KILLEEN, Texas — Serving in the military comes with certain benefits like higher education but many service members don’t know what to do when it comes to using those education benefits.
One veteran making that process as smooth as possible in this week’s Faces of Fort Hood.
Joshua Missouri is the Director of Military and Veteran Services at Texas A&M University-Central Texas.
Though he is here now, Alabama is where his journey began before putting on a Naval uniform.
”I joined the Navy in 2001, immediately after high school,” said Missouri. “They decided they were going to send me 6 hours away from my hometown to Pensacola where is studied Naval Aviation as an aviation electronics technician.”
Having enlisted just weeks before 9/11, it wasn’t his reason for joining but it immediately changed the way he viewed his service.
”I think for anyone that was serving at that time, I think your perspective changes because you understand that there’s just something bigger,” said Missouri. “There’s just a calling and a drive that’s bigger.”
Now his calling is to make sure that his fellow veterans are able to get access to the higher education their service entitles them to.
Follow in the footsteps of the mentor that did the same for him.
”I didn’t know anything about financial aid applications, I didn’t know anything about the G.I. Bill and that vast body of law that it is, but he knew,” said Missouri. “So, he was able to help me go step by step through that process.”
Even though he is a former sailor, retired Army veteran Dana Mobley said she is proud to be serving alongside him, helping veterans like her.
”When your boss makes you feel like you are part of the team, then you’re willing to get in there and work,” said Mobley. “I am excited to come to work every day because of him being the person that he is.”
The fact that he is a Navy veteran serving the Army community isn’t lost on her either.
”He does it without any hesitation, without any reservation, he doesn’t look down his nose and make us feel like his branch of service is better and that’s big,” said Mobley.
Joshua Missouri joined the Navy to get a better education and now dedicates his life to making sure Army veterans in the Fort Hood community are able to do the same.
