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(Hearvey Leake)
I've always wanted to actually support

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the warfighters, and that's what our

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agency does. But I also wanted

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to support from a right there where you

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live standpoint as well. To get a feel

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for how

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our services are doing. And then, of

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course, supporting the war warfighter

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where they live out in the contingency

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areas.

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(Leake)
It gives you a greater sense of the

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importance of the job that you do here.

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When i got back, of course, from the

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deployment, understanding how much our

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agency is a direct supporter of the

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warfighter,

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it gave me a greater sense of purpose of

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what we do on a daily basis.

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(Julie Blanks)
My deployment was truly the launching

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pad for

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most of my career within DOD. Deploying

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opened doors for me, it gave me

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more credibility. When I came back, it

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made commanders and it made the military,

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that we support,

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realize that I do have something to

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offer and contribute.

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They realized that I too had been on the

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ground and understood the fight.

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(Leake)
We had a very very

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diverse

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group. A lot of the the agencies and the

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services are sending civilians as well.

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We had 12 people in our group, and so you

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become close-knit after two or three

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weeks of training

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together. And we all still keep in

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touch.

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(Blanks)
The kinds of experiences that I had were

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incredible and varied, nothing like I've

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ever experienced before.

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I grew as a person. I grew professionally,

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and it is something that I will never

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Regret doing.

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(Leake)
I got so much out of this program

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that I

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deployed three times, two times to

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Afghanistan, one time to Kuwait.

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This program was really that great, that

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it just inspired me to deploy three

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times.

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This program really sets the tone for

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people who

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who want to deploy, who want to make a

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difference, who want to make an impact.

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the EC program really provides that

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venue,

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that avenue for you to be able to do

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that.