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
#096 From USNA to the MLB: Serving America While Chasing Big League Dreams (Part 1)
As a Naval Academy graduate, professional baseball player, and author, Mitch Harris brings a unique perspective to the challenges of balancing military service and personal aspirations. In this compelling two-part episode, we explore Mitch's journey from Annapolis to the major leagues, and the unexpected obstacles he faced along the way.
Mitch's story isn't just about athletic achievement; it's a testament to resilience in the face of adversity. From his initial uncertainty about the Naval Academy to becoming a surface warfare officer and eventually pitching for the St. Louis Cardinals, Mitch's path was anything but straightforward.
A Story of Triumph and Personal Growth
This episode offers more than just a recounting of Mitch's accomplishments. It provides a raw and honest look at the realities of military life, the strain it can put on personal relationships, and the inner strength required to overcome life's unexpected challenges.
Mitch's candid reflections on his struggles and the lessons he learned offer valuable insights for:
- Current and prospective Naval Academy students
- Military families navigating the complexities of service life
- Anyone facing seemingly insurmountable obstacles in pursuit of their dreams
Lessons in Resilience and Self-Discovery
Through Mitch's experiences, listeners will gain a deeper understanding of:
- The true value of a Naval Academy education beyond academics
- How military service shapes character and personal growth
- The importance of maintaining focus on long-term goals, even in difficult circumstances
- Finding strength and support in unexpected places
Join us for this inspiring conversation that showcases the indomitable spirit of those who serve our nation while pursuing their personal passions. Mitch's story reminds us that with determination and the right mindset, it's possible to overcome life's toughest challenges and emerge stronger on the other side.
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. 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 residential real estate company that specializes in serving the United States Naval Academy community with nationwide consulting and connection.
We are here to be your guide through the USNA experience.
Connect with Grant on Linkedin
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If you are interested in sponsoring the podcast, have an idea, question or topic you would like to see covered, reach out: podcast@academyinsider.com.
Hey everyone and welcome back to the Academy Insider Podcast.
Speaker 1:Today we're going to have part one of a two-part episode in which we're talking with Mitch Harris. Mitch Harris is a Naval Academy graduate. He played baseball at the Academy, became a service warfare officer and then, after getting out of the Navy, he continued relentlessly pursuing his dream to become a professional baseball player and he made it, and he ended up playing and pitching for the St Louis Cardinals for a couple years. But he also wrote a book and it's called my Private War, because, as much as this episode wants to be fun and cool, talking about his accolades, it's actually going to be a story about overcoming adversity. It's going to be a story about the difficulties that he experienced in Annapolis and beyond and how his time as a midshipman prepared him to handle the realness of human life and the difficulties and the challenges he faced in his young adult life, and so I'm really excited to talk with Mitch in this episode. I think you guys are going to love it and, again, this is going to be a two-part episode, so I hope you enjoy part one and looking forward to getting part two out to you soon as well. Thank you, guys so much. Enjoy the listen, appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Hi everyone and welcome back to the Academy Insider Podcast. Mitch, thank you so much for being here. Brother, again everyone who's about to see we're going to be talking about his brand new book, my Private War. This is a Naval Academy grad, professional baseball player for the St Louis Cardinals and so excited to get this opportunity to have you on the podcast. Before we jump into it, I'll let you just introduce yourself. Tell us a little bit about where you're from and what's good is. It's going to lead us kind of into our first questions, but tell us a little bit about how you ended up at the Naval Academy.
Speaker 2:Man. So no one believes me when I say it, but I was recruited by the defensive coordinator for the Navy football team to play baseball. Yeah, so I grew up actually just outside of Atlanta, then went to high school up in North Carolina, in Belmont North Carolina, went to South Point High School. We had a really good football team, and so the defensive coordinator came by the baseball field to pick up the head baseball coach, who was the assistant football coach, and when he did, he saw this scrawny kid throwing a bullpen. He started asking questions about where's he going? What's he doing? Next thing, we know, they said hey, you got any interest to go to Naval Academy. And of course I was like, what is that? I'll be honest, I had an idea but I didn't really know. And two weeks later we went on a visit and I fell in love and I just said, man, if I can get into this place, yes, I will go. The rest is history.
Speaker 1:It cracks me up the story in the book because you're telling it. It's kind of like the same thing that happened with my family. You're like I think the Navy wants me to go play baseball. Your mom was like no, dude, no. Then you're like no. It's like I think it's like a college. She's like anapolis is recruiting you and like the whole dynamic changes.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, exactly yeah. My mom had no idea what I was saying because I didn't know what I was saying. Uh, I just said somebody from navy is calling me and she's like tell them, no, you're not gonna go as a recruit, you're gonna go to school. I was like, no, I think it is a school. Yeah, and anyway, that's. That's kind of how that started.
Speaker 1:Dude, it cracks me up. It's such a good story and so you end up making the decision Again. It's an interesting thing because it sounds like originally you're planning on going to Davidson Right and to go play baseball, that kind of falls through. You end up at the naval academy. But like you're saying and I think this is a really interesting dynamic for a lot of athletes is that if it wasn't for our sport, we probably wouldn't have ended up at the academy. We didn't know about it. It wasn't our dream growing up to be a marine or to be at the naval academy. It was an opportunity that ended up in our lap, uh, that we then took advantage of right and and learned to, to follow exactly, uh. But you show up at i-day and you tell some pretty funny stories about being there at i-day and hitting that like oh snap, like what did I just sign up for moment?
Speaker 2:you mind running us through like your recollection of i-day and some of those early moments, moments of plebe, summer yeah, when I say I had really no idea what I was doing, I had no idea like they were like, yeah, pack a duffel bag. And you know I was thinking like all right, well, you know I'll get there, and like I'll get them packed, and I kind of talk about the academy, we might do some running and some stuff, and within like five minutes some dude's yelling at me. I'm like whoa, what is this dude like? Chill out, you know. And then I realized like yeah, that's not gonna work here. Uh, uh, this dude's way smaller than me and just yelling at me like he's got no issues, uh. And then, about you know, 15 minutes in, when they're like you're gonna fill you with a bunch of shots, uh, and you gotta read this little book and don't say anything back, you're like all right, this is different, uh, but hey, I'll do what they're saying, because I don't think it'd be smart to do otherwise.
Speaker 2:But yeah, man, it was just, it was obviously everybody's eye day is overwhelming. And so when you finally had time to take a deep breath and realize, like what the heck did I just sign up for? You start realizing, like all right, this is the real deal, like all right. And then, all right, this is the real deal, like all right. Um, and then, and then, you know, I'd tell a little bit about how. You know, thankfully, some of the Napsters man saved the day, and and, uh, in helping out and just telling me, like dude, you got to realize this is a big game, you got to play the game, you got to get through it. Do what they're saying Uh, it's the, the details, it's, it's, it's all the little things, uh, it's got a purpose. And so once you realize that, man, we had a lot of fun with it. And so, as, except, you know, minus the fact that you know, come, come summer, you know, actually, post summer, we're actually starting school. We were on seven four, hey yo.
Speaker 1:And having a chop seven four was no bueno no bueno, and for anyone who hasn't listened to the episode, I do. I have an as g episode that kind of breaks down the Bancroft layout. So if you're like what the heck's 7-4 mean, go check out that episode. We'll link it as well. But go check it out because, again, we referenced that that's the seventh wing on the fourth deck and fourth deck really is fifth deck because it starts at zero.
Speaker 1:And that's a lot of stairs when you're a plead man running up and down, and it's actually six deck because one of those is the gym. You got the basement gym and then the mail. Yeah, the mail in the basement gym.
Speaker 1:That's right, man yeah, it's a lot of stairs that's a lot of stairs every day, uh, but yeah, no for anyone again. This is. This is not necessarily meant to tell everybody to go buy the book, but but I think again for all of my Naval Academy families that want funny little insights to the Naval Academy life stories to understand the context of what people are going through. The first 40 pages of this thing is a lot of Naval Academy plebe stories.
Speaker 1:You're talking about rack races. You're talking about holding your sheets out front. You're talking about calisthenics in the P-way. You're talking about sitting down and eating, sitting on the front three inches of your chair, right, like there are a lot of stories in here that are really good for to understand the plebe experience as well. And so you know, I think that's pretty, pretty awesome man. And uh, you know, I think one of the first things that I love about this book too, again as someone who is an impressive young man athletically academically book too, again as someone who is an impressive young man athletically academically is you talking about your first chemistry class and showing up and getting hit in the face with a nice little d?
Speaker 2:uh, you mind talking about that experience and transition to naval academy academics as well and how you adjusted to that yeah, you know, I think anybody that has the opportunity to go to the naval academy is obviously doing well in high school academically. Otherwise, you know, you wouldn't even have a shot. And you know that was me. You know I did well in sports, but I did well in school In high school. Man, I just it just came naturally, I listened, I paid attention, you know, did the homework and once I did it I got it. That's just. I was blessed with that. Once I kind of did it a few times, I got it.
Speaker 2:Now, I was not blessed with understanding how to take notes and I realized that my freshman year because plebe year was brutal when it comes to academics. They were like, all right, let's talk about chemistry and we're going to get into details, and I was like, yeah, I should probably learn how to write all this down. And it didn't go well. It didn't go well at all. Uh, yeah, my first test I was like, yeah, I don't know how long I'm going to last here. Uh, cause I don't remember what the score was. I just remember I was way off of a hundred and uh, so, yeah, it was, uh, it was brutal. I did know immediately that I was not going to be a chemistry major, so that was good, you know, checked one off the box to say that was not going to be it.
Speaker 2:But yeah, it was an eye-opening experience. Thankfully, you know, we did have some great, great counselors. That really just helped kind of understand like, hey look, this is the real deal. And all of your peers that you went to high school with, they've got about 12 credits, you're going to have 22 to 24. And you're like, oh, awesome. So yeah, I need to learn how to study. So that was a learning curve for sure, but once I figured it out it helped immensely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it's good storytelling Because the Naval Academy is hard. Man, I talk a lot about how I feel like the naval academy is like a high school on steroids.
Speaker 2:it's not your normal college I was like, no, you're right seven hours a day, six periods, like quizzes all the time.
Speaker 1:Tons of homework. Right, it's, it's, it's tough, it's, it's no joke.
Speaker 2:Um there is no, there's no leeway or or break from from the. The amount of work and you know being an athlete, as you can understand, doesn't make it any easier.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you got to go practice from exactly three thirty until seven.
Speaker 2:Exactly so. But yeah, it was, it was a learning curve, but you know once, once you know you got the hang of it and it was, it was easier, it wasn't easy, it was the easier.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no fair enough and you get into plebe year and now you start playing baseball. And not only do you start playing baseball, but you're darn good, you're really darn good Like even coming into, you know, plebe year, youngster year, and you have a portion in the book where you talk about signing your two for seven. Right, and actually coming back in your junior year and making the decision to sign your two for seven despite other opportunities and other options 92 for seven, despite other opportunities and other options you mind walking through your mindset, your thought process there and like what caused you to anchor to the Naval Academy and say like, yes, I'm going to continue going here, despite potential professional baseball opportunities being easier in other pathways.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I mean for me to sit here and say that I knew I was going to have any shot professionally would be a flat out lie, right. I mean for me to sit here and say that I knew I was going to have any shot professionally would be a flat-out lie, right. I mean, coming out of high school I was just a decent athlete that could play really anywhere on the baseball field. You know, I was kind of recruited, so to say, as the third baseman that could hit and that pitched a little bit. And you know, freshman year I only threw 15 innings the whole season. Then we had a new coach come in our sophomore year, revamped the whole program and that was kind of the turning point for me. I'd lost all that lead year weight and I think I lost maybe 15, 20 pounds but gained it all back going into my sophomore year. So my arm felt good, my body felt amazing and things just started to click. And about that time was kind of when I was like, all right, I have a shot at this, because you know I had a great sophomore year which then obviously leads into, you know, the two for seven and after getting that first year, year and a half under my belt, it was a no doubter that I wanted to, that I really understood what it meant to serve and to want to lead and to be a part of something bigger than myself, and I've always loved teams and I've always kind of loved that mentality, and there's no better feeling than being a part of the team which is, you know, serving and being a part of the military, like that. That was super intriguing to me. And then, on top of that, having the history of the Naval Academy and understanding the education you get from there all of that man, I was like dude, I am a hundred percent doing this. I want to commit to that. I want to commit to my family, my friends, my peers, my classmates. I want to do this.
Speaker 2:However, there was this lifelong dream as a kid to play professional baseball. And you know it's really neat. I had a classmate my class knew especially my company knew like that I loved baseball and that I wanted to play. But they knew that I wanted to be there and they knew the importance of two for seven. And one of my classmates actually took a picture of me in Memorial hall looking at the two for seven document, just kind of soaking it in.
Speaker 2:And I and I'm and I'm so thankful that they got that picture, because it was such a candid moment of understanding the weight of what we're doing, hence why they do it there in Memorial Hall. And for me it was so important just to realize the importance of that, to never forget what I was committing to and what I truly wanted to do, which was do both. And so, by signing that, that was kind of a commitment to not only everybody but to myself, that, hey, you're going to do this and you're going to fulfill this commitment, but you're also going to keep that dream alive and figure out how to do both. And we started trying to, you know, figure that out from day one, junior year, figuring out, hey, what do we do now?
Speaker 2:You know how do we go about talking to teams? Because teams were already kind of there was a little bit of a buzz and people were wondering well, what's he going to do? You know, he's got to serve, and so that kind of led us down this whole path of trying to figure out what that looks like. But you know, when it came to the two for seven, I wanted to do both I wanted to fulfill my commitment and I wanted to serve.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, yeah, oh, yeah, okay, yeah, I love it, mot, okay, yeah, I love it. Motivate me, that's right. No, but but in all seriousness, I? It's interesting that you mentioned that because one of my favorite pictures from my time at the Naval Academy is me signing my two for seven too, right. And I had a classmate like take a picture, as I'm kind of like leaning over the desk with the scroll, getting ready to sign Right, and it's a special moment, man, like there's a ton of weight associated with that exact moment. Right, like you know, now you are fully aware of everything you're signing for, right, like when you show up for plebe summer, like yeah, maybe you get it, but like you don't really get it until you've lived it for two years. Right, and now you get it, and now you're really consciously making this choice to continue, you know, with this, with this path, right and so special moment, really cool.
Speaker 1:You kind of finish out your your second class and first year at the Naval Academy and now you like you really have scouts I know you mentioned in the book, right, talking, you know, had you been at a normal university, you may be a third or fourth round pick, right, so where's, where's your brain, knowing you've service selected. Swell, you're getting ready to kind of like be a surface warfare officer, you're looking at getting drafted, and all of these factors are going on. Like, where are you at in your first year? Is it? Is it an exciting time? Is it super stressful? Like, where were you at that moment?
Speaker 2:I think it was a mixture of both. I was obviously super excited, but I was really nervous. I mean, you know, my junior year I was drafted by the Braves, okay. And I remember I was in summer school at the academy when I got drafted by the Braves and I just thought, like did that just happen? Like now what? Like I can't leave, yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:And so we basically told the I mean, we talked to almost every team my junior year and everybody was trying to figure out what does this look like, what can you do? And we didn't have an answer. When I say we, me and Coach Costi we were trying to figure out what it meant and what could we do. And Chet, who was the athletic director, you know we met with him several times and you know he didn't even have really a good answer because it was Department of Defense that put down, you know kind of what you could and couldn't do. And then each department, you know, then determined you know where they stood, and the Navy had one way, the Army had a different way and the Air Force had a different way, and so we didn't really have a good answer. And that was the hardest part. That's what the stressful part was was we just didn't know.
Speaker 2:And so, you know, coming into my last year, I knew I was going to be drafted. We didn't know how high and we didn't know what that meant or where I was going to go. But essentially I knew that, man, if I can just keep my head straight, you know, and just tell people, hey, I want to do both, whatever that looks like, hey, we'll figure it out as we go. But yeah, it was tough. I was definitely very excited for both. Right, I was excited to graduate, get the commission and do all the stuff and get to my first ship and and start that. But I was also excited to figure out, okay, if I do get drafted, what does that look like? How do I? How do I go to play? What does what does that mean? But, um, yeah, it was tough.
Speaker 1:Yeah and anyway, you ended up getting drafted and uh, but you also end up commissioning and the Navy ends up telling you sorry shit, mate, time to get to sea, time to go to sea and you become a SWO. You might like what was your experience like as a SWO? You talk about three deployments. You know kind of out in some 50 deployments and other where, like other places, like what was your experience out in the world as a SWO man?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I loved it. Honestly, I truly enjoyed driving ships and never knew I was good at that or never knew that I would be good at that or would enjoy it. But, man, my first ship I was on USS Ponce, out of Norfolk and we were an amphibious ship and we took Marines everywhere. We pulled in really close to shore, we had a flat bottom that we could get within a mile of shore, pump out Marines to the well deck and helos off the back deck and it was just all kinds of actions. Therefore, it was so much fun. It was constant stuff and we were deployed gosh, I think I deployed three times in four years, if I remember and so I was constantly gone. But it was fun. I mean we got to see a bunch of things, see the world. I think I went to 30 countries before I was 26. So I mean it was like it was a blast, plus the people that you serve with man, like it just it made me who I was, friendships that I still have today. It was awesome. But you know, in the back of my mind I still was trying to figure out like, okay, can I still? Can I still do this? Can I still somehow get back and play Because, you know, at the time we were in the middle of a war and we were just trying to figure out.
Speaker 2:You know, the Department of Defense kind of put out this early release policy where you could do two years of active duty and extend your reserve time, but the Navy said they're going to put it on hold. So the Navy didn't observe that and so we still submitted packages. You know, throughout my time to just say, hey, you let me know how we can do both, excuse me, how we can do both and I will do it. That means wearing my wife's everyday tune from the field. I'll do it. But you know, my thing was the reality of, like, hey, I can't always come back and play, sure, because you know my younger years, of that kind of young athleticism that doesn't last forever, yeah, but I always felt like, you know, I could, I can always come back and serve, and you know I've told them that that I would be willing to do whatever we thought made sense. We just, you know, we just couldn't get it worked out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you stay out to sea and you stay swollen. Yeah, you stay driving ships, uh, one, uh. Again you call out one thing in the book again as, as people are reading this, um, they may come across the term blue nose, the blue nose ceremony upon crossing the Arctic Circle. You mind talking a little bit about your blue nose ceremony? I know you might not be able to say all the shenanigans that happened, especially back then, but love to hear a little bit about your blue nose ceremony. What a blue nose ceremony is for all the people who may have no idea as they're reading this book.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so there's different ceremonies for crossing certain thresholds across the globe, and when you cross into the Arctic Circle, they put you through a ceremony. We'll just say that and it was awesome, we had an absolute blast. To this day we still laugh and talk about it, but it was cool. That was an awesome deployment. We got to go up to Russia, go to all the Baltics. It was a diplomatic deployment, but wave the flag and tell each other we're friends while we spy on each other. So that was cool. But yeah, that was a fun. Not knowing what to expect, man, I had a blast with it. It was just like another initiation on a team, but we had fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, when you cross the equator. What shellback ceremony is that? What it is, that's right. So you'll hear those terms. Much like you, Mitch, I'm actually part of the blue nose community out there, and so I have spent plenty of time above the Arctic circle and done my blues nose ceremonies. And I tell you what it is the coldest I have ever been in my life. It is the coldest. I have ever been in my life. I'll tell you what.
Speaker 2:We got lucky. We went up during the summer. So it wasn't near as cold for us, but I've heard. I've heard some stories.
Speaker 1:Yeah, bro, and I'll tell you what I did mine on a submarine. I was a sub bubba, so that was, that was uh, extra, extra spicy man. I'll tell you, uh, yeah, cold, real cold, but uh, no, incredible, incredible life experience. You're out to see you're, you know you're on deployment, you're doing these things again. I think there's a really interesting dynamic in the book as well, and again, as you know, as we're talking to our audience of family members of midshipmen, midshipmen themselves, this idea of the people in your life during that time and how the impact of a certain captain versus another captain may make a huge impact. And you know the presence of a couple of enlisted dudes who love playing baseball, right like, are on the ship with you and willing to play catch every day. You mind just talking a little bit about some of your experiences and some of the dynamics you had with. You know certain sailors and certain captains that helped you on your journey to try and achieve this.
Speaker 2:You know, no matter what, yeah, so I, you know, I was very fortunate in that my first ship the CO and XO both were Academy grads and before I got there I emailed both of them and said hey, I don't know if you've heard, but I was drafted and I have no intentions of causing any ruckus or whatever. I am showing up to the ship and I'm full intent of doing everything you're asking me and I'm full intent of doing everything you're asking me. But I do have a dream of one day playing in the big leagues and would love to talk to you more about it as we get to know each other. And, man, I think that went a long way because as soon as I got there, we all kind of got on the same page of like, hey, this is what we expect, we expect you to be a great officer, we expect you to lead, we expect you to do all the things necessary for the ship and you do that. We'll support you a hundred percent and whatever else you're trying to do. And they were a hundred percent truthful on that. Um, they were a huge help, uh, in, in helping me put together packages, sending things up, calling people Um, it was. It was awesome to have that cause. It just helped give me some encouragement, um, but yeah, it was, it was great.
Speaker 2:And then, of course, having you know the you don't stay.
Speaker 2:People ask like, how'd you stay in baseball shape? You don't, uh, when you're not playing, uh, but mentally I just want to keep my mind in shape, uh, in that, when the opportunity presented itself I wanted to be ready, yeah, and I knew if I just kept my body in shape, you know that's all you can do on a ship anyway is work out, read and eat and watch movies, pretty much, yep. And so we did a lot of that. So I worked out all the time just to keep my body in shape, knowing that when I had the opportunity all I would have to work on or focus on is my arm. But mentally I wanted to kind of stay in it from a baseball perspective. So I was like man, if I could throw on a flight deck, that'd be great just to kind of get out there and feel the ball and throw it a little bit, just kind of get that interaction. And I was like man I don't really know, you know no offense, but like who can catch me.
Speaker 1:Who can throw? Who can catch a ball thrown by you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And so you know, there was a lot of people who kind of heard through the grapevine that I'd been drafted and they kind of knew the story. And someone said, hey, you need to go talk to Nunez. I was like, oh, the cook. They're like, yeah, go talk to Nunez. So I go in one day to the cafeteria area and I was like, hey, you know looking for Nunez, and he's like, hey, I'm Nunez. I was like, hey, I was told to come talk to you so maybe we can throw baseball on the flight deck. I was like, do you want to throw? And he's like, come on, papi, I'm from Dominican. And I was like, oh, all right, yeah, you can do this.
Speaker 2:So my dad would send bags of baseballs out. We'd go on the flight deck and throw on a flight deck when we could Lost a lot of baseballs over the side, but we had a blast. We'd throw every opportunity we had. Man, and to this day he and I stay in contact and he means a lot to me because you know, I think that was a big thing, just mentally staying positive and telling myself at some point this will all pay off. You've got to just know that at some time, at some point, this will all pay off. You got to just know that at some point down the road there'll be an opportunity. Quite frankly, I don't know if there was. You know some days that I truly believe that, but I tried to tell myself that as much as I could. And you know, having people like that to encourage me and just kind of, you know, continue to keep me motivated was huge.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think probably the part of the book that made me laugh the most because it's just like it's the most reflective of, like the true Navy dynamic, which is like a true level of like pessimism and like feeling everything in the world, where he looks at you while you're playing catch and he says, mitch, it ever make you feel funny that you could be making 500 grand a week playing baseball.
Speaker 2:But you're on a ship with me.
Speaker 1:You feel funny that you could be making 500 grand a week playing baseball.
Speaker 2:But you're out here on a ship with me. Yeah, you're. You're in the middle of the uh uh, persian golf and 105 degree heat.
Speaker 1:You know our shoes are melting, but hey, you know you could be playing professional baseball, but you're here making millions of dollars, but you're doing that, you're doing this, yeah, sweet, uh, no they can't be, they can't be humble for sure yeah, no, no, that's great and um, all right, Uh, you know, we, you, you, started to tease a little bit some of the struggle sometime there, right and um, this is where the book, in my opinion, takes a turn for the very real, right For the very real.
Speaker 1:And, uh, I want to talk a little bit, um, about your personal journey and your personal story, especially as it relates to overcoming adversity and handling the burdens of human life and the struggles of real human life. As you go through this thing and the power of the Naval Academy, and, again, you're never really prepared for certain life moments, but you can get used to working through tough spots and so you know. You mentioned how having Nunez out there as a supportive figure was an incredible thing, because back home maybe you weren't receiving some of the support about chasing your dreams and I'll kind of turn it over to you here, to, you know, share as much of the story as you'd like to about what was going on back in front while you're out there afloat at sea doing the Lord's work.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I mean I'll back up just a little bit so you kind of get an idea of kind of you know where my head was at, because you know there was plenty of times where I just did not know if this was a true reality. You know, I was like man, everyone's kind of like, hey, that's a lofty goal. You know great. You know good luck to you. And you know, in the back of my head I was going, yeah, but I'm going to do this. You know why do they keep doubting this? But there's always that little you know voice that creeps in. It's like, yeah, but that's not really possible. You know, and I'll never forget, because you know, when you're leading these men and women for us it was, you know, our bro was all guys. So for me, when I was leading these men, I always told them like hey, what's your plan? Why are you here? It's either to be career military, it's either to get a, you know, stepping stone towards a career, stepping stone for education. There's some reason you're here and I always wanted to know as their division officer so that I could help them achieve that, help them kind of get in the right ways and right paths to achieve. That I'll never forget.
Speaker 2:I was the Combat Information Center officer, so it was probably two or three in the morning in the pitch dark, with red lights and green lights everywhere For those of you who are familiar with combat, and the conversations in combat are very wide-ranging and one particular night we were talking about some of this stuff and one of the guys hit me pretty hard with a question. He just said you know, mitch, you're they call me Mr H a lot of times. You know, hey, what you talk about, some of these, some of these goals, like what's yours? And I was like, ah, I wasn't prepared to answer that. You know, um, and I, you know, in that moment was kind of like you know what I'm? I'm, I'm going to do everything I can to achieve this. Because if I'm telling you guys to, to, to strive for your, your goals and your dreams, then what a hypocrite I am if I don't. And that was the turning point for me to be like, all right, I'm going to do this.
Speaker 2:Well, about the same time I'm on my second or, excuse me, last deployment, my third deployment on my next ship, and I could just tell things at home just weren't going well. And everyone hears of the you know, dear John letters that you receive or people receive with loved ones back home. And I could tell something wasn't right. And we were going to come home, actually just shortly after my one-year anniversary from being married, and I talked to our CEO and I just said, hey, something's not right, I need to get home to salvage whatever I can. And he was gracious enough to let me get off at Mayport and fly home a little bit early. We pulled back in for our last little supplies before heading back to Norfolk.
Speaker 2:When I got home it was very obvious that that relationship was on thin ice and, long story short, found out that she was with someone 20 years our senior. She basically told me to my face that she doesn't love me anymore. And, boy, you're talking about a punch in the gut. It just seemed like everything was turning for the worse all at once and I didn't know which way was up. You know, I felt like man. I'm four years in now to the Navy. I still don't know what this looks like from a baseball standpoint. Man, I've failed as a husband because my marriage is in the toilet.
Speaker 2:I failed as an officer because I just started putting things in my head because it just seemed like everything was so bad and, man, I didn't know where to turn. I started filling that void with really anything and everything that I could, because the pain was so difficult, nothing seemed to be going. You know the right way and you know and I write in detail in the book about what I was going to because I want people to understand life's hard and you're going to face some things that you don't have planned and that you didn't want to face, and and it it really determines who you are with how you handle those things. And, man, it rocked me, it put me at rock bottom and I think to this day there's things that it made me who I am because, quite frankly, you know, one of the nights, you know, I was drinking heavily and had gone to a counselor, I just said, you know, I'll finally do what he said, I'll take out a notebook and just start writing, which I'm not a journaler.
Speaker 2:So for those of you who are kudos, that's just not me. But I said, you know what, what I had to lose. I'm at rock bottom, it can't hurt and I just started writing. I mean, I was angry, I was mad at God, I was mad at me, I was mad at her, I was mad at the world. And I go back and start reading through it and I came across a quote that I wrote and it just said it takes courage to face the mountain and strength to climb, but when you reach the summit and see the valley, you realize who you become. And I thought I don't know who wrote that, but that's pretty dang good.
Speaker 1:That's good yeah.
Speaker 2:And so I was like I don't know if this, you know this, whatever I was drinking is just that potent or someone else is playing a trick on me or what. But I stopped what I was doing in that moment. I don't know what time it was, I just know it was super late. I went to the tattoo place which is right down the road there's one on every corner, I feel like in Virginia Beach and Norfolk and I said, hey, I want you to tattoo this on my ribs. I don't ever want to forget this moment. And the guy, of course you know smoking he's like, all right, let's do it. And of course he's like that's great man, did you write this? And I was like, yeah, I did, but I did that because I didn't ever want to forget the depths of which I was at. I knew that was rock bottom bottom and I always wanted to remember you know where I came from and the depths of which I came from.
Speaker 2:And so I say all that to say it's nice now looking back from the summit and realizing, man, all the things I came through developed me into who I am today. Yeah, made me the person I am today, made me the husband. I am today the father. I am today the friend I am today, and so it sucks, man, to have to go through those things, but, man, it made me who I am and it's crazy to say I'm thankful that that was what I was able to do. And, as someone who builds his foundation on my faith, to me that was the piece that, like all right God, you allowed this to happen. I'm not sure why, you know, builds his foundation on my faith. Like to me that was the piece that, like all right God, you allowed this to happen. I'm not sure why, but, man, I'm just going to trust that that's what your plan was for me to come into the person I am today. And, yeah, so that's kind of the 30,000 foot view. To get the rest, I guess, sean, to get the book.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Academy Insider podcast. I really hope you liked it, enjoyed it and learned something during this time. If you did, please feel free to like and subscribe or leave a comment about the episode. We really appreciate to hear your feedback about everything and continue to make Academy Insider an amazing service that guides, serves and supports midshipmen, future midshipmen and their families. Thank you.
