Scott DeLuzio 00:00:00 Thanks for tuning into the Drive On Podcast where we’re focused on giving hope and strength to the entire military community. Whether you’re a veteran, active duty, guard, reserve, or 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 Joe Bogdan. Joe is a co-founder of Llama Leadership, and he’s the host of the Llama Lounge Podcast. He’s also currently serving in the US Air Force and he’s agreed to come on the show and share some of his experiences and chat about his time in the Air Force, and everything that he’s learned along the way. Welcome to the show, Joe. Glad to have you.
Joe Bogdan 00:00:51 Oh man. It’s great to be here, Scott. I’m really grateful that you gave me the opportunity to come on and just share a little bit and have a great conversation with you.
Scott DeLuzio 00:00:59 Yeah, absolutely. I’m really, really pleased that you’re on the show. I’ve listened to a few episodes that you’ve done on your podcast and also on some other shows where you’ve talked about your background and to me, it’s really interesting to learn about the path that you’ve taken- going from your childhood into the military and what you’ve learned along the way. I wanna try to get some of that out today in this episode and go from there. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background? Who Joe is, and where did he come from?
Joe Bogdan 00:01:46 All right, cool. So, yeah, I appreciate the opportunity. I’m Joe Bogdan and I am currently an Air force chief master Sergeant stationed at Osan Air Base in the Republic of Korea. I’ve been serving for about 21 years. I just hit my 21-year mark about a week ago. It’s been fantastic. I’m married. My wife is also on active duty. She’s a dental hygienist in the air force, a Master Sergeant, and we’re out here together and we’re just really enjoying Korea. Interestingly enough, I was actually, this is my third tour here in Osan. I was born outside of the gates at Osan Air Base in wartime. Back in 1981. I don’t remember a lot from that time. I Moved to the states as an infant, but I was the only child of a single mom.
Joe Bogdan 00:02:43 I didn’t know my biological father. But my mom met a staff Sergeant that was a public affairs NCO here at Osan. They got married and we moved to the states. That was, when I moved to the states when I was an infant, and don’t remember a lot about that time. I lived over at McGuire air force base in Jersey, and that was my first exposure to the states. I didn’t speak a lick of English. I started going to school. My mom wanted to send me to preschool immediately. I’m in preschool. I’m not understanding anything that people are saying. I was pretty much the only person that looked like me at school at the time. Growing up, I got into a lot of fights because I didn’t know what people were saying to me, but I could tell it was derogatory.
Joe Bogdan 00:03:28 My mom told me, man, I remember one thing is you stayed home. You came home one day after a bunch of fights and said, I’m not going to go back to not, I’m not going back to school until I learn English. I sat there and met my first hero, which was Mr. Rogers. Mr. Rogers taught me English by sitting there just watching. It was an interesting childhood. My mother and my stepfather at the time got div...
