EARLY LIFE AND MILITARY EXPERIENCE?
My mother and Father were both civil engineers back in Egypt. And when they came to America they started their own businesses. My father had a small deli and grocery, and my mother worked at a bakery. And eventually they opened up a car service in Bay Ridge. My sister and I- we both helped them with their businesses, you know, we would go to the store after school and help them run their business. And when I was about twelve, we moved to a small town in Jersey where I went to middle school and high school.
And I remember when I got there, and even before then, I was really excited about joining the Air Force and maybe one day applying to be an astronaut with NASA. And I stuck to that for as long as I could. I studied really hard in high school, got good grades, and I went to a good college at Cornell, and studied engineering there for both my undergraduate and masters degrees. And then I commissioned into the Air Force where I started out as an Flight Test Engineer for the first seven years. During that time I worked on weapons development and aircraft development and other new technologies that were used by special operations aircraft operators to find high valued targets over in Afghanistan and in Iraq and in other theaters. And I even had the chance to deploy overseas to Iraq and Afghanistan with those same special operations forces, doing Airborne intelligence with them.
And my last year in the Air Force I worked with NASA on high altitude research aircraft called a WB-57, and we took one out of the boneyard and got it flying again
WB-57
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How hard is it to start doing things in NASA coming out of the Air Force?
Well I’d always wanted to go to test pilot school and then apply to be a mission specialist or an astronaut candidate with NASA. And that was a long-term goal. And if you stick to your guns and you do well in school, and you get a technical degree, and you work your butt of in the Air Force- then it becomes fairly easy to apply to test pilot school and get in.
It’s still extremely competitive, and it gets more difficult from that point, because once you go to test pilot school everyone that graduates, which is like one-hundred people a year, they all apply for the Astronaut Corps. It’s just the rule of thumb. When you graduate and you apply, and they take maybe one of those hundred, maybe less depending on how many slots they have. And now that the shuttle program has been cancelled, there’s even fewer slots, with fewer people going to space. So for me that was always the vision.
NASA
Photo Credit: https://www.nasa.gov/
And it was the critical reason that made me decide in 2013, to turn down my appointment to test pilot school, and to get out, and to go into the Air Force reserves, and try to apply for a flying position in the air national guard.
So its very competitive to get into NASA as an astronaut, but it’s not as competitive, believe it or not, to get there as an engineer. So if you’re an engineer and you work hard, and you network, and you exhibit your interest, it can really help you get your foot in the door with NASA.
After making the decision to join the military, what was it that drove you down that specific career path in the Air Force?
So I think I was about twelve when I decided on the Air Force, astronaut thing. I was driven primarily by the fact that both of my parents were engineers, and my brain seemed coded to do engineering. And the pinnacle of engineering was to be a mission specialist at NASA. And as I backtracked my way down the biographies of other successful mission specialists, they all seemed to have the same thing in common. They had engineering or technical degrees, they went into the service, they worked hard, they volunteered, they deployed and got some combat experience under their belt, they mastered their PHD, and then they applied to NASA when they were in their late twenties or early thirties, and had all this great experience under on their resume to make them competitive.
When I got into the Air Force, I didn't want to fly, I was more towards the engineering aspect, whereas pilots where obviously interested in flying maneuvers- nothing really that technical.
But after I few years I came to realize that the fun and glory really was in the sky. So three years later I was selected for a job that had the potential for me to fly. So i asked my boss If I could get my flight physical and get up there in the sky, and fly in the back of the aircraft as a flight test engineer. And he allowed my to do that, and I did for three or four years. And while I was there NASA came to us for a request for a rapid acquisition of one of these bombers that was in the boneyard and getting it flying ASAP.
Photo Credit: www.rit.edu
You are a man of service. From your time in the Air Force, to the Mission Continues, everything you do seems focused around making other people’s lives better. Was this idea of service something that was ingrained in you in the military? Or is that something that you grew up with?
I think it was something that I certainly grew up with. When I was growing up I was the youngest kid. I had an older sister, and she was the exact opposite of me. And she was very self-centered. And she was my idol growing up, and I wanted to be just like her. And there was a point where I was a teenager, and I realized that she didn't care about me. I would ask her for help and stuff and she was just in her own little bubble. And she was embarrassed to be seen with me in High School, and things like that. And that took its toll on me. And it made me realize that I never wanted to be like that.
I spent a lot of time in High School volunteering for a lot of different organizations. There was one in Jersey called Rebel- which was reaching everyone by clothing line. I volunteered with the truth about smoking campaign. My senior year of high school I did peer leadership, which was mentoring the freshman coming in and trying to convince them not to smoke, drink or do drugs while they where in High School. So while I was in High School I was pretty much volunteering for everything that I could. I was just trying to get out, do my thing, feel like I was a part of something, make new friends and be a part of the community. So that service definitely came before the Air Force.
Photo Credit: grassroots.groupon.com
In a situation where a person doesn't have much direction in life, do you thinking service in an organization that works to benefit others would be a step in the right direction for them?
Absolutely. Looking back, service was way better for me than I could have imagined. If you gave me one- hundred opportunities to go back in my life, I would chose the Air Force every single time, and get right back into the service as soon as I graduated college. And even for people who don't know necessarily know exactly what they want to do. You have people who don’t even want to go to college, they just enlist and go in at eighteen. There’s just a certain level of responsibility that the military gives you, that allows you to grow up faster and become more capable and you have this sense of purpose and mission and it's not something that you always get in corporate America, or working for a startup, or going into academia.
American troops in Iraq
Photo Credit: www.fordhamelr.org
There’s just this incredible sense of purpose, and I think a lot of us felt it mentally after 9/11, where we now were part of a group of guys who were out looking for potentially evil people on the planet. And we were looking for bad guys and trying to put them away, and figure out their motivation, and how can we fix it. And even after digging out the bad guys, we spent a lot of time, energy and money trying to build schools in Iraq, and network with the tribal leaders in Afghanistan to give them whatever they needed to grow as a country- to build more schools and to educate their children, to basically avoid having a financial and knowledge drought that would lead to future extremists that would try to attack us again.
So it wasn't just lets go out there and kill to bad guys and go home and laugh about it. It was lets go and make a difference in this world. Lets surgically look for the bad guys and not create collateral damage that would lead to more people hating us. It was a very focused mission that made me feel like I had something to do in this world, it was a purpose and a mission that actually mattered.
And if someone where to die, in a car accident, or even in war, there are all kinds of benefits. There was service member life insurance which instantly gave the family member four-hundred grand. They were instantly taken care of for health benefits. And then there’s a whole list of non-profits which are going to help you in case shit hit the fan. And there’s nothing like that in corporate America. You know if I died today, Goldman wouldn't give a shit about my family or my parents or any of that stuff.
But its all of those small things here or there in the military just made you feel like they cared about you. And you care about them in return. When your boys where gone and they were deployed you would send them letters and care packages. When they got home you would meet them at the airport and have a welcome home banner. It was really more of a brotherhood and less of a job.
The military community is often remarked to have this amazing brotherhood. Could you share any personal anecdotes where you experienced that brotherhood firsthand?
Yeah for sure. I mean in the military we would get together and go and do Habitat for Humanity or we would all go to the local soup kitchen, we would all find some kind of community service thing to do. Also, four times a year in the military we would have something called long family weekend. So you would have a three day weekend for like Columbus day and they would give you Friday off and you would then have a four day weekend. We also had thirty days of vacation a year, and you would only count the five work days a week equals about six weeks of actual vacation time a year. So pretty much everything they were doing was increasing comrade between co-workers, bringing the families together, giving you more time off to spend with your families so that you were happier and when you got to work you felt better and more rejuvenated. You had enough vacation time so that you always had time to get out of there if you were stressed-out by your work.
And it really did feel like a community, it didn't feel like a job, it felt like a family. And when guys were deployed people would go out of their way to put together care packages and send them and surprise those guys. If your wife needed help mowing the lawn, or if something broke at home- you could depend on those guys in the unit to go take care of it and help out.
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Veterans and the PTSD Stigma
I'm concerned that society sees veterans like me as highly likely to be suffering from PTSD and potentially suicidal. I hate that stereotype and I spend much of my free time volunteering with The Mission Continues to combat that stigma. In fact, that stigma may contribute more to why veterans feel so alone and why they're depressed and suicidal, causing a vicious cycle.
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Any number of suicides, whether it's 700 or 8000, is too much and it needs to be addressed. But I don't think the solution is more non-profits treating vets like charity cases. We just need to find a way to keep veterans properly engaged in society. Give us meaning, give us purpose, give us a cause and we'll give you our all again. That's what organizations like The Mission Continues and Team Rubicon do.
Being in a military family can be very difficult, and in some cases, can almost be as challenging as being in the military itself. Is that a sentiment that you could share?
So I’ve never been married or had kids. So I cant personally say. But just to speculate on it, there are a lot of different factors that go into that. For example, If you get married young, whatever demographic you are, military or not, you have a higher chance for divorce.
Another scenario that I’ve seen is that people get married for the extra money. You get an extra three-hundred-dollars a month and you get to live off base. So some people do it for the wrong reasons, with the financial benefits of it. And that’s not a good reason to get married ever, so I would say that people should avoid that.
Also, if you’re in a job that deploys a lot, like if you’re a pilot, or special operations forces or a PJ or an MP- if you’re going to deploy every three months, and then be back for three months, and then deploy for three months- that revolving door means that you should probably postpone being married until you have a more stable, predictable life that doesn't involved being gone for half the time.
But that’s part of my evaluation as to whether or not the person should even be thinking about it. My father always told me that you don't get married until you have your finances in order, your life stable, and you can afford to put a down payment on the house. Focus on your career and your education first, and once that’s all stable and you feel happy with what you’ve accomplished in life, then you go out and get married.
So now that I have a slightly more stable life living in New York, I have a corporate job, I have the Air National Guard on the side that I do on the weekends. I’m at least in a better position now, and I’m happier with life, and I know what they next couple of years are going to look like- I’m more prepared to consider a more serious relationship and settle down. And I’m also ten years wiser now. I’ve read hundreds of more books, I’ve spoken to friends who have told me about their mistakes that they made in their marriages, and with all of this knowledge and wisdom, I’m way better positioned to have a happy marriage now than I was at twenty-two or even at twenty-five.
what do you still want to accomplish?
Dia Beshara
Photo Credit: medium.com
One of the things that I really loved working with, in the last four years of my active duty Air Force career, was I did a lot of work with youth, at this youth center that I started with a bunch of friends. It was basically this underground music, art and dance studio for kids to come, and it was totally free, and there were no membership fees or anything like that, they would just come and we would have free DJ lessons, piano lessons, graffiti art lessons, breakdance lessons, It was really an underground music center for kids. It wasn’t a non profit- there were no donations, I basically paid for everything and just made it work.
I ran it for three years and it was the most fun I’ve ever had. We would go perform at the local charities, we would DJ non-profit fundraisers. And for three years it was the most amazing life that I could have ever possibly imagined. And I wish that I could re-create that here in New York, but real-estate is so expensive that I couldn't even fathom affording a warehouse.
So my long term goal after I get back from pilot training and figure out what’s next for the Air National Guard, is to save up enough money, find the perfect location to re-open a music and dance studio and get that momentum going again. So I think that if I could pull that off I could be a happy man for the rest of my life.
What is The Mission Continues?
Photo Credit: www.missioncontinues.org
The Mission Continues was founded by a SEAL member in 2007. The initial idea was to help reduce suicide rates among veterans by giving them a new mission, which was volunteering in their community and giving back. And the goal was the change the national dialogue for veterans from one of PTSD to us being volunteers and leaders in the community.
And they set aside money for social events and volunteer events. So getting these guys out and doing work in the community was one part, but another part of it was lets all go out and go bowling, lets get lunch, lets go fishing or kayaking. The idea was that you now have a brotherhood of veterans that we can hang out with, who also have similar experiences, and can be there for us emotionally if we’re having a hard time. It also has the added benefit of networking. Meeting other people who can help you get a job that’s better than the one you have now. It also gets you more involved with the community- and meeting new people.
And civilians allowed to help out as well, all they have to do is sign up on the website.
The Mission Continues empowers veterans who are adjusting to life after the military to find purpose through civic action. We deploy veterans on new missions in their communities, so that their legacy will be one of leadership and service.
Video Credit: The Mission Continues
What Is your Job within The Mission Continues?
So I run the Brooklyn Platoon. I started up the first one in Brooklyn, they had already had one in Manhattan, but they wanted to expand. And they got a ton of donations from Goldman Sachs and a bunch of other people.
Photo Credit: https://www.missioncontinues.org/
So they’re very flexible, they adapt very quickly, as soon as they get money they find ways to expand and reach more veterans. And I would think that of all the non-profits that I’ve worked with in the past, this one has inspired me the most to step up and be a leader within the non-profit. I’m not a paid member- I don’t actually work for them, I just volunteer with them and lead the group of guys in Brooklyn.
And I’m happy to do so because I firmly believe that they’re not wasting the money, that they actually firmly believe in reaching as many veterans as possible and getting them out into the communities to volunteer. And they put their money where their mouth is. They give me a budget to hold lunches and bowling nights, and all these other fun activities, and they don’t complain when I give them receipts that are two or three hundred dollars and they reimburse me quickly. And the guys we get out, we have fun and we stay positive and we support each other as friends, not just as volunteer buddies.
Looking to the future, how would you like to see the Mission Continues grow in the next five to ten years?
I think that for me personally, I want to see more meaningful projects. In Brooklyn we do a lot of National Park service work like going into a Wildlife Refuge and doing some cleanup activities or building wheel-chair ramps, or doing some habitat for humanity.
Service Project with Las Palmas Senior Center
Photo: www.missioncontinues.org
And those are all cool, but I’d like to see more partnerships with youth organizations in the city, because first of all, working with kids is fun. But also, because these kids could also probably use mentors. Especially when we live in a time where a lot of these kids are growing up without a Dad necessarily being there, or parents being workaholics, maybe these kids could use some mentorship from some guys and girls that served their country.
So I would like to see, in the next five to ten years, more intertwining with youth centered organizations across the country. I’d like to see us actually reaching larger numbers of veterans. There are six-thousand veterans in Brooklyn and I have maybe twenty or thirty in my platoon, of which half a dozen to a dozen actually come out to any of the volunteer events. I think they’re excited about expanding locations, so instead of having twenty five platoons, their aiming to have one-hundred and fifty platoons in the next year or two. So opening up platoons in every major city in the country and having more offices and staff that can address budgeting and all the necessary admin work that goes into managing a platoon.