Army Veteran Sergeant Ed McCoy moved to Portage with his family at the beginning of this millennium. Since then it has been his home. No matter how far his travels have taken him or what adventures life has given him, his roots are here.
Sgt McCoy graduated from high school in 2004 and decided to join the army.
“My parents told me, you’re a smart kid, you should go to school for something. I didn’t know what to major in. It was overwhelming. I knew I should probably go to school, but I didn’t have a sense of direction.”
He now owes his entire life to the military. It gave him the opportunity to learn more about himself and who he wanted to be.
“A lot of people say the reason they joined is to serve their country. For me, I think it’s a great outlet for finding yourself. You will find out who you are. Most people who go in come out the better for it.”
The Army gave Sgt McCoy many moments to be proud of. Being promoted to Sergeant was one of them: it is an accomplishment he shares with his father, also a veteran of the US Military. Another was finishing his first deployment in Iraq. Being away from your friends and your family for that long, and having to adopt a different lifestyle, is very rough on a person. He got through though and is a better man for it.
“It’s the order and structure of it,” Sgt McCoy explained. “You have a mission or a task that needs to get done. You have a sense of purpose to everything that you’re doing, even if it’s something as mundane as shoveling dirt.”
Five years in the Army taught him a lot of things and led him to the path he was searching for. In 2009, he left the military to attend Business school at Indiana University.
“It was time to go to the next step in my life. I wanted to get a degree, settle down, buy a house. Plenty of people do these things while in the military, but I saw a lot of families get torn apart by the lifestyle.”
Sgt McCoy is a very family oriented man. He and his wife Tessa are devoted to their son, Max, and spend their free time taking little local trips. They were wed in April of 2015.
“I want my marriage to continue to grow,” said Sgt McCoy. “Every day I learn something new about her. I want to make sure [my son’s] raised right and that he learns from the things Tessa and I went through.”
Leaving the military is no easy task, especially at the time that Sgt Ed McCoy chose. The economy was rough. Finding a job was nearly impossible to do. The government grants military personnel a housing stipend to help them while they adjust to civilian life. Sgt McCoy was grateful for the help and notes it is another thing in his life that he owes to the Army. Without them, he would not have a beautiful home for his family. He would not have a Master’s degree in Business or likely his job with JB Hunt.
That is what he does now: his position is Logistics Coordinator for JB Hunt in Chicago. The city is the centralization of the entire continent’s shipping traffic. Sgt McCoy figures out the most efficient ways to get deliveries where they need to go.
With his new job, he can come home at the end of the day. Our country will always be grateful for the sacrifices our soldiers make and it is good to see one be rewarded.
“I was gone for so long and I kept wanting to get home to something. I asked myself: What is home? And it’s Portage.”