Carlos was the first in his family to enter service life. He spent 12 years in the United States Navy: working on U.S. Aircraft Carriers (USS Nimitz and USS Kitty Hawk), as well as completing training and support to U.S. Partner Nation under the US Naval Special Warfare Group 4 (NSWG4) at Naval Small Craft Technical Training School (NAVSCIATTS) combating anti-terrorism and performing counter drug operations.
After some time in this high energy and sometimes risky career, Carlos's priorities began to shift. After getting married and then having children family life became more important and it was getting harder to continue to put himself into high-risk situations. So Carlos decided it was time to make the move into civilian life and to Australia.
Time in service broadened Carlos's perspective and highlighted to him what's important "it gave me the ability to see the world in a different lens. It taught me to value a rules based order and our freedom and democracy. It showed me that the world is quite big and also small at the same time and at the end of the day we all have similar values and we are all people after all. So to break it down, it gave me more tolerance and made me wiser".
These life lessons help Carlos now as Business and Projects Manager in Maritime Sustainment where he encourages other veterans to not be afraid of leadership "a lot of military people can de-value themselves, don’t be afraid of leadership and try not to devalue your skills”.
Carlos has first-hand experience of how veterans are treated in the U.S. He describes it as vastly different when compared to Australia, and says “we can always do better and do more”.
In the United States, veterans are held in high esteem and recognised at many public events — something not done so much in Australia. Carlos thinks this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but there’s more to do in recognising veterans in Australia, “perhaps in other ways”.
Carlos is focused on paying it forward for other veterans that need a helping hand to transition and maintain a successful career and life outside of service. Being a part of the Legacy Centenary Relay for Carlos is just another way to give back to the community that looked after him when he stepped out of service life.
Carlos will continue to elevate and advocate for veterans. Regardless of how long you served for or whether you faced combat or not. He says that it doesn’t really matter, as “you still made that sacrifice and took that commitment when you signed up”.