Scott Havnar was deployed during the Iraq war. He served 12 years while in the military. Scott was in the war for 27 months, on two different tours. He describes this time as being extremely lonely, because his family was in the states, and this was before Skype. He also says it was very anticlimactic, Scott was prepared for dangerous situations and ready for hell, but it was different than he had expected. He felt he had to go to war for money. He was a young parent and in need of cash to take care of his family. He said the toughest decision he had to make was relisting three times. The first time was the toughest. He was presented the option of receiving 10000 dollar bonus to resign and go to war away from his family for a while or stay home with the family.

I asked the question “What was the most memorable thing you did?” Scott’s answer was there was a food cart goes to during the war He goes there for a sense of normalcy. This where he met Jimmy who went there for normalcy as well. After the war, they are still in contact, and Scott was Jimmy’s best man at his wedding and Jimmy had a huge role for Scott’s kids. Scott responds to the question how was the life back in the states with difficult it was challenging how in the army he was Sergeant Havner but now he is Scott Havner. His work ethic is different than everybody’s work ethic.

The most influential part of the interview was his advice and what he wants his legacy to be. The advice Scott gave me for this generation is, “ Have the patience to follow things through, and have self-awareness for the things that you are doing.” I asked him “What would you want your legacy to say?” Scott replied with  “ I believe that our legacy is written by those that we leave behind. Written by our friends and loved ones who will either remember us with fondness or quickly forget our presence because we were vile people. Based on that viewpoint, I would want people to think of me as a good person who acted fairly and did his best for his family. I would want to be remembered as an honorable man, who would do anything for his friends and was respected by his peers.”