Carrying a weight on our shoulders rarely means a physical 500-pound bomb that has fallen from its rack in the bomb bay of a military aircraft. But for Clint Birchfield, it did. Screwed in the front of the bomb was a timed fuse, and if pulled out, the bomb would have begun to count down. He noticed the bomb’s hook that was holding the eyelet – the top of the bomb.
“You should never see those, which means it wasn’t locked in, so I started to walk over to inspect it, and as I was walking over I saw the hook start to show more, which means the front of the bomb was about to drop and the fuse wire would have pulled out,” recalls Clint, a University of Arizona Global Campus (UAGC) alum and veteran of the U.S. Navy and Army National Guard. “I ran over and put myself under the bomb, so I had the 500-pound bomb on my shoulders while the crew put the bomb back up.”
They were successful, but until recently, military stories like this were not the ones Clint cared to tell. He enlisted in 2001 and served for five years. A major reason he joined the military was in hopes of receiving support in pursuing a degree.
“Things didn’t really pan out,” he says. “9/11 happened after I joined. I was still in boot camp doing my swim calls when it started. I just jumped in the water, everything was fine, and I swam across the pool. I came out of the pool, and all of a sudden, it was a whole new world – sirens are going off, people were not in the water, and I was alone, and there were groups of people crying and on the phone.”
Some people went to school, but Clint was called to action and fulfilled his duties until he was honorably discharged in 2006. When he left the military, he struggled with the process of receiving his benefits and finding support as a veteran. He felt frustrated, especially as his GI Bill® ran out during a critical point in his life. For Clint, being a veteran had served its purpose, and that door had long been shut. However, an opportunity at UAGC opened the door for him to learn more about his veteran identity.
No Longer Silent
As a student, Clint became a UAGC CHAMPS mentor, writer, and editor for the Global Campus Voice, a participant in the social justice initiative, and the founding president of the UAGC Student Veterans of America (SVA) chapter.
When clicking through the UAGC website for different organizations, he found an essay contest that awarded the winner a trip to the SVA National Conference. The essay topic spoke to him, and considering how much he was writing for his classes, he felt compelled to write one more essay. Clint received a scholarship for his entry and a trip to the SVA National Conference.
One of his first sessions spoke on veteran identity, which he didn’t think he would benefit from as someone who does not actively identify as a veteran, but that is the reason the session resonated with him. He learned about the “silent veteran” demographic, which he identified with, made up of people like him who fall through the system because they’re quiet.
“Silent veterans don’t get the veterans license plate or hang the medals and ribbons on their wall or even talk about the stories, and I identified with that myself,” Clint says. “As a nation, they can say, ‘oh, you’re a veteran,’ but that doesn’t mean the same thing for each of us. That can be a happy word or an angry word, or a sad word, or a painful word. That really opened my eyes up because I am a veteran, but I don’t necessarily publicly identify as that, or at least I didn’t, because of a lot of reasons.”
Empathizing with this demographic, he was determined to implement initiatives at the roots to serve and assist veterans. The UAGC SVA chapter now has more built-in mentorship to help veterans find resources and encourage members to become leaders. He has also been inspired to revisit his own experience.
“Starting with SVA, I’m trying to awaken that whole silent part. For the first time, I created a wall behind me, and it has my accomplishments. I was never one to brag, or embellish, or celebrate any of these things that other people might consider successes or wins in my life, but now I have things on my wall. I have a shadow box that I put together just for the Navy and then another one for the Army National Guard, and it was kind of my way of saying I’m not quite to the point where I’m going to tie that into my current existence, but I do need to recognize that it’s there.”
A Father First
Clint’s No. 1 identity and priority is being a father to his son, which was one of his main motivators for enrolling in UAGC. Clint has always liked learning, but he didn’t thrive in the school setting. His rebellious adolescence felt confined by the structure, so school was not where he saw success. When his son began having trouble with school, too, Clint wanted to be an example for him and set an expectation in their household.
“I put in a lot of searches looking for things that would work with my GI Bill®. UAGC just seemed like that would be the best fit, and it was what came up in the search most often, and probably the most active in responding,” he says.
Once he started pursuing his degree in organizational management and was turning out all As, he quickly jumped onto the Dean’s List and honors program.
“It really helped my confidence, and then it tied me into the organizations that I work with like SVA, and so it just kind of ingrained itself more into my life and helped pick me up in areas where I didn’t even really think mattered anymore,” Clint explains.
As an alum, he not only sets an example of excellence for his son, but he has also pivoted in his career with the ability to combine his degree with his real-world experience, becoming a program analyst for the federal government. He attributes what he learned in the Honors Program and his classes, as well as lessons from instructors like Dr. Blizard, for upping his game.
“It was me, my military experience, and my bachelor’s degree that made it to where I was eligible for the position I’m in now,” he explains. “The degree helped open the door, helped me get the job, and the lessons that I learned during my education helped propel me because I’ve only been there just over a year, and I’ve already received a promotion and a perfect evaluation.”
The opportunity to go back to school changed the tune of academia for Clint, so while he supports his son, the veteran community, and himself, the thought of returning to school to pursue an MBA is on the horizon.
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Student success stories should not be interpreted as a promise or guarantee of career advancement or future earnings. The stories shared here represent the outcomes of individual students for illustrative purposes only.
The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement. The use of military-affiliated images does not imply endorsement of the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA).
GI Bill® is a registered trademark of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). More information about education benefits offered by VA is available at the official U.S. government website at http://www.benefits.va.gov/gibill.