Brian’s Interview

00:00 Okay. Hello, my name is Lilah Zarwan and I am 13 years old. And today is November 27th, and I'm speaking with Brian Lenahan

00:13 I am 41, and we are coming.

00:15 To you from Indian Rocks Beach, Florida, in the condo we are renting. And it is nighttime right now. Okay. Hi, Brian. Hello. You're my uncle. And I want to get to know more about you. Where did you grow up?

00:32 I was born in Rockland County, New York, but I moved to Hudson, Florida when I was 5.

00:39 And did you like one place better?

00:43 Spending most of my life in Florida. I prefer Florida.

00:46 Oh. What do you like about it?

00:48 The environment, the sun, the beach, Being able to go out on the water?

00:54 Yeah. Yeah, it's been fun staying here. Okay. So are there any.

00:59 Oh, and no snow.

01:02 Are there any funny stories you can think of from your childhood?

01:06 So one thing that jumps to mind, when I was young, when we were still in New York and it did carry over to Florida, I used to hide in the suitcase. Well, one time my sister, my older sister, Lila's mom and my brother took me down the street while I was locked in the suitcase and they popped it open while I was in my PJs.

01:32 And speaking of my mom, what was she like?

01:36 So she is seven years older than me, so we didn't grow up doing a lot of the activities together because of the age difference. We were just talking about this over dinner tonight. So she graduated high school when I was in fifth grade. So, yeah. But what I remember, she was a caring, loving sister. She looked out for me and all that.

01:57 And can you tell me about my grandparents growing up? Do you have any things you want to tell me about them?

02:03 Yeah. So my mom, Lila's grandmother, she. How to say this, she's very loving, very caring mother, but she is very stubborn. And my father, Lila's grandfather, he passed away several years ago, but he was also. He was a good father. And he took us to sporting events like gator games and other type of football games and stuff like that.

02:48 Okay. And do you have best or worst childhood memories? This is kind of similar to the.

02:53 Other question, best and worst. Was it best and. Or best or.

02:57 Or either.

03:00 I mean, being able to go out on the boat, going, you know, into the Gulf of Mexico every weekend, go skiing and scalloping and scuba diving and snorkeling on just a regular weekend, not have to wait for a vacation to do it. We have a saying here. We live where people vacation.

03:21 Yeah. Okay. So what were your jobs just throughout.

03:26 Your life so while I was in high school, I worked at the local movie theater where I worked the concession stand, tore the tickets, and cleaned the theaters.

03:36 What movie place was this?

03:39 It was the local one. It was an 18 plex. It was called Hollywood 18.

03:43 Okay.

03:44 And I did that my sophomore, junior, and senior year in high school.

03:51 Oh, nice.

03:52 After that, two weeks after graduating high school, I joined the Army.

03:56 Okay, and what made you want to join the Army?

04:01 A lot of it was to do with finances. Lila's mother was in med school at the time when I was graduating high school, so I knew the family didn't have money for college for me. And also, I wasn't a very good student in high school, so I know I wasn't getting scholarships. So instead of just sitting around, just working at the movie theater, I wanted to do something different and see the world.

04:24 And how did you get into the military? Was there training?

04:28 Yes.

04:28 I don't know that much about it.

04:30 Right. So first off, you go to a place called MEPs, which is where they do the physical. You do paperwork, you pick what job you're doing from there. After that, depending on availability of basic training, you get shipped out within weeks, months, or maybe a year. For me, I. I signed up my junior year in high school, and I did basic training two weeks after high school. After I graduated, I went to Fort Jackson, South Carolina, to do my basic training. And then after basic training, you go to where you do your job training. The army calls it ait.

05:14 Okay. And once you were done with your training, what did you do?

05:18 So my AIT training was consistent of I was a radio operator. So. And depending on what type of unit you go to is the equipment and what you did. So I was in the army for six years. The first part of it, I joined up in 2000, and in 2003, I went to Iraq, and I was with a quartermaster unit that supplied fuel to all other units. So my job was to pretty much just man a radio and turn on an alpha pump.

05:53 Yeah.

05:54 But my second tour, I was with the infantry in 2006, and that one, I was a radio operator for a lieutenant, and I kind of just followed them around and had a radio on my back and had a computer and wrote reports and took pictures of what was going on.

06:11 Where did you go?

06:12 So I was in Iraq for the invasion in 2003, and then I was there in Iraq again for a year for the surge, they called it. And the first during the invasion, I started in Kuwait, and we went into southern Iraq, and we kind of stopped about 30 miles south of Baghdad. My second tour, we were in a city called Tal Afar, which is in the northwest part of the country, which is right on the border with Syria. And we do border, we work on the border.

06:47 Do you have any stories that you want to share from your time? Like, did you make any friends? Did you have any more memorable experiences? It can be good or bad.

06:56 So being in the army for six years, I did a lot of traveling. I was in Fort Gordon, Georgia, Fort Jackson, South Carolina, Fort Lee, Virginia, Fort Knox, Kentucky, Fort Hood, Texas, Fort Carson, Colorado, Camp Pendleton in California.

07:18 That's a lot of places.

07:19 I also went to Germany. I'm trying, I'm drawing a blank on the name of the air force base we were on. But then I also spent two months in Egypt. And then of course, the two years, two one year tours. Iraq.

07:35 Okay.

07:35 That's doing all the traveling. I got to see a whole bunch of, you know, different things, meet new people, different cultures, different cuisines. You know, just, you know, just seeing the world. I mean that's in itself is.

07:49 And then after the military, what did.

07:51 You do Right after the military? I went to college. I went to St Leo University here in Florida. It's the local university. They're actually big military friendly university. So they, you know, they helped out with the paperwork and helping me do that, where I did both. I have a bachelor's in computer information systems and a master's in cybersecurity.

08:15 Okay, and what is your job now?

08:18 So after college I got a job with the local school system, Pasco County Schools as a system analyst. So I play with computer code and write code and data analysis and make sure computer software runs and works properly.

08:39 So you like your job?

08:40 I do like my job.

08:41 What do you like about it?

08:42 Every day is different for the most part. It varies month to month depending on what's going on. Just like your school. It's like you do different subjects.

08:56 Yeah. Did you want to work with the.

08:58 School system or initially? Not actually. Initially I wanted to work with. I wanted to do information technology within the medical field.

09:07 Okay.

09:08 But when I was looking for a job out of college, it was when the economy went bad, you know, 10 years ago plus.

09:18 Yeah.

09:19 So I wanted to find. I found something. The first thing I found was the school system. And I've been there for 12 years now, so.

09:28 Oh, sorry, there's a really loud noise.

09:30 Yeah, it's a boat, I think, actually. Or a truck.

09:34 Yeah. Okay, well, that's actually all the questions I have for you. So thank you for doing this interview.

09:40 You're welcome. I was glad to do it.

09:42 Okay, bye.