pretty quick. From that return to November oh eight.

GEISLER: Yeah. Um.

SPRAGUE: Or not? You tell me.

GEISLER: It it did. It went went by pretty fast. Um, you know, and one of the things that had happened that I kind of failed to mention before was I had actually gotten stop lost. Oh, really? I was actually my original ETS date was April, uh, 2008. Um, but the Army was like, hey, you can't leave because you're going to be on deployment. Um, you know, very vividly remember, you know, April 8th, 2008. What was I doing? I was standing at, uh, the joint security station in Ottumwa, and I'm like, hey, guys, this is my PTSD. I'm supposed to be out right now. I'm enjoying my time out. Um, so I got a stop. Lost. So I wasn't allowed to leave until November. So my 36 month contract was actually 44 months. Um, but that time that I was back at Bragg. You know, I, you know, when everybody talked about when you come home, you know, you got to, you know, watch yourself, you know, watch what you're doing, make sure you're doing this, make sure you're doing that, you know. You know, I had a couple guys who were like, you know, it's going to be tough. You know, and think about some things. They kind of gave me some ideas. And, you know, when I got back, I was like, this isn't bad. I got this this is easier. I mean, I'm I'm back at Bragg, you know? I'm fine. You know what I didn't think about and what didn't hit me until later was that three months that I was back at Bragg to finish out my time. I was around all the same soldiers I was with. I was still in uniform. Um, I was still hearing the same sounds cause that Bragg gets a training ground. So, you know, just like Iraq. I hear nothing about Black Hawks at night. I hear nothing but heavy vehicles moving. It was all familiar sound, so I slept fine. I was like, this isn't hard. Uh, it that kind of changed when I got home. Um. And I was actually home. Home? Um, there were a lot of sleepless nights. A lot, um, tossing, turning because it was quiet. It was, like, deathly quiet in. In Iraq, when things are quiet, that means something bad's about to happen. And it was so quiet, I just, I, I would get up and I would pace. Pace up and down the on down the hallway. You know, I fell on, felt almost naked. Um, because I go outside during the day and, you know, I can't be constantly be looking left. Right. You know, what am I what am I, dangerous? Okay. You know, and I didn't have my sidearm. You know, I wasn't going to walk out the sidearm, you know, out in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Um, but, you know, my side of. And I was used to. I was 15 months of walking. With that sidearm on me. It became that kind of weight right there. That was reassuring that I've always got something as a last resort for protection, and I didn't have that. So a lot of sleepless nights, a lot of, you know, I be giving orders or calling things out and sleep and, uh, my wife would have to, you know, kind of give me the elbow a little bit to, uh, to wake me up. Um, and just because at the time when I came back, I, I was going back to college. So I had a few months, and it was just. I don't know, it's it's tough when you come back and all of a sudden you just got to, like I said, turn it off. Um, driving on roads was tough. Yeah, I'd see a box on the side of a road. And I remember coming back, um, uh, and it was like highway 164 out here seeing a box right alongside the road. And I was going about 40 miles an hour at the time, and I slammed on the brakes. Almost got in an accident. I mean, the people behind me almost smashed into me. But, you know, it was just that I just start sweating like I'm going too fast. This this thing clear? I was I was looking for a wire actually coming out of the box. I mean, that's so you do that for so long, and all of a sudden, you know, you see those things and you're just you're programed to look for things. Stop, go. You know, dangers and things like that and very uncomfortable and crowds, I couldn't I just couldn't deal with being out with a lot of people. Um, so it was it was an interesting time. And unfortunately, um, you know, I probably drank too much. They try to deal with a lot of it, um, you know, just trying to forget. Um, but I drank way too much, I can tell you I did. I, I shouldn't have done. I mean, there are some things I did that were just stupid. Um, but, uh, I don't know. I'd. You just you try to turn it off, and it's not. It's not easy. Um, not as easy as I thought it was going to be. Um, I had a hard time with family members and friends, you know? They wanted to talk about it. I didn't, I just wanted to forget, uh. And every time they try to talk, I remember snapping at people. I remember just walking out of rooms. You know, I remember a couple times swearing at people and saying, you know, basically you don't even get it. And walking out. Um, so there's, there's probably a few friendships that, uh, got destroyed along that way because I just, uh, I couldn't relate to the people I knew. Um, they had done the same things I had done. They had been through the things I did. They all my friends had all talked about joining. I was the only one who actually joined. So I had a very hard time dealing with them because it was like, you did all this talking, you didn't do anything. So yeah, it was it turned a lot to alcohol. I, you know, I actually put on, um, that when I first came out that modern duty or modern, um, modern warfare, call of Duty, I put that on. And just watching that on TV actually kind of calmed me down a little bit. I would just put it on TV and just look at it, because it was all based in the Middle East, and I was like, this is what I know. And I would just sit there and sometimes my wife would come home. She can walk in through the door, be walking around and wouldn't even know she was home. I was just zoned in on that. But that helped a little bit. Um, you know, and fortunately, there were times where I was just like, I can't do this anymore. Um, there were quite a few times where I was like, I, I'm done. I probably had. I know I had, I had three times where I had my gun out. I had it laid down in front of me. And I was like, this is I can't do it anymore. Um. It was just too much. Um. The faces, you know, you don't. You just can't forget the faces. Um. All the dead bodies, all the. You know, kids, adults, babies. And you just. There's nothing you can do. There is no amount of alcohol I could drink to get it out of my head. And, uh, I had three times where I actually, I put the gun out, had it in front of me, had it loaded. The only thing to stop me was, um. I don't want. I don't want my daughter to find me. I don't want her to be the first one to walk in and and see her dad like that. That was the only thing to stop me. And, um. I still have things I deal with on on it. Some of those memories have faded. Some of those memories are still clear as daylight. I don't know if they'll ever go away. I think they're always a part of you. But, um, I just. I couldn't have her find her dad like that. And, um, knowing that, uh, I gave up. So. That's that. She she was. She was my my one sole reason.

SPRAGUE: You need a break. Are you good? Oh.

GEISLER: Good. Good. Okay.

SPRAGUE: Um, so if you were originally going back to the ETS thing, and they have lost you in April of oh eight, you obviously we're going to get out of active duty. And you had made a decision not to re-enlist. Tell me about that.

GEISLER: Uh, well, the decision not to re-enlist kind of came down to I in my heart. I really wanted to, but I knew what it meant as far as for my wife, you know, uh, coming home from Iraq. Uh, I got home. We got home a week early, and that was our third three year anniversary, and it was the first anniversary I was on U.S. soil. You know, first one was Korea. Second one was Iraq. If we talk at home and when we're supposed to. I had missed the third one. Um, and as much as I loved serving, as much as I wanted to stay active duty as much as they were like, hey, we want to we need you as a leader. We want to send you the next promotion before we want you. My my two leaders say, I want you to be my first sergeant for my company. And I had to make a decision based on my family. And I decided not to re-enlist for active duty. But at the same time, I still owed Uncle Sam. When you sign up, no matter what your contract is, you owe the government eight years no matter what. You can sit in IRR, um, inactive reserves. Um, but at the time, because military police were still a star. MOS um, I had friends were actually had gotten out and within a month were getting recalled and just sent to a random unit and going back overseas. And I was like, I, I don't want to do that. I don't know what I'm going to do. Um, and I talked to a career counselor and they were like, well, if you go into the active reserves, so you're, you know, once a week and two weekends a year, if you do that, the Army is actually offering an incentive to where they'll cut your time in half. Mike. Oh. Okay. So I basically had to go and talk to my wife about that, like, hey, this is this is the deal. You know, we can take our chances for the next 44 months. All right? Actually, 48. Wait. Whatever. It works out to 96, 52 months, I can actually be we can take our chances for the next 52 months that nothing's going to happen. I'm not going to get called up. But I'm telling you, this is what has happened to some of my friends, am I? If I'm going to go to war again, I want to go with people that I've been with that I can kind of say yes. Um, I'm like, this is what they're offering. If I go active reserves, they'll cut my time in half. Um, and then I'm done in. Uh, would have been six years, so I did that instead. So I went to went to active or went to the active reserves. Um, got assigned to the, uh, 330 amp detachment, um, in Sheboygan. Um, it was a detachment at the time. Uh, there they were actually deployed to Afghanistan when I got there. Um, and so the soldiers that were there were all the, uh, rear detachment soldiers. And I remember showing up at the very first drill, and I walk in, you know, and I and I called ahead of time like, yep, we'd always do PT in the morning, you know, we do it at 6:00, you know, show up at zero 600 or 0 545 for formation. All right, I get there. They call for formation and the rear detachment NCIC walks up to me is. A staff sergeant. I mean, I was still in E-5 at the time and he's like, he's like, you were at active duty, right? Yep. You were at Fort Bragg? Yep. Fort Bragg. He's like, it's like, man, you really need to help me. I'm kind of ed up. And I was just like, oh, crap. We went through the PT, of which half the people were dropping out because they were just that out of shape. And I can see why they're on the attack, but I come from an airborne unit. I mean, if you I mean, anything below a 270 on a test is like, man, there's you're physically ed up. You know, these guys were like, man. Like they they couldn't even pass a PT test. And I remember I left, I got back to the hotel and my wife had come up with me at the time, and she was talking to one of her friends on the phone, and her friend's husband was a lieutenant in the reserves. I walked in with my eyes wide open. She's like, she's like, oh, I was. And I'm like, I think I can go back like I did. These guys are ate up. I mean, they're horrible. I mean, if I go to war with these people, I'm dead. I, I'm like, I need to go shower. So I went in and I just sat there in the shower, just with the water running over me, like, almost like flipping a coin in my mind of like I going back my not going back. If I don't go back, I'm a wall, you know? Yeah, I'm gonna get in a lot of trouble. But can I go back to these people? I was like, holy. I mean, I went back, um, the only thing that, uh, kind of got me through it was the, um, rear detachment commander at the time was, uh, a captain. She was kind of on her way out. So they had assigned her to babysit. I guess you might want to say. And, uh, she was she had been active duty army and had been at Bragg. So I was like, okay, I got someone I can relate to, but. Oh, how was, uh, a process? I couldn't me and I remember why I watch and watch and two soldiers walk by her and didn't even salute her. And I just blew up at them and they had no clue. They're like, well, what did we do wrong? And then they what did we do wrong? Kurien I was like, you just call me Cary. I'm like, uh, yeah. So it was. Yeah, there was a lot of like, oh my lord, I'm going to lose my mind. Um, then uh, but I think it was August. I think it was August of 2000. And, um, gosh, I, the 2009. Yeah, 2009. The rest of the detachment came back from Afghanistan. So at that time they're all like, basically they're coming back. And most of those people were gone. They were out of the Army. They had already done their commitment. Um, and that's when about a year later, they started reconstituting everything, um, and turning it from a detachment, which is really kind of an oversight over strength platoon, um, into a full sized company, which was eventually turned into, uh, 102nd.

SPRAGUE: Okay. So the three 30th AMP debt became the 102nd term. Yes. Scott wrote.

GEISLER: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what it turned into the. So 330 temp detachment went away. Um replaced with 102nd amp company. And we actually we started getting in good soldiers. Um, we started getting in, you know, equipment that would actually make it up a company. And I was really at that time I was a platoon sergeant. And how, you know, it was it was nice. And the fact that as they build up a company, they build it up by platoon. So the first thing that was really brought up, uh, snuff was the headquarters in first platoon, and I was the first platoon platoon sergeant. So I had like at the time, we had like 80 some soldiers in the company because we were still getting people in and 46 of them were under me. So I was like, I was running almost like the company myself, because I had almost the entire soldiers were in my company or my platoon, um, you know, and I had them. The great thing about was I had the most experience. So they really let me run a lot of things by myself. Um, my first sergeant was just, you know, what you got to do? Get it done. Um, I had a lot of autonomy on doing training. Um, which was was good. Um, it allowed me to really be able to get them up to speed on how things really were versus, you know, what they saw in the movies and what they saw in video games. Mm.

SPRAGUE: That sounds like it was a quite a pull up. Like you're bringing the unit along with you.

GEISLER: Okay. Yeah. It was, uh, it it was a lot of, uh. Yeah. You know, you're trying to take something small and turning into a whole company, and, you know, when you're trying to bring that much of an influx in, you know, you're. I mean, it's it's chaos. You know, you this person gets assigned to this platoon, okay? This person sign that platoon. Okay. Now, this person's on this team. Um, there's all the logistics that go on with it of, you know, equipment that gets assigned to each platoon, you know, making sure every platoon got the right equipment. We had a for the EMP detachment. They had a very small basic arms room and, um, mainly, um, pistols, you know, your berettas, your nines, um, and a handful, a handful of them. I mean, a handful, I mean a handful of them. Fours, which. Yeah, because they were detachment. They mainly worked on criminal investigations. They weren't out and about in the field. So now all of a sudden we're trying to bring in M4 Am 200 threes. Mark Nineteens and all looked at what's up Mark 19 I'm like, oh you're going to love this thing. You know, I was kind of going back to the days when I was a specialist as a gunner, you know, teaching them about, you know, breaking down a mark 19, firing it, you know, same thing with a 240 Bravo, you know, a 50 caliber machine gun. You know, the saw, which is like, almost like your basic weapon that you carry out in the field for a gunner. You know, that squad automatic weapon, you know, teaching them how to shoot it and how to aim it and showing them things that they were like, we mean, you want me to walk with this thing? It's like, yes, you're going to walk it. You're going to carry it just like a regular, you know, like you got a deer rifle. Think of it as a deer rifle. You going out there? But the deer rifle that shoots three round bursts and a lot of them, you know, and you showing them just sort of basically shoot while moving. So it was, it really took me back to my roots, uh, when I was first in. And now is probably the, the best time I ever had in the reserves was that last year and a half when I was a, uh, platoon sergeant and all the things that were going on with that, um, and along the way they promoted me, which then they were like, hey, you're an E6 now. Yet if you want to get out and keep e6, you have to extend. So I'm like, oh, so I have to basically re-enlist if I want to keep it. So if I get out, I lose that rank. Like, yeah, you're an E5 if you get out. Okay. Hence another conversation with my wife. Hey, I earned this rank. I really want to keep it when I get out. Um, but I have to extend for, um, what I thought was eight months, but eight months turned into a year based on army paperwork. Um, so I end up serving seven years, so I might as well have done the full eight as far as I was concerned. Um, but, uh, yeah. So it was a great time. Um, a lot of soldiers that I brought up are still in, um, I got a few that are platoon sergeants now running their own platoons. Um, I got two of them that, um, switched over to the dark side and became officers. Um, so, you know, that was. That's always interesting. Um, but, you know, that's that was really what I wanted. That was my vision of when I was going into the army of what I wanted to do was training and mentoring, and that's where I got to do for my last year and a half. And it was it was perfect for me. Um, would have never left had, uh, I didn't want to risk another conversation.

SPRAGUE: You had mentioned in the pre-interview that, uh, at one point you had, uh, deployed to Vincenza, Italy.

GEISLER: Yeah, that was, uh, that was an interesting one. So I got, uh, recalled, um, to go over to Vincenza and, uh, well, we were supposed to be doing over there as I got put on a, uh, a seven and seven person team NCOs, and we were supposed to be going over and helping to train, um, an infantry company out of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. They were going to Afghanistan and they were going to be doing convoy operations. So they were pulling in NCOs who had kind. Operation experience. Uh, so unfortunately, my name got drawn and I got a phone call and say, hey, Sergeant Geisler, you're back in the Army. Okay?

SPRAGUE: And this is while you were in the 330.

GEISLER: No, no, this was after I was. Oh, yeah. It's really.

SPRAGUE: In reserve.

GEISLER: Yeah. Yeah, that's when I was done. Um, so that was another. And that was another great conversation. Hey, I'm going to Italy. Um, so, you know, it was supposed to be a short mission to train them. Kind of give them the basics, get them up to speed on everything. Um, as far as things go with, uh, the military, um, you know, when they say no plans, eyes first contact. Uh, that plan did not survive first contact. And we end up being there longer than what I thought we were going to be because, um, they just couldn't get it. Um, and it wasn't because they're. They're not good soldiers. They're. I mean, they're they're infantry. Most of them were rangers. Most of all of them were airborne. Um, they were great soldiers. It's the fact that they're infantry. Infantry? Their mission is to find the enemy, kill the enemy. Convoy's mission is to get from point A to point B and always be moving, move through contact. And they always wanted to stop and engage is like, that's great. You killed all the enemy. Oh, by the way, I'm happy convoy got blown up in your mission failed. Yeah. So it took a little while longer than we thought, but, um, we we eventually, eventually got back home, but, um, that was after, uh, an interesting conversation with the brigade commander and brigade sergeant major, who were not very happy that, um, we weren't signing off on their company, which was delaying other training that they were supposed to be going through.

SPRAGUE: So this would have been after you left the drilling reserve? Yeah. You were ordered back to active duty.

GEISLER: Yeah.

SPRAGUE: Uh, 2012, 2013 or 2012? Okay.

GEISLER: Yeah.

SPRAGUE: So. Okay.

GEISLER: Yeah. I had an interesting, uh, army career from being a while to being a stop loss to being recalled. Uh, you know, all kinds of fun stuff. I think I ran the gamut of what you could possibly do. Wow.

SPRAGUE: Okay. So, um, well, uh, while you were working, uh, what are you doing on the civilian side while you're in the three 30th?

GEISLER: Uh, I was actually, um, part of the time I was finishing up college. And then I would say towards the end, I was working as a store manager, um, for a retail company. Okay, so I was I did that for a couple years, but, um, it was out of Madison. It got to be too long of a drive. So I eventually left there and went to the company that I'm currently at that um, I've been with for ten years.

SPRAGUE: Wow. Okay. And, um, how did you find, uh, that balance and and how did that work? Uh, working in the civilian world and being a drilling reservist. What? How did that work? How did that work for you?

GEISLER: Uh, it was a lot of time management. Um, because when you're in a position I was in in the drilling reserves as a platoon sergeant, there's a lot of stuff that you logistically had to take care of. Um, soldiers issues, NCO issues, school that people were going to keep, an accountability of everyone. Um, you know, and there was also, you know, if a battalion exercise came up and we had to go somewhere for it, it was sometimes our platoon would be assigned something to do. So getting everything ready for that. Plus, you're working, um, in wife and baby daughter at the time. So it was, uh, it was a balancing act. Um, sometimes, uh, some things had to be sacrificed along the way. You know? Hey, you to go and have fun off doing this. I got to stay home, and I got to get this paperwork done. Um, you know, so there was there was a few times I missed out on things, but, um, luckily, it wasn't that long, so I didn't have to do too much with it.

SPRAGUE: What? Um, in looking at your, uh, in your resume here, how do you think your, uh, your military experience as a platoon sergeant and NCO complements, uh, what you've been doing on the civilian side since you got out?

GEISLER: Definitely. The, uh, uh, the leadership. You know, as much as I thought I knew when I, when I came in. You know, from the civilian side. Um, before, um, I learned a lot more when I was in, um, the military. So I was really able to kind of take both of those and put them together, um, to be able to learn how to. Okay, so there are times when I can be Cory Geisler when I am reprimanding somebody. There are times when I need to be Sergeant Geisler, when I'm reprimanding somebody. And it was always that fine balance of, you know, you're doing wrong and you need to correct it, you know? But how do you approach it? And there were times where I probably came at it a little bit too hardcore, like do this and do it now. I can't exactly do that in the civilian world. Um, so sometimes you get pushback on it. But yeah, it really was, uh, a lot of, um, for me, it was more attention to detail. Um, I learned that in the Army whole handily. Um, I didn't learn that in the civilian side. Um, so everything, like, just making sure, like, things were in their proper place. Um, things in the warehouse were exactly where they were supposed to be. Things out on the sales floor were exactly where they're supposed to be. Everything looked dress right, dress looked good, um, on the shelves. Um, all of that. Just being able to spot that small little thing that was off, um, really helped. Uh, and also really being able to kind of identify, you know, any, you know, issues with employees. I think I was in tune a little bit better after I came back, um, from having dealing with some pretty stressful situations overseas, um, to really identifying those things. So it really helped kind of make me an overall better leader as far as I'm concerned.

SPRAGUE: Okay. What, uh, what leadership advice would you give someone who's leading? Um, could be a group of civilians. 30 people or a platoon of 30 people. What what what would be if you could if you could distill it down and there were three words or three sentences from Cory Geisler that in terms of what you find as an effective leadership style or philosophy, if you have one.

GEISLER: That's a great question. And I can I'll be honest, I probably don't have a philosophy just because my leadership style changes based on the situations that I'm in. And I would just, if I had anything, uh, advice I could pass along to someone is, you know, be flexible but firm. You know, uh, you know, always you have to I mean, firm being that this is these are your principles. These are the things that you stand for. Don't ever compromise on that. But also understand that you have to be flexible because situations change. And if you aren't willing to move with that situation because you're so rigid in how you do things, that can lead to, you know, bad, bad, bad, going to worse in a situation so flexible but firm. I know it's probably an old cliche saying, but, you know, that's what I found really worked for me when I was in the military. And it's definitely worked for me. Um, on the civilian side.

SPRAGUE: Okay. Uh. Coming forward. Moving ahead closer to today.

GEISLER: Mhm.

SPRAGUE: Uh, Veterans of Foreign Wars VFW. Yeah. Can you tell me. Um, first of all, a little bit about your when you initially got in, what. What were you thinking then. And we'll go from there.

GEISLER: Okay. Uh, so I initially joined as soon as I got back home from Iraq. Uh, I could have joined in Korea. Korea is considered, um, eligible. Um, because there was never a peace treaty sign. It was an armistice. So it's still considered active. But I didn't join. So I got back home from Iraq, and now I would have been in probably like, I think September. Um, oh eight is when I actually joined. Um, I just joined as a member at large. I was still down in North Carolina. Um, and I stayed a member at large. Uh, even when I got home, because I was still trying to kind of get my bearings. Uh, I actually didn't transfer into a post until I think it was like it's either June or July. Uh, 2009. Um, transferred into a post. Didn't know what to expect. To be honest, I had no clue. Um, I, I met one person who helped me fill out the paperwork to transfer into the post. Got everything set up so that I was, uh, you know, I went from member at large to actually being in this post. Um, and then went to the very first meeting, like, okay, what's this all about? I have no clue. And I remember going into the meeting and luckily our our post has some people who are, uh, a little bit more progressive who are like, hey, we want you to come in. We want you to be as active as you want to be. Um, we you're not going to be in any leadership positions for the first year because we want you to learn. Um, and so I just sat as a member and just kind of listened and learned. Um, but it was definitely an eye opening experience because I was like, okay, I get it. You know, we stand up and know we salute the flag. We salute you. We say the Pledge of Allegiance. I'm like, I get all that. That's great, I love it. You know, and then you get into all the business stuff and I'm like, what the heck? I mean, I got a motion. I got to make a motion. Second it. What what is that motion? Second, you know, we're going to table this. We're going to I was like, oh they're like, oh yeah. Yeah. I don't understand Robert's Rules of Order. I'm like, whoo! I'm like, what? Um, but I'll tell you what, they I probably would have not gone back to the VFW. It had not been for one thing where I, I had a night where my wife's a teacher. She had conferences. Um, so I had lower and lower as a baby at the time. Um, I, I called my post commander. Um, I can't I'm not gonna be able to make the meeting tonight. You know, my my wife's at work. I don't have anyone to watch my daughter, you know? So I'm going to miss the meeting tonight. And without a beat, he's like, bring her to the meeting. I was like, really? So there's nothing secret here that, you know, I mean, how old your daughter. I'm like, oh, she's like eight months. It's like, bring her to the meeting. Guys would love it. Okay. So I went to the meeting and I was like, family. Okay, I can get behind that. You know, that's what I remember from the VFW when I was a kid with my, um, grandfathers. And I was like, all right, I can do this. So then I got more involved, and I, I started doing, you know, some of the charity work with them, with buddy Poppy and some of the different fundraisers. And, and I, I took a chair position just to kind of do something to be like, what is this about? And then, um, then I eventually moved up into what we call the chairs, which is the leadership, and became the post commander, uh, which I did for eight years straight.

SPRAGUE: In which post?

GEISLER: Uh, post 721, which is in, uh, Waukesha. Okay. Um, so Riggins post is named after to, um, World War One veterans, and it's actually one of the original five posts that signed the document that started the Department of Wisconsin of VFW. So the whole department now that's, you know, 250 some posts. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So.

SPRAGUE: Ah, actually, yeah. The department. Yeah. I got, you know.

GEISLER: Started it started the whole thing. So it was, it was good to be part of that post that, that kind of history knowing that um, and then I just, I started getting more involved because I, you know, my, my wife knows me. She's like, she's like, I know you're going to do this. So once you get in when. You start jumping in this stuff, you you go all the way in. Um, and I did I started getting involved at district level, which is the next level up. Um, I took a couple chair positions just to kind of see what that was all about. Eventually moved into the leadership position and became the district commander, where I was in charge of 32 posts and about 4700 members. And after I successfully did that, I was approached by one of the past state commanders, um, who had he'd been to, uh, state commander, like early on when I was a post commander. Uh, and he's like, we need young people like you to step up. You know, have you ever thought about being a state commander? And at the time, I was like, well, like, man, that's just a level I haven't even thought about. I mean, I don't know, I mean, I'm just trying to make sure I'm running my district correctly. There's ten districts. I want to make sure that this one runs good. Um, but the more I thought about it, uh, the more I really wanted to get involved, cause I was like, you know what? I want to make the VFW family friendly. That was my big, old family friendly. I want to make it to where the younger members feel involved and that they're heard. But I also want to make sure our Vietnam veterans, who are really holding this whole thing together and doing a ton in here, um, feel like they're involved as well, and they're not just getting cast off to the side. So I was like, you know what? I, I think I want to step up. I think I want to do this. So I ran for junior vice commander, which would be like third in line one. And then eventually in 2021, 2022, I became the state commander, uh, for the VFW in that was, uh, that was a hectic year. Um, it was our centennial. So it was the 100th celebration along the entire way. It was travel everywhere. And I went to places in Wisconsin I even knew existed. I've never I never heard of Leon, Wisconsin. Um, and I and a post up there was like, hey, we'd like the state commander to come up for our 75th anniversary. And I'm like, lay down. And they're like, yeah, I'm like, where the heck is Leon? Wisconsin? Want the bear in Wisconsin? I was like, I like, Where's Baron? Well, when he hit Hayward, I'm like, okay, that's really far north. Then you go 45 minutes north. I'm like, okay, really? I'm really kind of out in the middle of nowhere. And, uh, but it was great, I loved it. It was in my time in the VFW. That was the best year of my life. Um, as hectic as it was, um, as much as my family was like, you're going to be home on a weekend because I was typically Friday to Sunday every single week, um, was gone. Uh, it was awesome getting out there and seeing all of our members interacting with, you know, everyone from the newest member at the post from Iraq, Afghanistan to a few World War Two veterans that we still had around. Um, it was just great. Um, you know, and, uh, the national commander, uh, probably the highlight was the national commander calling me and, um, asking me if I wanted to represent on a national level. And I was like, sure sounds like a great idea. And he's like, so what do you think about representing us at the Super Bowl? I'm like, I'm like the Super Bowl. He's like, well, yeah, there's only one Super Bowl. Because at the time he called me, I was, I was my daughter was actually walking in the front door from school. So I'm holding a door open while, you know, trying to help her get in the door. And I got him on the phone, um, like, trying to, like what, the Super Bowl. So, uh, yeah, he, uh, I got to go to the Super Bowl to represent the VFW.

SPRAGUE: Um, and this would have been last year.

GEISLER: Or two years ago. It was the Rams in the Bengals.

SPRAGUE: Okay.

GEISLER: Um, out in California, SoFi Stadium. Um, it was outstanding experience. Uh, USAA is the one who sponsors the whole thing. And, uh, they treated my wife and I awesome. We didn't have to do anything. We had to get to the airport, and they took care of everything from there. Um, the sponsor that I was out there with was, uh, Josh Allen, the starting quarterback for the bills. Um. Good kid. I say, kid, you know, he's 20 some years old, half my age. Um, good. Good guy, I should say. Um, but it was. Great. You know, being able to kind of step up and do something like that. Um, being able to talk about the VFW. Um, and it came with a ton of media exposure. Um, which was awesome. Uh, it wasn't just media exposure because I got to be on TV and do interviews. It was media exposure, being able to talk about the VFW. And that's something that, uh, I really wanted to get the name of the VFW out there. And that just helped immensely being able to talk about that. Um, and then New Years done. Now, on the centennial celebration comes Europe, the gavel. A new state commander comes in.

SPRAGUE: And who was a state commander came in after you.

GEISLER: Uh, her name was Michelle Rath, came out of Wisconsin. And the weird part about it is, it's almost like when you lead the military, everything stops. You know, I when I got out or when I was a past state commander, I was like, the very next day, all the phone call stopped, all the emails stopped, all the, uh, things I would get pinged on for our teams channel stopped. It was like, you're done. And it took me two weeks to kind of deal with the silence. It was like kind of when I first came home from Iraq, you know, peace on the floor. And I was like, I should be doing something right now. What am I supposed to be doing? You know why? You know why. Contact me. I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm not the state commander anymore. So it was, uh, it was an interesting time. It was a great, great year. I loved it.

SPRAGUE: What advice would you have for someone considering to to run for state commander?

GEISLER: Do it because you love veterans. Don't do it. Don't do it because you get a cab. Don't do it because you get a title. Don't do it because, you know, you think there's some fancy stuff that comes along with it. Do it because you love veterans. That's what it's all about is you are the coach. You are the person that is out there cheering on all the veterans in, not just the VFW. I would say just everywhere, all of us, you know, make sure you're in it for the right reason, which is taking care of veterans.

SPRAGUE: Uh, recently you've you've gotten on to the National Council of Administration. Yes, sir. Yes.

GEISLER: Uh, so, um, the National Council administration is the board of directors, um, for the entire VFW worldwide. Um, so every four years, um, each state and then, um, we also have a Pacific in Europe department. Um, each one of those elects one representative to be on the council administration. And what you do is you're basically you're running the entire VFW. It's the commander in chief. Um, is the head it's kind of the CEO kind of face, but all the decisions are made by the council. So it's it's a big responsibility. And, uh, you know, that that first council meeting that I went to, um, the I had I sat down and I looked at that packet that there was put in front of me. And it's not a packet where it's like a folder where you open it up and there's some documents in there. It was an inch and a half thick book, and we were going through everything in it. Um, budget meetings that, you know, at the state level normally take about 15 to 20 minutes and you can decide a budget for the state because not a ton of things really change budget when you're trying to figure out, um, a massive budget for a worldwide nonprofit organization. That was a full Saturday starting at 830 in the morning, getting done at 530 at night. Wow. And it was straight through, except for a half hour lunch break. And you're going through everything. And that's just the budget part of it, you know? And then Sunday, the next day's when you're making all the decisions, like you're voting on everything. So it's it's a big responsibility. Um, and, uh, I'm going to enjoy. I just got started. So I'm in year number one. Um, so I've I'll be the council representative until 2027, and then and I'll pass on to whoever decides to run for it. And the election takes place. Whoever wins.

SPRAGUE: Do you continue any of your relationships with those people you served with, uh, downrange in Iraq?

GEISLER: Yeah, I've got a few that, uh, you know, we still talk. Um, yeah. None of them live in the state. You know, that's the hardest part is, like, I used to have one of my, uh, one of my buddies lived down in Chicago, and we would go down, you know, probably a couple times a year. Um, they would come up here a couple times a year, and, you know, he was married. He had got married when we got out, had kids. So it was good. I mean, we could have the families together. Um, you know, then he eventually moved to Florida for another job. So now I don't have that anymore. But here's a few of them I keep in contact with. Unfortunately, it's, you know, over time, he just, you know, things get lost. You know, everybody's busy. You know, we we got back and everybody kind of scattered to the four winds. Um, and people have families, jobs, people are moving to different states. There's career changes. Some stayed in and, uh, you know, are still doing there are still doing things. Um, one of the NCO was I was with, um, he just today actually is, is he went on to become a warrant officer and today's his last flight and retiring. And it's like, gosh, you've been in 20 years. Like, man, the time flew by fast. And so there's a there's a few that I still keep in contact with. Not as not as much as I probably would like to, but you try as much as you can. Facebook helps a lot because you can see what's going on. You can at least kind of keep track of, you know, what everybody's doing. But yeah.

SPRAGUE: What, uh, what are your thoughts on, um, being a veteran?

GEISLER: Who was there, asked me that before, my thoughts on being a veteran. Um. Yeah, it's. I'd say it's, uh, it's kind of a it's an honorable thing to be able to say that you serve this country. Um, it carries with it responsibility. You know, people look at you differently. Um, people expect different things. People. Quite honestly, you gotta watch. People will take advantage of it for certain things. Um, and, you know, you've got to watch where you know who is who wants to be around you because they respect what you did, who wants to be around you because they want your their picture taken with you. And unfortunately, with me as being a pass day commander. Um, you know, you can Google me in. You know, you can find out a ton of stuff about me and it that comes with that type of responsibility. But, you know, over I would say being a veteran is I didn't understand it when I was younger with my two grandpas and and because they both served in combat, um, I, I didn't quite understand what that meant. I understand it a lot more now, um, in that, uh, I'm proud of it. I, like I said before, while there are things that I regret seeing regret doing. I don't regret serving. I don't regret the fact that, um, I stepped up. I don't regret the fact that some friendships are gone because they couldn't deal with it. Um, so I, I carry with it as well. I want to say it's a badge of honor, but, um, you know, I, I respect what it means. Uh.

SPRAGUE: November 11th, uh, coming up on, uh, Veterans Day. Um, what do you do on Veterans Day?

GEISLER: I did a lot of, uh, taking time to reflect. You know, I take some time to, you know, say a few words to both my grandpa or they're not alive anymore, but, you know, make sure I say a few words to them. Thank you. Um, you know, I take time to reconnect as much as I can with veterans. Um, you know, if there's any events going on, I'm trying to get to as many as possible. You know, I, I can be at work and be having the crappiest day ever at work. I can go to something on Veteran's Day and be around my fellow veterans. And that crappiest day turns into the best day. Um, I know this year, uh, I there's a, um, military ball that I'm going to be going to, which would be nice. Um, and also, uh, there is a, um, a run, a Veterans Day run that's taking place down at the war Memorial. Um, I always love going down in the morning. I love that place down there in Milwaukee. And, um, they're having a fundraiser run. So, um, myself, family are going to go down there. Um, do the the fun run, enjoy some of the things down there. Walk through the museum. It's. Yeah. It'll be. It'll be good.

SPRAGUE: How about, uh, Memorial Day? Uh.

GEISLER: That's always a that's always a tough one. Um. It's a tough one because I. I don't think people understand it. Uh, in fact, I know people don't understand it. I mean, I wrote a whole thing on it, and, um, you know, Memorial Day message within our company of, you know, it's it's not, uh, it's not a day off. It's not a party. It's not burgers, it's not a parade. It's not even a parade to, you know, watch veterans march into, you know, it's a day that, you know, if you're I wholeheartedly believe if you're a veteran, wherever you're at, if you if you have a job, you should be given the day off. Free day off. You your job is to just do nothing but honor your fellow veterans. If you haven't served, then work. And if you're not going to work, go do what you should be doing, which is honoring veterans. Not not take that back. Not honoring veterans, honoring those who made the ultimate sacrifice. That's what it's all about. I don't think as a nation, we understand it. I don't think we I think we've lost that. I think everybody goes to the parade and they say, you know, thank you for your service. Which I'm like, don't thank me. You know, look over at that, um, at the cemetery and all the ones that the flags by, those are veterans that are no longer here. You thank them. Uh, and some people get offended by that. And be quite honest, I don't care. Um, and and I continue on with my day, but it's, uh. It's a tough day. Uh, I'm one of my soldiers, um, was killed in Afghanistan. Um, and this was after, uh, I gotten out of the active duty, and he was still in, um, and, uh, he was killed in Afghanistan, and, um, he had a family wife and two little girls. And, uh, I think it was even tougher with, uh, what happened with the withdrawal. And, um, I kept in touch with his family. And his, you know, to have his two daughters call me, and they're like. And my my dad sacrificed. He died for nothing. And I'm like, no, he didn't. It seems like he died for nothing. He did not die for nothing. And that's tough because I'm Memorial Day that it brings all of that out. And it's. I'm sure you try hard to keep those memories alive. You know, the memory of that, that soldier, um, and their. And you keep their family, you know, in your in your thoughts and prayers, and it's just it's not a day that people understand unless you've been there, unless you've. But you've had to help put a fellow soldier in a body bag, unless you've had to help clean out a room from someone who has been killed in combat, unless you've had to deal with. Unfortunately, when I had to do that one time, his brother came walking in because he was in the same unit. They don't understand any of that, and I don't think they ever will. I think a lot of that's been lost. I don't think it'll ever come back. I just, I think they're there's just too much apathy right now. They don't get it. So it's Memorial Day is always a tough one because of that. I just don't think people really get what it stands for and what it should be. And it's not a day off. That's not a right guaranteed in the Constitution.

SPRAGUE: How do you think your life would have been different if you had joined the military?

GEISLER: Oh. Oh, I would have been different. Well. I probably would have never left the company. That was. And I probably point out, as I probably still be there. Um. I. I don't think I be in this house right here. I think I'd probably be somewhere else. Um. Still have my wife. You know, we'd still be married. You know, I mean, we're married. You know, happily, for almost 20 years, but, um, I just think. I don't think I ever would have left my job. I think I would have stayed there the entire time. Um. And that would have been it. You know, I would have done anything else. So I think it's. I wouldn't change anything. Wholeheartedly. Would not change anything.

SPRAGUE: Okay. Uh, what motivated you to do this interview?

GEISLER: Uh, I know I, uh, I had heard about it that there that, uh, they were doing the oral histories. I didn't quite understand what it was, what it meant in oral history. Um, and then that's when, um, there was a couple of other VFW members who had done it, and I asked them, you know, what? What is it all about? And they they told me what it was about. They told me what it meant to them. And I was like, okay, you know, it's it's too much. History gets lost over time. And I think when I was thinking about it, I'm like, you know, an oral history told from the veteran themselves. Like, that's so much more impactful than me filling out a big questionnaire, sending it off to, um, the Veterans museum and then somebody narrating it. Um, I think it's just much more impact. I think it needs to be done more. I think, quite honestly, these types of interviews need to be shown on regular TV. Uh, they need to be out there for people to understand because history is going away. And, uh, nobody seems to want to care about this part of history that a war is actually do happen. You know, veterans are born, you know, veteran you had to actually served.

SPRAGUE: Uh, did we miss anything you'd like to cover?

GEISLER: No, I do. We covered a lot. No, I. We got it all, I think.

SPRAGUE: Okay, then this concludes the interview. Thank you.

GEISLER: Thank you.

[Interview ends]