Dominic Markham teaches World Geography and World History he is in his second year of teaching at RCHS. Markham  was in the army from Oct. 2, 2013, to July 9, 2021. His story starts after 9/11. There has been at least one representative in the military from each generation. His career in the military first started in October 2013.

“I had family at Gettysburg, Pearl Harbor, Bella Wood,” Markham said “It was just kind of always like an understanding of it’s family tradition at this point, really for me, after September 11, I knew I that really set me into it, like, I need to go and serve my country.”

Then, Markham was enlisted in the army in Oct 2013. He was sent to Fort Benning, Georgia, where he was in basic training for 10 weeks. Then, he spent 22 weeks training to become a cavalry scout.

“Basic training was definitely tough, physically and mentally.” Markham said. “It was also tough, too, because you had all these dudes from all over the country, all coming together, and, man, it is, I think it’s the greatest sample of America, like in and of itself. But we had everyone from all walks of life, all ages, like, from 18 to, I think 35.” 

After training, Markham got deployed to Afghanistan. As a cavalry scout in the army, his job was to scout the area to see if there was an enemy there and to be the eyes and ears of the battlefield by scouting out terrain and doing reconnaissance.

Mr. Markham first got experience teaching in the Army, teaching younger soldiers combat tactics, machine gun theory, land navigation, gunnery skills, and more. He learned a lot of his public speaking skills from teaching soldiers and training them. He thought that since he was basically an army teacher, he could do it when he got out.

“Basically, it was a great opportunity for me to develop these guys and mentor them, and I found that I love that mentorship aspect. Mr. Markham said. “We train every single day to be ready to go and fight the enemies of the United States. We wake up at dark and go do PT in the mornings, like, our day is very, like, rigorous. We are always working in some capacity. If you’re not doing something at that time, you’re wrong.” 

“Leadership isn’t a step by step process,” he said. “It’s more of a philosophical understanding. And one of the things that I always wanted to do was I always wanted to be an advocate for my soldiers.” 

Then, in 2021, Mr. Markham shifted from military life to civilian life. 

“So it’s very lonely, a lot of existential crises. And as I’m getting out of the army like it was a complete breakdown, like nothing you can do it was. I’m still reeling with it, like it’s, it’s still an issue, and it still literally almost brings me to tears right now, but, I think shifting over into the civilian world, even at that time too, like, civilians can’t understand what we’ve been through.” “They don’t understand what combat is really like.” 

After the army, Mr. Markham was able to use the GI Bill to go to college. The GI bill is a department of the Veterans Affairs program that helps former soldiers pay for college. When Markham was doing his student teaching, he found that the more he built relationships with his students, the more mutual respect that was built. He always wanted to be the kind of leader that his subordinates trusted him and that they could trust him to help come up with a solution. 

“And I was really, really lucky to end up getting a spot here at Rock Canyon as a result. And it’s even cooler that I get to teach two subjects I love. World Geography and world history.” 

Mr. Markham advises that any Jags who might want to join the military think about the kind of experience they want.

“If you want a really, like, disciplined military atmosphere, Marine Corps all day, if you want kind of a more, like, typical military experience, Navy or Army. If you want a little less of the typical military experience, Air Force, and if you want to do absolutely insane, crazy stuff, Coast Guard; those dudes are hardcore.” 

The platforms he says are the best to get an idea of what the military is like are on TikTok and Reddit. 

“You’re gonna get the whole story, the good, the bad, the ugly, the great, the dear god, this is awful,” he said. “You’ll at least be able to go in a lot better than what I went in.”