At age 18, Marine Corporal Andrew Richardson was serving in Iraq. His squad maintained a perimeter around a medical sanctuary where local civilians…
At age 18, Marine Corporal Andrew Richardson was serving in Iraq. His squad maintained a perimeter around a medical sanctuary where local civilians could get treatment. Doing so gave Richardson an overwhelming sense of satisfaction and value.
Returning to civilian life, Richardson struggled to find that same sense of value. For five years he floated from job to job, doing construction and working as a roadie and security guard, among other gigs.
Today, he enjoys a fulfilling career at Microsoft, and has discovered a passion for programming — all thanks to a chance encounter while tending bar where he heard about an 18-week tech training and career-development program sponsored by Microsoft.
You talked about how Marines are scared to be civilians. What keeps you up at night?
When you’re deployed, when you wake up in the morning you have three primary things on your mind: what you’re going to eat, where you’re going sleep and whether you’ll get to do both of those things that day. All the other stuff isn’t even relevant.
In civilian life, when you wake up you’re faced with these seemingly unimportant and innumerable tasks that, taken as a whole, can be ovewhelming — everything from have I walked my dog and did I remember to go to the grocery store to remembering to pay my bills on time. Honestly, it seems like much more of a burden than having one or two massive responsibilities like taking care of yourself and taking care of the person on your right and left.
When you deployed, what things of value did you carry? Today, what do you carry?
My best friend was my M16A4 with grenade launcher. That was definitely the No. 1 item that went with me everywhere. On a typical mission I also carried around 300 rounds of ammo, along with a variety of grenades, night vision goggles, my KA-BAR knife, flares, GPS, radio, Kevlar vest and 9mm Beretta.
