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 the Drive On Podcast today. My guest is John Davis, and John is an army veteran who has helped student veterans while working for the VA. He’s also the author of the book Combat to College, where he applies the military mentality as a student veteran to help guide veterans through.

We’re gonna discuss his transition to civilian life and some of the lessons he learned along the way to help other veterans who were in a similar situation to what he found himself in. So welcome to the show, John. I’m glad to have you here.

John Davis: Thanks for having me on. I’m excited to talk.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, absolutely.

So why don’t [00:01:00] you tell us a little bit more about yourself and your background.

John Davis: I grew up in Iowa. I feel like every veteran kind of has three lives. You have your before military life, you have your military life and your post military life. And honestly, whoever I was before the military, you know, that person’s kind of a stranger to me now.

But I grew up in Iowa and I grew up playing sports and when I was 18, I went to community college because, That’s what you’re supposed to do. And my mother told my mother didn’t want me to go in the military at the time, you know, especially, it was the height of Iraq and Afghanistan. And then eventually after I failed out at community college, I was like, Okay, well the military’s the next stop.

So I signed up for the military and served the entire time in the infantry. And I did my last two years recruiting before I got out a few years ago. And then I started pursuing education and that led. To kind of narrowing in on student veterans because the first stop for so many veterans, especially enlisted veterans, and you know, especially combat arms, people’s college and how we [00:02:00] do there kind of determines our futures.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, absolutely. And I think going to college is one of those scary things for a lot of veterans as they’re getting out of the military because they’re going. Oftentimes way older than any of their peers in their classes that they’re taking. And I know when I was in college I sort of did things a little bit backwards.

I went to college first and then I joined the military. And we had a guy who was a marine veteran who was in some of our classes, and he was with like this old grumpy guy. And he seemed like he just hated every, everyone around him and everything about being there. But I mean, he. Aced all the courses.

Like he, he did a great job as far as all that goes. But he was the stereotypical veteran going through college, just, you know, hitting the fact that the 18 year old kids are out partying and drinking while he’s trying to figure out how to keep a roof over his head and go to school and [00:03:00] all this other stuff that he had going on.

So, yeah, it’s a very difficult time for a lot of veterans as they’re transitioning out and trying to figure out what it is that they want to do. In the third stage of...