"Be all you can be." "An Army of one" (US Army). These are the slogans the U.S. Army has relied upon for recruiting its soldiers for many years and, as an experienced soldier, they reflect my personal commitment to serving this country and my desire to be promoted through the ranks of military as an officer.
Having served in the U.S. Army for 2.8 years, I currently hold the rank of Sergeant, as I have since October 2004. At present, my Military Occupational Service (MOS) is 63D20: Field Artillery Mechanic, at which I excel and am able to use my technical skills on a daily basis.
While, each and every day, I do my utmost to serve my unit to the highest ability of which I am capable, I know I am capable of serving in an even greater capacity. In my civilian life, I achieved a BS Degree in Computer Systems Engineering and worked for eight years as a Database Administrator and Programmer. Once in the Army, in demonstration of the diversity of my skills, I took my analytical and technical abilities and served successfully in a ten-month internship in the Criminal Investigation Command.
To quote from the GoArmy.com website, "The work of the U.S. Army is a complex combination of missions, tasks and responsibilitiesùall in constant motion" ("Living the Army Values," para.2). I am now ready to combine my experience from the civilian world with the "respect, duty, loyalty, selfless service, integrity and personal courage" that the Army requires of me by advancing in my Army career as an officer to reach new missions, tasks, and responsibilities (US Army, "Living the Army Values," para.5).
Finally, I am thirty-one years old and I am deploying to Iraq in May 2005. Not only will serving in Iraq provide me the war experience to which every great officer should be exposed, as an officer in the US Army, I will indeed have become "An Army of One" and "Will Be All I Can Be."
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