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Wounded Warrior Hits Curveballs

jeremy howland
Wounded Warrior Program Fellow Jeremy Howland

Jeremy Howland was not exactly a straight-laced kid growing up.

Howland, a fellow with the CAO's Wounded Warrior Program, was expelled from two junior high schools and four high schools. "My rebellious phase was probably longer than most people's," he recalls. "There was never a dull moment with me."

Howland managed to get his act together in time to graduate from high school. He held down a few food service jobs before realizing that his experience and education were inadequate for his goals. "Somebody with a high school education doesn't have the opportunities I wanted to support my family," Howland says.

So, at 20, Howland enlisted in the Army. He was lured by the promise of adventure and travel and the challenge of bettering himself.

After training to become an artillery gunner, Howland was stationed with the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii for the duration of his enlistment. He loved bonfires on the beach and visiting the island chain's historic sites.

After returning home to Ohio Howland worked as a restaurant supervisor and manager. But he missed the soldier's life, and joined the National Guard. His commanding officers saw something in Howland that he could not: leadership ability. Howland was soon promoted to be his battalion's public affairs representative.

Howland still recalls the move with surprise in his voice. "They took a lowly E4 not doing much and put him in meetings with the battalion commander." Howland thrived, helping the battalion reach its enrollment goals and becoming more outgoing and assertive in the process. "It brought me out of my shell," he says. "I'm at the point now where I don't know a stranger. I can talk to anybody."

In 2008, Howland and his National Guard battalion were deployed to Iraq. Before long though, Howland's physical condition deteriorated. After struggling to walk in the sand one day, Howland went for a medical check-up. He was diagnosed with degenerative osteoarthritis in his knees and hands – a condition that made standing and holding things difficult. Later, he would also be diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, a disease affecting joints, muscles, tendons and other soft tissues. Howland was medically discharged in early 2009.

"Life throws curveballs all the time," Howland says in reflection. "How you react to them is the measure of who you become."

Howland reacted by trying a new path. As a 34-year-old fellow with the Wounded Warrior Program, he is a constituent liaison and information technology assistant in the Ohio district office of Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy. Howland handles mostly social security and office IT issues, but also consults with the office's veterans affairs specialists. "We all just come together as a group on problems we can address in different ways"

Howland and his wife, Crystal, have a 9-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son. Howland is working on his master's degree in information systems management and thinking seriously about a future as a chief information officer for a federal agency.

When he considers what his younger, rebellious self would have thought, Howland laughs.

"He'd think I was a square."