BY IAN TITUS
Luke Samuel Vriend-dehart enlisted at the age of 20, he wanted to fight. So he signed up for the Navy and was assigned to an explosive ordinance disposal team. Vriend-dehart was going to diffuse bombs across Iraq. The plan didn’t quite work out as expected. He scored a 97 out of 99 on the armed services vocational aptitude battery. The nearly perfect score got him a call that would set his life in a completely different direction.
Vriend-dehart, now 22 years old, went to undergrad at Central Michigan University with a major in biomedical science. During his junior year he decided that he needed to get out of school. “I was outside for a biology lab in 20-degree weather measuring the diameter of trees, and that’s when it finally hit me,” he recalls. “I thought, what the hell am I doing? I hate this. So I decided it was time to try something different,” Vriend-dehart says. That something different was enlisting in the Navy. Originally, the ambitious 22-year-old was looking at going to diffuse bombs, but after scoring so high on the ASVAB, he got a call that would change his life. “A nuke recruiter called me and asked if I would want to work on nuclear submarines,” he says. “They offered a higher signing bonus by quite a bit, and the advancement rate was much higher. Plus it would be safer, and I just thought I’d be more qualified to do the job,” Vriend-dehart says. After two months of boot camp, he was in nuke school focusing on electrical engineering.
Vriend-dehart only served in the Navy for two years before being medically discharged for a condition that doesn’t allow him to stand for long periods of time. The subject was sensitive and he quickly changed the conversation when prodded about the injury. “It was due to work, that’s all I’ll say,” he states. While he didn’t get to completely finish nuke school, Vriend-dehart learned values and a skill set he believes will set him up for success in civilian life. “I gained a lot of discipline, because nuke school is extremely time consuming and rigorous. I also made a lot of good connections that can help me outside of the military,” Vriend-dehart says. “If I wanted to I could probably work with reactors or at a power plant. I know a lot of guys that come out of the nuke program and end up working on oil rigs, and you can make a hundred thousand a year easily.”
He plans to go back to finish his undergrad education in Michigan, which has been paid for through the GI Bill. His education is now free, along with his housing until he graduates. Vriend-dehart can even go to graduate school without spending a dime. “It’s been a tremendous help that they are going to pay for school. Now I will graduate with no debt from student loans,” he says.
Now that Vriend-dehart has returned to civilian life, he believes he has more knowledge and skill thanks to the Navy than he would have otherwise. Upon his discharge, Vriend-dehart participated in the now mandatory military transition assistance program, a weeklong course that helps veterans assimilate back into society. The program goes over VA benefits, shows veterans how to create a resume, helps them look for and apply for jobs, and teaches them how to budget to avoid future debt as a civilian. “They’re really getting better at transitioning veterans,” Vriend-dehart said. “The transition program is one thing that has been put into place that really continues to work with veterans even after they’ve come back home.”
Vriend-dehart doesn’t regret anything about the military except that he didn’t join earlier. The benefits he attained from his service have made the journey worthwhile, and Vriend-dehart believes any veteran can get help from the military when coming back home. “If I could give one piece of advice to any transitioning military member it would be ask for help and use what the give you,” he says. “If you ask the question someone is going to give you an answer but people just don’t ask.”
Vriend-dehart’s journey through the military was a gift to him, and many doors of opportunity have opened thanks to the benefits and skills he received from the military. On top of that, he has an overwhelming sense of accomplishment from his military career and remembers the day he became a sailor as one of the greatest moments in his life. “It was the biggest sense of pride I ever had, when I got done with boot camp and they said you’re a sailor now, I wouldn’t trade that moment for anything.” That moment made Luke Samuel Vriend-dehart the man he is today.
Bombs Away
A man's unexpected transition from training to diffuse IEDs to working on nuclear equipment
Luke Samuel Vriend-dehart