David Chepauskas

Title/firm: Senior Wealth Administration Adviser / Summit Monetary, LLC

Department: Discipline Artillery department

Rank held at starting of service and at finish: 2nd Lieutenant / Main

Service dates: 1977 – 1990

Work you probably did: I graduated from the US Navy Academy at West Level in 1977, as a Second Lieutenant selecting to enter the Discipline Artillery department. After attending officers’ primary artillery course (OBC) in Fort Sill Oklahoma, I used to be stationed with the one hundred and first Airborne Division in Fort Campbell Kentucky for 5 years.

Transient story that stands out out of your service time: I commanded a subject artillery firing battery for 2 of these years as a primary lieutenant. After finishing the sphere artillery officers superior course (once more at Ft Sill), I had the privilege of commanding the most important artillery battery within the US Military, stationed in Berlin, Germany.

This was a singular project, dwelling in a walled in metropolis over 100 miles inside a communist nation (which most Individuals didn’t understand), throughout the Chilly Conflict. The town of Berlin was surrounded by a number of Soviet Divisions, and we had a single Brigade; we had been outnumbered many occasions over. Apparently, we had been in a position to journey by Checkpoint Charlie into East Berlin.

I typically say that seeing a communist nation in 1990 throughout the Chilly Conflict was maybe the most effective commercial for capitalism one might think about. Crossing by Checkpoint Charlie from West Berlin, a bustling metropolis like Manhattan or Paris, into East Berlin, was like strolling right into a black and white film from the early 1900s. The town buildings nonetheless had not repaired most of the bullet holes 45 years after World Conflict II ended. The seeming attraction of an 11 to 1 foreign money trade fee would presumably allow a 28-year-old to buy issues we usually couldn’t afford on a Captain’s wage. To our shock, it apparently didn’t matter how a lot cash we had obtainable; there was nearly nothing to be bought. The division retailer entrance home windows would show wonderful German crystal and dishware, collectibles, cameras, and so forth. However after we went inside to buy, we discovered that they had been solely there for present; nothing was really obtainable for buy. Individuals would wait patiently on lengthy traces to purchase rotten fruit. Shabbily dressed residents drove East German-made automobiles which appeared too small to suit into. The first supply of warmth was coal, giving one a headache from the fumes by the top of the day.

Upon completion of my German tour, I used to be accepted to show on the West Level school, so I used to be despatched for a grasp’s diploma on the College of Georgia. As a school member at West Level, I attended night time courses for a second grasp’s diploma in enterprise. It was there that I took a finance course, deciding that I needed to make a profession in finance.