The Academy Insider Podcast - Your Guide to The Naval Academy Experience
The mission of Academy Insider is to guide, serve, and support Midshipmen, future Midshipmen, and their families. Through the perspective of a community of former graduates and Naval Academy insiders, this podcast will help you learn about life at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. Through our shared experiences, Academy Insider guides families through the anxiety and frustration caused by lack of understanding, misinformation, and confusion. This platform is designed to better relationships between midshipmen and their loved ones. This podcast is not affiliated with the United States Naval Academy, the United States Navy or Department of Defense. The thoughts and opinions are exclusively those of your host and his guests.
The Academy Insider Podcast - Your Guide to The Naval Academy Experience
#008 - Temporary Assigned Duty at the United States Naval Academy with Guest Tilman Dunbar '16
In this episode, your host Grant Vermeer speaks with United States Naval Academy graduate Tilman Dunbar '16 about his experiences as a TAD ensign during plebe summer.
Tilman was selected to serve after his graduation to coach with the varsity basketball team and serve also in the PE department during plebe summer.
Grant and Tilman talk about Tilman's experiences as a student at the naval academy and later as an ensign helping out for activities like PEP, swimming, boxing, and the rock climbing wall.
You will definitely learn a lot about how the academy utilizes newly commissioned officers to play a key role during plebe summer.
Tilman talks about why he selected an assignment as a Surface Warfare Officer.
Grant and Tilman are close friends, were teammates at the academy, on the All Navy team 2019, and are teammates again on the All USA Armed Forces Basketball Team headed to Wuhan, China in October 2019 for the military world games.
Tilman shares his outstanding charitable work with the PUSO Foundation as it's Creative Director.
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Links Mentioned in the Show:
PUSO Foundation
Tilman's Book Recommendations:
The mission of Academy Insider is to guide, serve, and support Midshipmen, future Midshipmen, and their families.
Grant Vermeer your host is the person who started it all. He is the founder of Academy Insider and the host of The Academy Insider podcast and the USNA Property Network Podcast. He was a recruited athlete which brought him to Annapolis where he was a four year member of the varsity basketball team. He was a cyber operations major and commissioned into the Cryptologic Warfare Community. He was stationed at Fort Meade and supported the Subsurface Direct Support mission.
He separated from the Navy in 2023 and now owns The Vermeer Group, a boutique residential real estate company that specializes in serving the United States Naval Academy community PCSing to California & Texas.
We are here to be your guide through the USNA experience.
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This is your host Grant Vermeer Naval Academy class of 2017 and on your academy insider. It's my goal to be your guide through the Naval Academy experience by sharing my stories and providing you insight information into the life of a midshipman.
Speaker 2:[inaudible]
Speaker 1:Academy insider is in no way officially affiliated with the United States Naval Academy all over the content on academy insider is my own and does not reflect the views of the United States Naval Academy, the United States Navy nor the Department of Defense. Welcome to the academy insider podcast and today I'm extremely lucky to be joined by Tillman Dunbar, who's a class of 2016 graduate from the Naval Academy and ECON major and a former member and teammate of mine on the Navy basketball team. Tillman currently serves as a surface warfare officer and basically right after graduation he reported to the USS Bhutan where he served for the past two and a half years and he's getting ready to transfer it to the USS George h w Bush as he continues this time as a SWOT. And then on top all that Tillman was actually my teammate for the 2019 all navy basketball team in which navy took home the gold medal in the armed forces tournaments. So we love that. And now both Tillman and I have the amazing opportunity to play for the All USA Armed Forces basketball team in the seventh military World Games hosted by CISM, which will be in China this year. So super crazy super fund. And on top of all that, I'm just excited to have someone I've grown so close to over the past six years. Joined me on the academy insider podcast and in the episode today we're going to try and answer the question of who are the random guys in the blue shirts that I keep seeing in all these plebes summer pictures. And we're going to do that by telling you about ta ds. So Tillman spent multiple months after graduation on ta d or temporary sign duty to the naval academy, helping out in the PD department during plebe summer and into the academic year. And so he's able to provide us with an in depth look at the roles and responsibilities of what tads do during plebe summer. So with that, you'll get a peak into many of the different activities that plebes do during plebe summer. And that a lot of people don't really hear about, like talking about the rock climbing wall, a little bit, talking about martial arts, talking about swimming from someone who was a tad Anson and helped lead those activities. So we give you a little bit of a behind the scenes look into what the role of a ta is and how many of those processes works after grads. Graduate, go on basket leave, and then report back to the academy before heading to their first real duty station. And then in addition to talking to just about plebe summer, I really want to use academy insider to highlight all of the amazing things that graduates of the Naval Academy continue to do. And so Tillman will take the time to talk to us about his role in the purposeful unconditional service to others or Puso Foundation in which he just returned from a service trip to Liberia. Tillman's an amazing person, an amazing leader, and I think you guys will really enjoy our conversation that we have today. So make sure to tune in on this unbelievably valuable episode. Thanks. Hey[inaudible], thanks so much for coming on being a part of the academy
Speaker 3:insider podcast
Speaker 4:and thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here today.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. For all the listeners out there, we did give them a brief intro, but if you can just tell them a little bit about yourself, where are you from and then basically how you got to the academy, what company you were in, your major. Just a little bit of background about you as a person.[inaudible]
Speaker 4:so tell them, and Dunbar class of 2016 I was in 10th company, also known as training 10. Majored in economics. Loved it. The majors. Yeah. And then a little background on me, I'm from Woodbridge, Virginia. Born and raised basketball player by Tay. But I love to do a whole bunch of stuff, a little bit of charity work and kind of giving back and big family guy. And my family was a big reason I went to the academy. My parents immigrated from Liberia when, uh, they were 16 years old and they really wanted me to go to the academy. So I kinda honored their wishes and it was the best decision of my life. But the academy had some rough times. Uh, that's everything like now, but it was really the really, really the best decision I've ever made in my life. So I'm glad I, you know, my parents kinda extended me in that yeah.
Speaker 3:Direction. Yeah, absolutely. And do you know why, like did they articulate to you why they wanted you to go to the academy? Like, what was it for them? So special
Speaker 4:for them? It was more so about how hard they had to work to get to where they were in life, you know, so that, you know, being 16, not knowing anyone in the country, being in a foreign land and then kind of had the struggle for everything they kinda got to in life, you know? And they kind of provided me and my little brother with so much and kind of made our lives so easy. The military and you know, the Naval Academy and the navy in general, just Kinda, it's a great boost in life is your benefits. The education have a great job starting off on college and great values and life foundation that is invaluable. You know, it's uh, you can't even put a number of value on their amount of great things you can learn from that account. So just everything, when they sat me down and kind of walked me through all of that, you know, just like life is so long and if I can get a head start in life, you know, why not?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. And, uh, you were saying that it was definitely hard at times, but it was kind of like you say, the best Disney ever made. Were there ever, were there any points during your time at the academy where you had like second thoughts about if you actually chose the right place? Definitely please.
Speaker 4:I was like, Whoa, where did I get myself into? It was because of me. I'm not from a military family at all. First person in my family to be in the military. Uh, still to this day. Like actually I have a cousin who joined the navy a couple of years ago, but like I said, so I had no concept of military life, you know, and it was kind of like a shock and all when I first got to Annapolis. So I de and then youngster failure going in the second class here when we had a sign or two for one or no. Two. Yeah. So, but yeah, and that was really nerve wracking cause like I signed this paper and it's like, it's legit, it's just be my life. So just that big commitment that was a, that was hard for me. But you know, when I signed on with the silos, not alignment, I haven't looked back since.
Speaker 1:Really. Cool. And so for everyone who's listening, Tillman is a surface warfare officer. And I guess kind of one of my main questions for you is what did you do during your summer trainings and was there anything that happened during those summer trainings that led you to think that surface warfare might be what you wanted to do once you graduated?
Speaker 4:So the cool thing about the academy is like they literally give you a taste of everything, right? So they, they give you an option to see all the different communities so you can kind of figure out what your best fit will be and what your neutral being what you would love to do as your job. So, um, when I went on surface crews or my youngster crews, uh, really enjoyed it, really, B, uh, I was able to come to a ship where I knew some people who are already on there. So that Kinda helped a lot cause I was able to see kinda how they live day to day. Kinda put myself in their shoes. And then uh, approach man is what really opened my eyes though. Cause protein man, you know you get subs, you get out of being a pilot, you get to do marines and then you also see a ship again. But I loved the submarine community. It was cool cause they do a lot of, you know, top secret stuff and you know, their mission is just so unbelievable. But I can't sit on the water for three months cause I can't see the sun. So I kind of x that out for me. And then being all mean, it just didn't out. It just didn't click. Yeah, there wasn't for me and not the lifestyle you want to live it for me, I and then the pilot, like I really, I think the pilot community is kind of the aviation community is the coolest community out there. So I enjoyed flying. We got the, you know, you get to fly the test jets and then you fly and I, he loads and I'm done. I was like, oh, this is so amazing. I'm so, I really was kind of set on being a pilot or even a foe. But Assad was kind of borderline leading all the way up to service selection. But I ended up choosing swell because I had so many former NCF members, you know, former basketball players who are surface warfare officers and they kind of talk to me about the life and kind of fell on loaded that I felt the most comfortable in the swirl communities. So, um, yeah, that's Kinda how I came up to that. But definitely would not mind being a pilot. Yeah, it'd be a good life.
Speaker 1:So tell me, even before you actually checked into your ship or went to your first trading, you had the opportunity to tad at the academy for a little bit. Do you mind just explaining to everyone what basically being a tad is and then explain to the people how you ended up as a ta di in the PE Department for your time at the academy.
Speaker 4:So ta Ding stands for temporary assigned duty. I was able to see d because um, there was an opening for kind of like a, uh, almost like a graduate assistant position with the basketball team. So talk to the coaches and I talked to my ship. Uh, they didn't really need me immediately to my ship and that the summer after graduating, so they kind of said, hey, if you, you know, stayed up in Annapolis for a couple of months, that's fine. So it worked out perfectly for me. I was lucky with that. So I was able to coach with the basketball team all summer, you know, coach up the plebes and Kinda kind of be the bridge between the coaches and then the plebes and Bancroft. So it was actually really cool experience getting some, seeing the other side of the lines of, with the basketball team. But then that kind of, they sent me up with the PD department, which was kind of the, the best place to be. You know, like so in when a ta d in the summer and you can do different jobs, you know, you can be in admissions, you can be in operations, you can work in the museum or you can just work with your major. So if I wanted to, I'll work with, you know, the econ department, I could have done that as well. But I think being in the PE department is the best part because you know, pep is such an integral part of plebe summer and the fitness portion of police, summer's probably one of the biggest parts of plebe summer. You know, you're in a sweating nonstop, you're always running somewhere, you're always doing push ups, you're always going to face always. So, and then being able to interact with the guys and actually all of the plebes on the pet field was kind of so inspiring. Like their motivation and just seeing their smiling faces and their want to get better and their want to learn. It was amazing. So I enjoyed it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. And so can you tell us a little bit about the, like the actual role of the tads during pep? Because for everyone out there, they see all these different pictures of people wearing blue shirts, people wearing red shirts, people wearing yellow shirts. They really don't have any idea kind of what's going on. But I tried to explain to them that each of those people in different colored shirts have different roles. So do you mind just talking a little bit about the actual role of ta ds during pebbles?
Speaker 4:Right. So, uh, so the details are there, you know, to discipline right there, like mom and dad, uh, they're there and make sure the plebes are doing everything to the t crossing your t's on their ours. Now the Hep people, which I was, you know, the blue shirts were there as Kinda like the coaches, right? So we're motivating them each and every morning or pushing them to get better, pushing them to get stronger. We're really leading them in their physical fitness. So we're, we're the coaches. We can be a little more personal with them. We can Kinda, we don't have to be the bad guy where the guy, we're there to help them get better and kind of help them along the way so that those couple of hours in the morning and those couple of hours where they're doing their, you know, p and afternoon, we're there to give them kind of like a breather from Bancroft. Uh, so that's kind of what we are. Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Fantastic. And that's a, and then for anyone who is listening, it's still unsure. So like you saying, the TD is the people in the blue shirts. I get the opportunity to be a little more positive, a little more coach like, and just kind of explain what's going on. Your detailers are the ones that are in yellow and their details, so they're there. They're as funny like he was saying. And then the people in the red shirts are actually plebe summer like officer or senior enlisted staff. Right? So if you're actually working at the academy, I, you're a company officer or your senior enlisted leader or you're the OIC, a plebe summer, then then you'll be in a red shirt. So those are all the differences there, but you kind of mentioned the different opportunities at later in the day that you still had to work with plebes. Do you mind tell people, did you have any additional responsibilities during your time, like working the rock wall or martial arts or kind of what was the rest of your time as a tad? Like during plebe summer? Yes. So we would have
Speaker 4:rotate each and every week between the classes. So for the six weeks saw, I did a week of being a rock climbing instructor. I did a week in martial arts, I did a week of swimming. We go boxing and so we're always rotating to these different classes.
Speaker 1:So
Speaker 4:it was kinda different for me cause you know, for sports period at four o'clock or 1600 each and every day I was with the basketball team. But during afternoon whenever the companies would rotate through their p time, I would be there with whatever it was. So I did literally every activity. So I had uh, you know, we just kind of rotate each and every day.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Okay, cool. Did you have a favorite? Is there, is there one that's more enjoyable than any of the others to do? I like swimming.
Speaker 4:I'm not agreeing with them so I'm not gonna lie. I haven't been in a pool since because you know how I was just so traumatized for swimming for 30 minutes with no flow. But uh, no, I like swimming cause it's just like, it's even seeing the progress as some people, you know, like they come in and they really can't swim, but seeing their growth day in and day out and their, their work ethic to get better is actually, you know, it's really cool to see it really. Honestly I did like the swearing portion cause you can just see people gradually get better with their techniques, with their strokes and stuff like that. So it was cool to see. Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And uh, so you mentioned like the progress, now that's obviously for swimming, but that's in any of the different e events that you have from your perspective, kind of as a t a d did you seem to think that the plebes enjoyed the different classes and kind of watching their progress? Like were the PE classes generally enjoyed by plebes or is it then
Speaker 4:that's not the most fun. So the plebes love the peas. I think you can agree with me just being able to step out of Bancroft and kind of be off the bulkhead and not have to do rack racism and stuff like that and just be able to catch a breathe in there and be normal for a little bit invaluable, you know, so that time I think the plebes really do enjoy it and I'm think it's very necessary because you can get mentally worn down by the, the stress of plebe summer. So just those p classes definitely needed and definitely a good time for the, for the plaintiffs.
Speaker 1:No, absolutely. And so again, for everyone who does it now after graduation you get a thing called basket leave. A, as long as you don't have any obligations that are taking you away from that time, you get like a full 30 days of leave after graduation, before checking into your first job or whatever you have to do. Once you got done with your basket leave til, what was the training like to be a ta d? Like did you have to go through any sort of classes? Did you walk through what pep would be like or was it basically just straight to it?
Speaker 4:Well that was kind of straight to it. Uh, once we, the first we got there a couple of days early and they kind of walked us through the different drills we'd be doing during pep. But honestly we kinda got right into it. So as soon as I got back on basket leave, soon as we have some started, we got there like two or three days before and then they kinda Kinda gave us the four one one on Howard ago and kind of how our rotations would go cause we didn't do each and every week. We had a week on week off, week on week off. But other than that, no, it was very straight forward.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Cool. All right. Well, uh, do you, um, kind of looking back on your time as a ta, do you have a, like a favorite favorite thing about getting a tad at the academy? Or was there anything that kind of reflected extremely positively or you remember extremely positively from your time as a ta? Di?
Speaker 4:I think it's great because it's like a little gap between the academy and the fleet. So it's, you're a commission officer but you're not in the fleet yet, so you're, you know, you're ensign and you're away from academy. So now you are the person they look up to, but you also don't have like a job yet. So it's Kinda good little gap, a good little breather for you to kind of collect yourself before you have to go to the fleets. I think it's, I think it's a really cool experience. I think it's a really good period of time to where you can kind of learn a little bit. It's a good time to learn your leadership styles because you'll be leading the plebes and you'll be interacting directly with them. Also you interact with the details as well. So it's a great, great way to kind of learn your leadership style a little bit and kind of get to interact with, uh, the young people.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Uh, cool. And, uh, now just for a little insider tidbit information, so he said, uh, kind of your, it's your first time as an ensign, but it's also your first time as either an incident or a second lieutenant. Right? So they're both Marine Corps and navy in their 50s. And for anyone who wants to know like, oh, well how can I tell if they're Navy or Marine Corps? Well, it's pretty simple. So they'll all be wearing those blue shirts. But if you're in the navy, you
Speaker 3:actually be wearing your us ne shorts or the[inaudible] that we call them. So you have your[inaudible] shorts and your blue p e t a t shirt. For the Marines, they'll actually be wearing their marine corps issued, we call them greenies, like the green little shorts. So have you had any question? It wasn't obvious by the haircut and their mannerisms and how they handle themselves. You can just look at the shorts and see whether or not they're a, a, an ensign or a second lieutenant. So that's just one, one little way to tell. All right, cool. Yeah, so I think that was great too. Thanks so much for answering all those questions about being a ta. I hope for everyone who's listening, you got a little bit of knowledge and insight into what being a t and e is all about and how they kind of help out during plebe summer activities. But what I also wanted to talk about today is I love the fact that academy instead of gets people to come back and you know, talk about their plebe summer experience, their naval academy experience, but then also talking about all the great things they're doing now. So for anyone who doesn't know, you work for something called the Puso Foundation, do you mind just telling people a little bit about what the Puzo Foundation is and what your role is in it? So I am the creative director for[inaudible]
Speaker 4:Puso. Me and my best friends started this foundation about two years ago and it's really taken off from there. So puso is to garlic for heart and Puso stands for purposeful unconditional service to others. That's kind of how we break it down. Um, and our mission is kind of hope with a purpose and we kind of travel around the world and we host events and our purpose is to empower those live in under an undeserved areas around the world. Right. So it started with our originator fire, our main guy, he took a trip to the Philippines, to his parent's village and he brought back some clothes and some school supplies and backpacks. And when he went back and he was, you know, gone through these poverty stricken places and he could see how happy they were just by the little said, the little things he brought back. Right. And just how much joy and the hope really he brought to them. And it was the love on the, that he fell in just the inspiration you fell. And when he came back state side, you know, he kind of wanted to do it on a bigger scale. So ever since then it's kind of taken off and kind of our vision is to plant the seed of hope and possibility and people, because if you can change one life, they can change one life and Dagon and that person change another life. So just by changing one person's mind, you can affect hundreds of hundreds of people. That's kind of the thought process behind this. You know, connecting lives, spreading love, and kind of just being humans. Love is our greatest attributes. Yeah.
Speaker 3:So yeah, I love it. And so you actually recently just got back from mission trip yourself. Do you mind telling us a little about that?
Speaker 4:Uh, yeah. So like I said earlier, my parents are from Liberia, so I'm full librarian and it was my first time ever being able to go to Africa, um, and kind of see my parents' homeland. And it was just such an amazing experience. And my barrier is a third world country. And even though they have so little, they have such big hearts and they're just so happy and they're just, they chairs the littlest things. I'm so I really went to go see family, but I want it to also turn into a mission trip because I knowing you don't see that everyday, you don't see a lot of people giving back to the people over there. Right. So I was able to bring some clothes, some school supplies. I'm actually went to my parents, former school, BW, Harris Episcopal school and I met with the kindergarten through fifth graders and you know, they were just so happy to get basic net like basic things like pencils, paper, like Krill, like markers, everything. And they were just so joyous. Like they're coming up to me. Hugs. I even had a couple parents pull me aside and say like, you know what's here and I, and they're just telling me how it was the happiest day of their lives because you know, no one has come to their aid like that. And I went his kind of put a broad, that amount of happiness to their kids. So I was very moving for me and I'm actually going to go back in December and I kind of want to do it on a bigger skill. I plan on kind of building a basketball court out there when I'm there and then kind of bringing in a lot more stuff so I can kinda affect, probably probably meet with a couple of more schools. So I won't just be one school. I want to do a couple of schools and I'm in rural via a, which is the capital and yeah. So I'm just excited to be able to give back.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. That. Absolutely. And that, and that's so awesome. We really appreciate you doing that and it's just such a, a great thing. And if anyone wants to learn more about the Puzo foundation or Kinda just see what you guys are doing and just keep, keep tabs with, uh, you guys in your organization, uh, working, they do that. Where can they find you guys?
Speaker 4:So we have a website, uh,[inaudible] dot Puso foundation.org. Uh, we're also[inaudible] on social media. So we have, um, Instagram and the Facebook page. Um, our Instagram is, uh, at the Puso Foundation. And the same with Facebook. If you just search of the Poo Cell Foundation, P U s o you'll be able to find us. Um, but yeah, a lot of our information is on our website and you can kind of follow all of our missing trips and all of the events we put together throughout the year to raise money for our foundation. Actually our next event is going to be an August basketball tournament. I definitely need you to come, come play on my team. It'll be up, there'll be up in Alexandria, so not too far from you, so I'm there. Yeah, definitely. All right, perfect.
Speaker 3:All right, well thank you for doing that. And for everyone who's listening, I will put all the links to both or the website as well as social media accounts in the show notes for this. So if you want to learn a little bit more about the[inaudible] foundation will absolutely give you the resources to do so. But we'll move on now to kind of our final thing for the day and hold something I do with every guest on academy insider podcast. It's going to be like a quick lightning round a question. So we asked the same questions to basically everyone that comes on the show. So I hope you're ready for this. Let's jump into the first of the lightning round questions. The first one is just what is your favorite spot on the yard?
Speaker 4:Favorite spot on the yard is steriod. What's the goto order and steerage. Aww Man. You gotta get in and get you some chicken tenders with the fries. Go to get your little little smoothie. This with the chicken tenders and fries man. And the feeding combination at, I want to get it ready for us. Some homework and some steadying. It is absolutely a must. I definitely spend way too much money and steroids day. My time. Too much money. It is.
Speaker 3:Speaking about food, what was your favorite meal? A King Hall.
Speaker 4:I had a lot. I love kings core cause he had the option but hamsters, you liked the monsters? I actually like hamsters, like, Hey, I can't do the hand stairs. They're not Monday explaining all the people what the hamsters are though. So it's a weird, it's, it's a breaded on the outside and it's like Kinda cheesy on the inside so when you cut through it, the cheese melts out and then they got a little, got a little ham in there too. It's a spot every time. Chicken, chicken, Ham, cheese. Yeah. I don't, I don't know what it is, but good
Speaker 3:for me. I don't know what you're talking about, but you know, hey, teach their oats. He's there on, yeah. All right, cool. Moving on now, who is your biggest mentor during the four years, whether it be officer or senior enlisted leader, Kinda. Who was your biggest mentor that was staffed at the academy?
Speaker 4:Oh, I had a couple, I'd say commanders, the Dunkin White. Um, she helped me a lot academically and she was like my second academic advisor when it wasn't for my major advisor. She a big, big role in my getting into the academy. I'd also say, uh, probably my senior listed leader, uh, chief fouls, she helped me a lot, especially when it got a little couple of rough patches there. You know, he hit that wall when you're at the academy, but she kind of helped me through that. And then captain king, he was my company officer for two years and yeah, he was amazing. Motivator. Yeah. So he definitely taught me a lot about being an officer in the fleet. Gave me a lot of life lessons, um, and kind of how I could be successful in ways to navigate and get to the top of wow. My, during my navy career. So I appreciate him for all his help.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. And uh, Captain King. Awesome, fantastic. But I do really just want to take out the time to truly emphasize the role of senior enlisted leaders at the academy. And I'm so glad that you mentioned she files because a lot of people talk about her because she has made such a positive impact on their lives in for everyone listening, it is the role even in the fleet, not just at the academy for the senior enlisted leaders to train and mentor and coach all the junior officers in the midshipman. And they're there to help develop them and teach them about what they need to know about in life and leadership in their job and everything like that. So it really is special when you have a senior enlisted leader that truly invests in the lives of everyone there and can truly help. Like Tim was saying, get you through some rough patches, like they are there to help you when you are struggling and when things are not going right and you're having a really hard time. So just a major, huge shout out to chief Laurie files. Like she is phenomenal. I've never heard anyone say a negative thing about her and she's made a tremendously large and positive impact on a ton of people's lives.
Speaker 4:So yeah, love her, love her to death. Yeah, she's fantastic.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. So a big special shout out, if you are listening, any parents out there is to ask about your senior enlisted leaders cause you know, like the same thing. Not everyone's created the same. You're going to have some great seem to list leaders. You're gonna have some ones that are not as good in the same thing with the officer status. But to find out a little bit about senior enlisted leader in your mids company, it's just something fun to ask about and learn about because they can have a tremendously large impact on your life. Like for me, I had some fantastic senior listed leader mentors at the academy. Chief Castanon, uh, was absolutely phenomenal. Chief call backer was instrumental in my development, Kinda my plebe and sophomore year when I was having a rough time. And now master chief Conley who's rotated from the academy. Like there are so many senior, the leaders that one are now just tremendous friends of mine, but just helped me so much during my time at the academy. So I will always continue in and do my best to really emphasize how important senior enlisted leaders are in the development of Midshipman and junior officers
Speaker 4:was definitely on that. That carries onto the fleet as well as you know, you have a good chief, they can rarely while your cheese, your senior chiefs, your senior enlisted definitely make or break you. They can make your job easy or they can make your job hard. So definitely very key important people to have in your corner.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. All right. Moving on now is what's your favorite book or books and that you would recommend to the listeners?
Speaker 4:I would definitely military books. I'd say the art of war. I read that while I was at the academy. That was a good one. And then a book I'm reading right now, lessons from the top. It's kind of business book maybe in an econ major, so that's kind of what I'm reading. I'd definitely recommend that to the listeners as well.
Speaker 3:Alright, cool. For everyone who's listening, if you want
Speaker 1:to see those books or take a look at and we'll post the links to both of those in the show notes as well. All right. What is your greatest memory from your four years at the academy?
Speaker 4:The completion of pleas summer. Yeah, that's a great, that was a great feeling. And then in between, uh, probably signed 2%. Now's a big dates. All our road shoots for our basketball. Those are all great figures. All our chips, uh, all those many good times on the road. And then I'd say graduation like, and not because, uh, you know, he was getting out of there is just like a completion of such a long journey in such a long process. Just all the late nights with homework on the Marshawn's. Yeah. All the stresses that academy and then once you get to that final, you know, that final Dan, you throw your combination cover up in the air and it's just, man, it's, it's, it's truly unbelievable. So absolutely was in the eyes there.
Speaker 1:All right. And last question is, as much as we try and tailor this to help basically families understand what's going on at the Naval Academy, I think we also have a lot of people listening to academy insider that are just maybe interested in the academy and want to learn more. So with that being said, if someone is thinking about attending any academy, someone in high school, they're not sure, what advice or thoughts would you give them to consider about what to think about when they're deciding if they want to go to the Naval Academy? I'd say, uh, consider how difficult it is.
Speaker 4:Not even only academically, just it does take a lot of perseverance, um, because there will be adverse times. Um, and I think everybody who goes through the academy can share a story of when it was hard for them. But I definitely say exhaust all your options. Um, once you hit a wall, don't stop, you know, go through that wall and keep trucking along. So that, I think that's the main biggest factor that you can kind of use. Because if you keep that in mind, I think you can get get through it.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. All right, cool. Well thanks so much till I really appreciate you coming on the show.
Speaker 4:Yeah, thank you for having me, man. It's, it's been a honor to come and Join Academy of
Speaker 1:absolutely. I love it. So I guess I hope all of you learned a little bit about what and who tads are through Tillman's story, so thanks so much and when you are Waldo hunting next time and to see if photos looking for your plea and now you know who those blue shirts are and what they do. Yeah. So, so again, thank you so much and for all my listeners, take care and have a great day. Thank you to everyone for listening to the podcast. Please make sure to leave me a review on iTunes and subscribe to the academy insider over the grand premier podcast. If you want to learn a little bit more about plebe summer, the Naval Academy, make sure to check out all of the content that I have online on my website, www.academy and[inaudible] dot com and make sure to check out my Facebook page as well, where I have a ton of blog posts in different, uh, videos and articles for you to see. Uh, all links that we talked about in the show are listed in the show notes. So we have a couple book recommendations and we have all the links to information about the Puzo Foundation, so make sure to check those out. Um, grant premiere, your academy insider, and thank you guys so much for letting me be your guide to the Naval Academy.
