Veterans Stories

United States Navy - 2016-2020

Courtney served 5 years active duty in the United States Navy as a hospital corpsman.
She was stationed in San Antonio, Texas for A school training where she learned the job
of a hospital corpsman then moved to Jacksonville, Florida where she worked in several
hospital units such as Pre-operations and Post- operations, Urology and Family medicine.
On top of being a corpsman she also was a part of the Honor Guard and rendered military
honors at sporting events and funerals for veterans and active-duty personnel. She also
provided field medical coverage for the Marines on many occasions and states “if I had to
do everything over, I would still make the same decision to join the navy and become a
corpsman.”
Courtney separated from the United States Navy in the beginning of 2020 and moved
back home to Michigan. She enrolled in classes at OU in the winter of 2022. Courtney says
“I chose Oakland University because the school has great resources for veterans and is
close to where I live which makes the commute easy.” Courtney states, “I chose to major
in CDS Spec Pre- Clinical Professions because being a corpsman opened my eyes to patient
care beyond nursing. After working as a corpsman, I wanted to push myself to go to
medical school to maintain the skills I had acquired while serving in the Navy.”

The Veteran Support Service’s office helped to ensure a smooth transition back into
civilian life and schooling for Courtney. “Veteran Support Services has made my transition
into being a student again wonderful. Everyone is more than willing to help and assist
with anything you need. They have made many resources available to me that I did not
realize existed and it has been nothing but a great experience. 

USMC Reservist

I grew up in Pontiac Michigan.  I attended Pontiac schools and graduated in 2021.  Growing up I wanted to be a Navy Seal and became fascinated with America’s military history. I soon grew out of that and never saw myself ever joining the military. 

The summer before college I did not know what I wanted to do with my life; but I needed to find something fast and high paying, right? Well after extensive research I decided I’d become a pilot. Well that was cool, but flight school is expensive. So I’d join the Air Force and learn to fly planes. I went to an area recruiting office and sat down with the Air Force. Everything sounded great, and I was ready to move forward with enlisting. But wait, the Marines posters kind of looked cool and inspiring, what about them? The next thing I knew I was walking into the Marine Corps office and sitting down for a chat.

That chat led me to become a Poolee at the recruiting station, which got my foot in the door to join.   I was able to attend Oakland University in the Wade H. McCree Incentive Scholarship Program.  After my first semester I realized college wasn’t keeping me accountable in the ways I was looking for in life; therefore, I accepted the challenge and  shipped off to Marine Corps Basic Training (boot camp) after my first semester of college. I graduated a Private First Class with the job of a supply administration specialist.  After returning from training, I resumed attending OU in pursuit of my Bachelor’s in Human Resource Development  while simultaneously pursuing my career with the Reserves.

Now I am about two and a half years in the Reserves and a Corporal of Marines.  The Marine Corps has provided so many opportunities to learn and grow that I wouldn’t have experienced if  I didn’t join.  I am in the process of finishing up my junior year at OU, and will be going to Officer Candidate School where I plan on commissioning after I graduate. I have been blessed to have met many new people and experienced so many different aspects of life. I have been to new states such as Indiana and Kentucky through the Reserves, as well as having the opportunity to train with Green Beret’s. I am excited to see what difference I can make as a Marine Corps Officer while  also enjoying this journey we call life.

Aaron served in the military for 6 years in active service as a Chinook helicopter mechanic in the United States Army. He was stationed in Fort Jackson in South Carolina and later Fort Eustis in Virginia for training.  When Aaron graduated from training, he received orders to Ansbach, Germany. On Aaron’s off time he would go rock climbing to explore the country. He improved over the 2 years that he was stationed there and would attend the pre-Olympic qualification for the first-ever sport climbing event of the Olympic games.

After Germany, he was stationed at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia. From there he would undergo extensive cross-training in the field with other aircraft to prepare alongside his unit to deploy in 2017 to Afghanistan. While in a combat zone that was under constant mortar indirect fire, he attended class by walking an extra hour to access a computer at the USO. After his return, he would attend the Noncommissioned-Officer Academy and later be promoted to sergeant. Before leaving the military he trained and completed a full marathon. 

When Aaron was planning to leave the military, he was searching for different avenues to pursue a Business career. He took classes at Oakland Community College while working to earn his Associate's degree.  Aaron decided to earn his Bachelor’s degree at Oakland University because of the amazing community of other veterans that attend. He spent a lot of his time during the first semester at the Veterans Support Services office to study and hang out with other veterans. Since starting at OU he has been more involved with the VSS community and works there part time helping other student veterans.

Air National Guard: 2019 - Present

Security Forces Defender

Olivia enlisted in the Air National Guard in 2019, while she was a senior in high school. Once she graduated in May of 2020 she was sent to BMT in August of the same year at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, TX. After she completed BMT, she then went to tech school to become a Security Forces Defender. When she graduated tech school in January of 2021, she flew back home to Michigan where she was stationed at Selfridge ANGB. Ever since then she has been serving the state of Michigan as a valuable member. She has been all over the world because of the military, from Canada to Germany, while furthering her education at Oakland. 

Olivia always knew she wanted to go to college to gain more knowledge. She chose Oakland University because of its location which was close to Selfridge and her hometown of Bay City. Furthermore, she knew OU had a prestigious business program and began her journey to getting her Bachelor of Science in Operations Management with a specialization in Supply Chain. She is still currently earning her degree and will graduate in May of 2025. 

Olivia has enjoyed every minute of being in the Air National Guard. It has allowed her to live the military life alongside being a civilian and pursuing higher education. The reason she joined the military in the first place was because her best friend had just joined the Army. Olivia knew she didn’t want to regret not joining the military when she was older so she took a leap of faith. Her aunt and uncle had both served previously in the Air National Guard, as Security Forces Defenders as well, and she knew she would enjoy being grandfathered into the same unit. 

Currently, Olivia works in the VSS and CLDC offices as a liaison, helping student veterans transition from their military life to being a college student. She helps members find their perfect jobs and update their resumes to snag that employer’s attention. If you need help updating your resume or cover letter, or even finding an internship or job that fits you, contact Olivia at oarmstrong@oaklnd.edu. 

United States Navy

Peter Mullin was seasoned durability / developmental test driver with the Ford Motor company for 15 years. However, at 30 years old the recession hit in 2008. Like many others in the area he was laid off an was forced to find a new career. In 2009 he attended a company event that was heavily laden with veterans. After spending the night talking with everyone and hearing stories of “the good ole days” he was intrigued. He joined the and shipped off to boot camp for the Navy. He was stationed aboard the USS Tucson (SSN-770) out of Pearl Harbor. While serving on the USS Tucson (a nuclear submarine) he was in charge of teaching new seaman how to steer a 360-foot nuclear powered steel tube with no windows. He often told the new seaman “No pressure kid, but you actually have 130 lives in your hands. Oh wait, we’re underwater. So yes, there is pressure.”

While transiting on a Standard bell (moderate speed) through open ocean, Peter was literally breathing over the shoulder of his student driver making sure that he was watching his instrumentation while they also rehearsed repeat-backs before he said something stupid to the Officer of the Deck (OOD).  The other three members of the ships control party were simply listening in gleeful anticipation of the next screwed up repeat-back to stutter out of his nervous mouth.  Business as usual. With no warning, the boat suddenly pitched upward with a 50-foot ascent.  Pots and pans could be heard crashing below in the galley, and Peter’s junior under-instruct helmsman began throwing the wheel around in a wild panic.  Without thinking, Peter grabbed him by the scruff of his uniform, threw him down the command passageway by the CO's door, and took over as helm. Just as suddenly, the boat pitched downward the 50 feet that they just ascended moments before. Once ordered depth was re-attained, the boats brass came storming into Control to figure out what just happened.  Upon review of sea-water conditions, they quickly discovered that they drove through an isolated pocket of cold water with high salinity that had broken off from a nearby oceanic cold front.  In other words, the boat was trimmed for operation at a certain depth / speed / temperature / salinity, and mother nature decided to throw us a curve ball.  

Peter is now a COM student at Oakland University and a standing junior. He currently is in an internship at Roush Industries working in their prototype division.

The follow is one of Peter’s fond memories while in the Navy

“Messing with Surface Fleet (underway for about a month, but not deployed)

T.R.E. Tactical Readiness Evaluation (pronounced Tree).  It's a test that every warship has to take each year to certify that it can make war if called upon to do so.  We (the Tucson) were called upon to be the guinea pig for a surface fleet battle group of cruisers and destroyers for their T.R.E. group evaluation.  Unfortunately for us, we were relegated to a very small body of water, and we also had to run our diesel back-up generator at periscope depth.  In other words, we had to stay shallow and make a bunch of noise.  Precisely what any stealth vessel doesn't want to do, but we had to at least try to make surface fleet feel good about themselves. If you haven't figured it out yet, there's a tangible "Us vs Them" relationship between Surface, and Sub Fleet.  They (surface fleet) think that we're crazy, while we (Subs) know that they're just stupid. 

While we were making noisy waves in a small steam box, it was only a matter of time before we were spotted by an airborne anti-submarine patrol craft that soon started dropping SONAR buoys all around us.  Before long, that nearby surface fleet battle group came running in with their active SONAR, pinged us, and we were soon considered dead.

Hooray for surface fleet...

About a month later, it was the Tucson's turn to re-certify for T.R.E.  And much to the desire of our exacting revenge, the Tucson now gets to hunt down and kill that same battle group that was still beaming from their previous would-be success.  Only this time, we're in full-on nuclear fast attack mode, and we were using exercise torpedoes that we actually get to shoot at them.  Same speed and capabilities as normal torpedo, minus the several hundred pounds of explosive ordinance. Keeping in mind that Surface fleet aren't "complete" idiots, we proceeded with caution from the deep to periscope depth.  While looking around, we quickly discovered the battle group running slow and silent.  We then dove back down, only to come up on the other side of them, take pictures of them through our periscope, and then email the pictures to them just to mess with them.  We could tell when they got their emails too, because they all sped up into a high-speed active SONAR induced panic.  

After a few hilarious rounds of "now you see me, now you don't," we had our fun and soon laid virtual waste to the now morally defunct surface battle group.  

“Victory belong to the Tucson that day, and surface fleet tears never tasted so good...”