Thomas Spanbauer, originally from Mount Vernon, Illinois, is currently serving our nation now in the Army. Before his time, he applied to the army for a way to pay for his college and to gain leadership experience. He initially joined the Army to be a 12D combat diver, then he moved to a 19D cavalry scout and is currently a 25C radio operator and maintainer. When asked, “Were you relieved once boot camp finished?”Thomas replied, “Boot camp itself is not hard. It’s the people you are with that do not listen or follow orders that make it hard, but yes I was happy to get out of there.” Thomas has had the opportunity to explore the world during his deployment. Thomas was asked, “Have you enjoyed your time in the military?” he responded with, “I have learned a lot since I have joined, I have had the opportunity to deploy to Iraq and see a different culture with those people day by day. It is an experience not many people are able to get.” Thomas has been in the military for awhile now, and when he was asked what his goals were, he answered it with “I wanted to go to every school available at the time and I wanted to lead and develop my soldiers.” Thomas has been stationed in many different places including, Fort Leonard Wood, Fort Benning, Fort Knox, Fort Campbell, Fort Gordon, and Fort Drum. He is currently off-duty and at home. He said he had never expected himself to join the military, as he never saw himself as that type of a person. But now he has no regrets about enlisting as he said, “I have everything I need. I can support my family in every way.” Thomas is part of 56.4% of the military personnel who are married and on duty. As of now our military has 1,417,370 active soldiers on duty. Our nation’s army contains 561,979 soldiers on duty in service. The army is the biggest branch of the United States military today. Thomas now is living in New York with his wife, Kaitlyn Spanbauer and their daughter, Adelyn.