Scott DeLuzio: [00:00:00] Thanks for tuning in to the Drive On Podcast where we are focused on giving hope and strength to the entire military community. Whether you’re a veteran, active duty, guard, reserve, or a family member, this podcast will share inspirational stories and resources that are useful to you. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio, and now let’s get on with the show.

Hey everybody, welcome back to Drive On. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio, and today my guest is Katie Preste. Uh, Katie is a Navy… Veteran and founder of Boots on the Ground Coffee. And she’s here to discuss her time in the Navy and what led her to create her company. Uh, but first welcome to the show, Katie.

Really glad to have you here.

Katie Preste: Yeah. Thanks for having me.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, you bet. Um, so maybe we can start off with a little bit of an introduction. I know I just talked a little bit about you there, but, uh, for folks that might not be familiar with you, can you tell us about your background and your journey as a Navy

veteran? Uh, you know, what are you to join the Navy, some of [00:01:00] your experiences, that type of stuff, uh, during, during the service.

Katie Preste: Okay. Yeah. Um, I joined in 2011. I was in for 10 years. I was stationed in Hawaii, Italy, and Washington State. I did, um, three deployments on destroyers. And traveled all over the world. In Italy, I went, I was shore duty there. So I did a lot of personal traveling on my deployments. I have seen literally almost the entire world.

So, there’s not a lot I haven’t seen. Um, I’m from Wisconsin. Uh, I don’t remember what the rest of it is. I think that’s it.

Scott DeLuzio: Okay. Yeah, no, that’s fine. No. And so one of the things I think with a lot of, uh, service members, one of the things that the recruiters always, uh, try to try to say is you get to go see the world and, you know, especially in the Navy, you

know, you’re, you’re on these ships and you’re, you’re going to from port to port and you get [00:02:00] to, um, go around and, um, I sometimes I wonder, like, how much time do you actually get in some of these ports?

Is it a significant amount of time that you’re like when you’re, you’re out at sea and you’re, you’re stopping at different places? Um, you know, I, I know it’s not like a, you know, a civilian cruise

where you’re just going and you’re going for the day and you’re, you’re, you know, sightseeing and then you’re coming back to the ship or

whatever.

I’m sure you’re, you’re there for, you know, at least a few days, uh, you know, whatever it is that you’re, you’re doing there. Um, What is that like when you, when you get into port and, and, uh, you know, do you, do you have time that you can go off onto shore and kind of explore on your own? Or are you pretty much confined to the ship for, for a lot of

it?

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