Warrant Officer Randall Stittsworth talks of his career in the United Staes armed forces. The 43-year-old has served with the National Guard, Navy and Air Force Reserves and now with the Army. (By Mark Levy-Herald/Review)
Posted on 12/04/2006 5:42:06 PM PST by SandRat
FORT HUACHUCA — He’s served in Army green and Navy and Air Force blue.
He’s served on active duty, in the National Guard and in the Reserves. He’s served as an enlisted man, officer and warrant officer.
The he is Randall Stittsworth, whose 15 years of military service has included being a dental technician, medic, platoon leader, a maintainer of electronic intelligence equipment and now a human intelligence warrant officer.
At the first step in the Army warrant officer program, Warrant Officer Stittsworth, a Napa, Calif., native, is going through the basic course at the post’s Intelligence Center.
Being from California, it was only natural that he enlist in the Navy, the 43-year-old Stittsworth said.
But, being a military member wasn’t something he initially considered as a career.
“I really didn’t want to go into the military,” Stittsworth said, adding but for some reason there was some kind of magnetism that pulled him into America’s armed forces.
And, even though he was never officially a Marine, he did work with them — or at least on their teeth.
After his initial stint, Stittsworth got out of the Navy and went on a Mormon mission to Brazil, where he worked near the border of Paraguay.
Saying he was a little older than most who go on a church mission, he said he learned Portuguese. He can also speak Spanish.
After the mission he went to college in Utah, taking pre-med and Spanish, and that’s when he joined the Air Force Reserves.
It was suggested the Air Force would be good, because of that service’s presence in Utah, like Hill Air Force Base.
The double major was hard, so Stittsworth dropped pre-med and obtained a bachelor’s in Spanish from Brigham Young University. He has a master’s from the University of Phoenix in computer systems.
However, Stittsworth admitted he had a wondering and wandering bug, trying to find something he wanted to grasp.
That help came from his wife, Kristen, who he said “was somebody to guide me.”
Also helping is the fact he and his wife have four children, Sidney, 10, Jordan 7, Saige, 3, and Jayden, 18 months.
However, his wanderlust through the military continued, with him leaving the Air Force Reserves and going into the Navy reserve program and then into the Army National Guard, where, because of his Reserve Officers Training Corps program involvement, he became a second lieutenant.
Wanting to come on active duty with the Army, Stittsworth had to give up his commission and join as a specialist.
Since then, it was a climb up the ladder within the military intelligence field, with assignments in South Korea, Germany, Fort Carson, Colo., and Fort Huachuca.
With 45 years of life creeping up on him, Stittsworth said he had to apply for the warrant officer program before that magic age caused a no-go for him.
Because he was a former officer, he did not have to go to warrant officer school at Fort Rucker, Ala.
He and his family have called Fort Huachuca home for the past five years.
He will deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan once the training ends. He has found his niche.
“I will stay in the Army,” he said, and, that means the color that has won the tug-of-war where Stittsworth will finish his military career is Army green.
herald/Review senior reporter Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615 or by e-mail at bill.hess@svherald.com.
He was wounded in a rocket attack on Oct 16th, 1969 in Vung Tau, Vietnam, and I don't know if he ever made it to his desired fourth service branch, The USAF.
What at a great story and great guy! Thanks for posting.
Wuss.
He's in Ft. Whoochie Coochie. The Army's MI tranining post. And some Signal too.
I will be generous and assume you didn't reflect on that before you posted. Army "wuss's" are dying everyday in Iraq.
Regards.
I have a buddy who drove trucks in the USMC, Cobras in the USA, and Hornets in the USN. Retires as a LCDR.
we all make choices....
I think I like...........
Perhaps you would also like to categorize SFC Paul Smith:
http://www.army.mil/medalofhonor/smith/profile/index.html
ATTENTION ON DICK!!
oops.
Yeah, sure.
Hi, I'm helping my grandpa look for a friend that he was in Vietnam with. His name was Auther Huntington, we think he was from Colorado, He had some pictures and stuff but it has gotten lost. I don't know if it is the same guy you know or not. Maybe it is. I'm just trying to help him find a friend. if you know or have any pictures please let me know, thanks alot....
I'm thinking that she'd have no problem finding "A Few Good Men". In fact, I'll put aside my bias to the army if I could serve under her - so to speak.
Ask him if the Battlegearboat rings a bell.
Ask him if he remembers LCDR Montlebine or LTJG Daigh.
Ask him if he remembers Dirks.
LOL!
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