I found a passion early in life — warrior.
I enlisted in the Navy at the age of 22 in Northern California. My contract was simply for boot camp, Gunners Mate “A” school, and then Basic Underwater Demolition School (BUDS), better known as Navy SEAL selection.
BUDS Class 222 started out with 122 physically fit sailors— enlisted men and officers— ranging in age from 18 to 28. Five months later, there would be 18 of the most mentally and physically strong men this program had to produce. I considered myself fortunate to be among them.
Just hours before the end of Class 222's first phase— a winter “hell week”— I contracted necrotizing fasciitis in my right fingers, hand and arm (the worst of all flesh-eating bacteria).
After four surgeries, I would keep my right arm and my life, but I spent a year and a half rehabilitating at Balboa Medical Center, San Diego. After I healed, I started sprinting toward my passion again, which was to be a special operator.
From 1998 through 2001, I went through corpsman A-school; deep sea diving medical technician; field medical service school; static line jump school and paramedic school; overall, this was the pipeline for a Navy reconnaissance corpsman.
From 2001 to 2004, I earned the opportunity to become a "plank owner," or the first to start a new command. The command is called Naval Special Clearance Team ONE, and based in Coronado. I was a combat trauma medic and an assistant mammal handler. We had dolphins that conducted mine counter measures, and unmanned underwater vehicles. This command deployed at the start of this 17-year war in Iraq, and these tools were instrumental to our success.
After three years I was screened and selected to join the Navy’s top 1 percent command. This unit has a well-known name that I do not use.
From 2003 through 2008, I rarely saw my family. Our pace — known as our "operational tempo" — was intense. If I was not training, I was deployed.
Officer candidate school and Naval explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) school soon followed. From 2008 through 2010, while a platoon commander at EOD Mobile Unit 12 supporting special operations forces, I completed my MBA. After several deployments, I received new orders to complete a second master's degree in irregular warfare, and to complete a Ph.D. in information sciences at Naval Post Graduate, Monterey, California.
From 2013 until now, I earned the opportunity to work at the United States Special Operations Command. USSOCOM is a unified combatant command that oversees special operations forces from the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. USSOCOM is headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa.
While at USSOCOM, I was the officer in charge of the Military Adaptive Sports section, which gets wounded, ill and injured service members — active duty and veterans — involved in adaptive sports of all kinds.
To me this command was an honor and one of the most fulfilling jobs of my career.
I have an amazing wife and three amazing kids, three kittens, two chickens and a dynamic new love of life.
This June I will finish my certification through Valor Service Dogs and take home my service dog, Bradly, named after Army Gen. Omar Bradley and the Bradley Fighting Vehicle.
My history is normal and certainly not unique, as throughout their careers, operators go through more than six commands and count their deployments into the teens. In most cases, these operators will sustain injuries along their careers from firefights, improvised explosive devices, or simply from rucking half their weight up and down the Hindu-Kush Mountains in Afghanistan. Additionally, while I went through my combat deployments and earned multiple degrees, this, too, is not unique. Most operators are highly successful at multitasking in austere environments.
Today, our special operations forces are composed of men and women who’ve volunteered and made it through some of the military's most mentally and physically rigorous training. Once those are completed, they’re assigned to special units across the country.
Now, nearing my medical retirement, I was looking for my next passion. I overheard some teammates talking about the "USSOCOM Fellowship," which places wounded, ill or injured service members in internships with companies and organizations to gain civilian work experience, grow professional networks and gain skills and certifications that do not exist within the military.
I started in the Herald-Tribune newsroom this week.
The USSOCOM fellowship is an amazing program! I may have found my next passion.
Ramesh Haytasingh can be reached at rhaytasingh@heraldtribune.com.
