"It's a Great Day to Be an Adult and an Eagle"
Note: During class, Connor Grunzke was always ‘on’ but directing his focus was pretty tricky. Talking about baseball? He was all in. History? All in. Grammar? No way. Math? Absolutely not. Movies? The young man loved his movies, especially war movies. While Covid cut short the 2020 school year, it gave him a chance to reflect on what he wanted in life and what his skills could offer.
A family tradition
As the son of a Vietnam veteran, my understanding of my father’s experience was limited to photographs and documents found in an old chest. Countless books and movies (like Rambo and Platoon), only muddied the water as I tried to understand his experience. While I’ll never fully understand what “war” was like, I do have an idea of what the military provided for my father. When he returned from service and bought a farm in South Dakota, his time as a tanker turned him into one of the most incredible mechanical problem solvers in the county.
Young Connor Grunzke loved to hear stories of my father’s time as a tanker during any down time in English 10, and now that Sergeant Grunzke is also a tank gunner with the Minnesota National Guard, he seems to have learned the same lessons in problem solving. “Not only do I operate it, but now I have to maintain it. So, like, I'm getting all this mechanical knowledge, like learning to use tools and learning the ins and outs of it so you operate and maintain it, so that way you can remain effective.”
For the young man who admits, “I could be a little wild,” his military service has transformed him from a young man who could be “a little bit lackadaisical sometimes” into one responsible for recruiting and training younger soldiers. “Brad Pitt wasn't wrong: ‘this is the best job I ever had.’ Honestly, I might be doing a full 20 years with this as my thing, especially being promoted. I just got promoted last November to Sergeant and reached the non commissioned officers corps. I love leading and developing soldiers. I love being able to spread my knowledge that I know to younger people coming up, and hopefully they can take that and give it to their troopers one day when they're one.”
Although Grunzke might’ve dreamed of being a professional baseball player, military life was already in his blood. “So I come from a pretty heavy military family. My grandpa was in World War Two, and then my other grandpa on my dad's side was in Korea, and then an uncle in Vietnam. I've had a family member in every recent event, so it played a very heavy part in my decision. But I was never really too sure about if I wanted to go full on active duty, because it is, it is a big commitment. The way that my recruiter described it to me is: ‘the National Guard is a great way, if you're on the fence, to kind of experience that military lifestyle, and then if you don't like it, get out, or you keep going.’”
A Life-Changing Opportunity
Grunzke took the recruiter’s advice and joined the Minnesota Army National Guard. He spent 22 weeks training in Georgia, which he described as “very, very physically demanding.” The undisciplined high school student suddenly found the value in a good work ethic and discipline as he learned the job of a tanker. “It's been busy. I've been in now for about four and a half years, and about two years ago, I started working full time with the Minnesota guard up at Camp Ripley.” During his time at Camp Ripley, Grunzke not only affirmed he’d made the right choice, but he also realized he had more to offer his country. “There's this website where you can volunteer with other States’ National Guard and go on deployment with them. So that was January. July of last year is when I left for Fort Bliss, Texas. And then from there, I met up with the Mississippi National Guard, where we were deployed.”
Grunzke’s 2023 opportunity took him from the pages of a history book to the real world. Instead of active combat, he participated in training and being the Quick Reaction Force used for events ranging from support to humanitarian crises to conflicts. During this time, he was able to meet people from Kuwait, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. “We basically got to work with other Arab nation partners. We got to go out and see what their lives were like and experience their culture. It was very enriching.”
Grunzke feels that he is a much different person than he was when he graduated in 2020. “I'd say I’m definitely more open minded. I see things from different perspectives.” One opportunity to witness a foreign culture left Grunzke with a new style of cuisine. “When we got to do a little cultural day while working with them, they brought us this big pan of just rice, and it had camel, goat, chicken and beef. And they just, and they were, like, we look over, like, ‘Where is the silverware?’ But they just eat it with their hands.”
Along with visiting historical sites like the Sphinx in Egypt, Grunzke also witnessed several Islamic cultures during his deployment. “They pray five times a day. Like, no matter where they are, they'll just stop and do it.” The geographic difference between Minnesota and the Middle Eas also left an impression. “The way that they're able to live out in the desert where it's like 130 degrees out, and it's just like, you can't help but just have respect for that. Takes a hard man to live out there.”
A Life of Service
Following his overseas deployment, Grunzke returned to Minnesota and has recently moved from Camp Ripley to Mankato, where he now serves as a recruiter. Even though its still early in his new military career, Grunzke’s definition of patriotism has been refined. “I would probably have to say that you don't have to go to the farthest extent like me–actually serving although it's awesome–it’s having your overall sense of pride in your country and what you do and what you're proud of. When you see that American flag, you think of home, your family, and not just your internal family, us as a country, as a family.” With his new role as a recruiter, Grunzke has bottled his extroverted personality and relishes opportunities to share his experience with young people currently trying to figure out their own lives. “I'd like to think that I'm just still someone that you can talk to anytime you got a question and stuff like that. Love to talk about what I love, which used to be baseball all the time.”
Not that far removed from sitting in a desk at Maple River, Grunzke can still look back with some accumulated wisdom and advice for current students. “Don't think on it too hard. I know there's a lot of pressure to like, you gotta have your whole life set up just by this certain time.This time in our lives is to experiment, try new things. Sometimes it won't work out, and that's totally okay.
Sometimes it can crash and burn, and other times it turns into something amazing, but don't think too hard on it.”
So much for target practice! Grunzke takes a moment for the camels to leave the range.
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