Four decades have passed since state Rep. Jeffrey Messenger, R-Republic, has worn the uniform of a sailor; but as the veteran notes, many enduring lessons were cultivated during his brief time in the Navy - chiefly, the ability to learn quickly and nurturing one's love for their country.
"The military has taught me that if you work hard, you get promoted and move ahead ... just like any other profession," said, Messenger, 64.
A 1967 graduate of Hillcrest High School in Springfield, Messenger says that he first tried the college route, but after discovering it "wasn't for him," chose a different path toward an education.
Enlisting in the Navy in 1969, he completed his boot camp before transferring to Millington, Tenn., where he spent the next six months in training to become an aviation electronics technician.
The school, he said, introduced him to basic electronics and the calibration of equipment used aboard naval aircraft. The following year, with his training completed, he embarked upon his first and only duty assignment when he reported to the Naval Air Station at Corpus Christi, Texas.
For the next 18 months, the young sailor was attached to an administrative section that helped service the electronics for the aircraft used in training naval aviators.
As Messeger recalls, he was later reassigned to the calibration laboratory, maintaining the calibration equipment that was used to service the electronics aboard the aircraft, where he remained until his enlistment expired in 1973.
"The chief of my section approached me about reenlisting," Messenger said, "which would have included a promotion. But I also discovered that I would have to reenlist for a six year period - three of those years would be served out aboard a ship."
Prior to his enlistment in the Navy, Messenger married his fiancee, Wanda, and, in the process of building his family, did not want to put his wife through the stresses of the separation so often associated with service aboard a ship.
However, the years he had spent applying himself to his military duties did not go unnoticed; he was offered a job upon leaving the Navy and, for the next three years, remained at the calibration laboratory in Texas performing as a civilian the same job that he had while in uniform.
He and his wife returned to Springfield in 1976 where he worked briefly in the insurance industry prior to becoming a self-employed business owner. The veteran eventually formed a well drilling company which he operated for 22 years.
After selling the company nearly a decade ago, he purchased a prosthetics and orthotics company, with facilities now added in Springfield and Monett, and is currently in the process of expanding to a new location in the Joplin area.
In 2012, he was elected to his first term as the representative for the state's 130th District - an endeavor, he asserts, for which he has been adequately prepared because of the experience and training received while serving in the Navy.
"I've always heard that the military has some of the best schools and training available," Messenger said, "and that they have a unique way of teaching ... of bringing you up-to-speed in a certain profession in a short period of time.
"This type of training I've applied in my own time here at the Capitol where you often find yourself in situations in which you must familiarize yourself with a certain subject or issue in a short amount of time," he added.
The former sailor also said that although many years have passed since his uniformed service, it was an experience which has produced several enduring insights and lessons, such as the fostering of national pride.
"What I have learned from my own time in the service - and as I believe to be the case with so many of our veterans - is that you leave the military with a sense of partriotism that is unmatched in virtually any other profession."
Adding, "It establishes that you're an American ... that you are willing to do anything for your country."
Jeremy Ämick writes on behalf of the Silver Star Families of America.