John Follmer
Doesn’t Matter What You Did In The Past But What You’re Doing Now
“I loved the military life, and I missed my time in combat. I had a truly amazing and aggressive squad leader who created the much-needed structure I needed in my life. I loved the action of combat and missed it when I left the Army. My nickname during that time was ‘Johnny Motion.’ This name stuck with me through many of the industries I worked in after my service in the Military.” John joined the Army at age 17 in 2005 and served until 2008. “My ability to work around whatever the war threw at me and how I operated in chaos left me missing the life of always being out in Iraqi cities on missions.”
He was a child of action growing up in Mesa, Arizona, with two younger brothers and an older sister. “I was an aggressive child—with a ton of energy, very defiant, and was violent around my siblings. I was always in motion and easily bored. My mom didn’t know what to do with me, so she enrolled me in gymnastics when I was very young. She said I was all over the place and extremely active. This is where my mom learned about ADHD, and I was tested and diagnosed at age 7. After my diagnosis, I was in and out of therapist’s offices while trying the many different ADHD medications to try and balance my mental energy.”
“Also, my attention was better with baseball. I was playing as a pitcher in baseball for the better part of a decade from ages 5 - 14. School did not provide me the mental stimulation I needed. I even joined ROTC in High School and was not entirely captivated by that program.”
His behavior came to a head when he was 14. His home life was stressful with his parents going through a divorce, and they sent him to Arizona Project ChalleNGe Military Academy, sponsored by the National Guard for troubled youth. “In this program, I completed my GED and was in the top 25 GED earners who got to go to college when I was 16. During my time in the program, I enjoyed aviation through my classes in the Wright Flight Program. At 16, I piloted a Cessna 182.”
“I started at Chandler Community College at 16. When I wrote a paper for my English class about using pigs for heart transplants, I was accused of plagiarism because the teacher thought it was ‘too well written.’ I panicked after this false accusation, and I stupidly and suddenly quit college.”
“I was 17 and bored at home, and I didn’t know what to do with my life. An Army recruiter had approached me earlier, and I decided to join. My parents both agreed that I could join at 17. I don't know what parent would be excited about their child joining the infantry in a time of war, although I am genuinely grateful that they assisted me with this life experience at such a young age.”
He was sent to an Army base in Fort Wainwright, Alaska, with 172nd Infantry Division. “When the call came to deploy to Mosul, Iraq, many in the battalion didn’t have much more combat experience than I did. After a year, we got our orders to head home, with many in the squad and the company who had already sent their belongings home. We waited hours for the plane to pick us up for the trip back to the U.S. It never came; instead, orders came for us to deploy to Baghdad—those who had already returned to the U.S. were immediately sent back to war, and those who were fortunate enough to be in the later batch headed home, instead took a Chinook to Baghdad.”
“It's safe to say that anyone who was in combat with me would agree that if there were action or missions passed to our platoon in war, my squad leader would be extremely upset if our squad was not the ‘tip of the spear’ whenever possible. In this environment, I had the best opportunity to flourish and volunteer for any position that was available in the war. I picked up conversational Arabic that provided me the opportunity to be the go-to person whenever we were on missions, and our regular interpreter was unavailable. I learned how to be a Radio Telephone Operator (RTO) for discrete missions that needed a very small operating team. My ability to work around whatever the war threw at me and that I calmly operated in chaos was a characteristic that has helped mold my drive.”
“I was exposed to more than a handful of direct IED blast exposures. Anyone who has encountered an IED blast would agree—injured or not— it's hard to find anything that can compare to the surge of adrenaline quite like that. I was a ‘Ground Pounder’—an infantryman conducting foot missions walking through the zounds of houses and mud huts in Iraq. I was also a backup driver and drove Strykers in the war (before I even had my driver's license), a Radio Telephone Operator, Tenderfoot Interpreter, (M249), Saw Gunner and was up to volunteer for any mission that came my way. I was a ‘combat/chaos junkie.’”
After Iraq, he returned to his base in Alaska. He was honorably discharged in 2008, and he was only 20 years old. “I had directed my attention at going back to college and went back to earn an AA degree in Business Management. I mainly spent my free time bouncing around trying to expel my energy into anything that was around me; friendships, school, and work. My first job was working at the front desk of Gold's Gym. It was funny because in that position I wasn't looking to make a lot of money. I just found it convenient to have a place 24/7 to work out and keep myself a little busy. I never aspired to make money, so I decided not to go into membership sales. It was my first glimpse at the stressful lives in America that are quota driven. I made a conscious decision while working there that the only quotas motivating me were the ones I placed on myself. After watching determined motivated people come through the door and deliver a great few months, then I saw the company had a ‘you better do better... or else’ with a high turnover of salespeople. After I left the gym, I found a security job as a natural result of coming out of the Infantry.”
“After the news of the five-month extension in Iraq, I started liking music again. I had been writing poetry for 16 years, so it was only natural that I now had something else to refocus my mental energy.” While in the Army he and a buddy made up songs and recorded them. They bought a house together, and he built a recording studio. Unfortunately, his buddy fell behind in payments, and they lost the house. After leaving the house, he attended an audio engineering school called Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences, where he obtained an Audio Engineering Certificate. John worked with several bands and producers to begin making an impression within the Audio Industry, which ultimately brought him to move to Los Angeles in November 2012.
“In October 2013, I was involved in one of the most intense and stressful environments of my life. One of West Los Angeles's most massive residential fires occurred at the Barrington Plaza, one of the oldest high-rise buildings in Los Angeles. This fire burned down the 11th floor of this 25-floor residential building leaving hundreds of residents immediately homeless. I was the lead manager of this crisis and found myself working 20-hour workdays straight for the better part of three months managing the flow of firefighters, police, security personnel, and contractors during this time.”
“With very little time to go out and meet people, I decided to join a dating app for the sole purpose of finding someone to meet for lunch. I ended up meeting my future wife for lunch on January 4, 2014. My wife and I dated for close to a year and a half before we decided to get married. We were married on Feb 21, 2016. I'm sure if someone asked her: Is it tough living with a combat veteran who has a desire for chaos? She would say YES. We have gone through a lot together, including completely uprooting our lives in less than three weeks after receiving the news that my mother was diagnosed with Stage 3 Breast Cancer only four months after our wedding. My wife had left her job, and I decided to work remotely, we picked up and moved from L.A. back to my hometown in Arizona to help my mom battle cancer. We stayed for two years and moved back to L.A. in November 2018. Sadly, after two years in remission, my mom’s cancer returned in the summer of 2019.”
“Currently, we have a daughter Maya who was born on December 21, 2017, and with the help of MVP, our marriage has been growing stronger every day. I still struggle with ADHD and have been on ‘suicide watches’ over time, because I’m still ‘a man of action.’ I receive counseling weekly from VA Combat Psychotherapy to help me cope with my exposures in the war and assisting with my transition to civilian life. There are many aspects of civilian life that make it difficult to operate outside of the military, particularly expressing aggression and not being praised for it.”
“My day job is website design and maintenance, but my passion is to build my motorcycle rodeo event business, Reckless Riders LLC®, so that I can pursue it as a full-time business. I spent 5 ½ years doing the research and development before my first motorcycle rodeo held in September 2019 at the Willow Springs Raceway in Rosamond, California. My five-year goal is to take it nationwide.”
“I found about MVP through a VA golfing program called ‘Vets Hole in One’ where I met an MVP member who told me about the program. He suggested I visit an MVP meeting to check it out. I knew this group, and this environment was right for me at my first meeting! I find the weekly ‘huddles’ the most helpful—it’s amazing to hear all of the different perspectives of these highly driven members. At an MVP meeting, it doesn’t matter what you did in the past, but what you’re doing now.”
“The support of my family and friends—especially with the return of my mom’s cancer—has helped me every day find a reason to leave the house and to be there for my family and my MVP family.”