Military Careers, Second Careers - Army Times

The wild life — Make your next career an adventure

Do you have what it takes to protect mountain climbers at the summit of Mount McKinley or lead big-game hunters on a mountain lion chase through Idaho wilderness?

See how you measure up to these veterans who turned military experience into adventure-sports careers.

Skydiving instructor

• The job: Jay Stokes of Yuma, Ariz., trains skydiving instructors and new students for U.S. Parachute Association ratings.

“I teach at the lowest level, USPA coach, all the way up to examiners and/ or course directors, in USPA doctrine,” Stokes said. “The fact is that because I do so many different things, I never do the same thing twice.”

Stokes holds the world record for skydives in a 24-hour period: 640.

• Experience: Stokes joined the Army in 1974, serving with the 82nd Airborne Division for three years before joining the 7th Special Forces Group. Stokes, who made his first jump when he was 17, retired as a chief warrant officer in 1998. By that time, he’d become the safety officer at Military Free Fall School in Yuma, Ariz.

“I did a lot of jumping, accident investigation, working with industry trends,” Stokes said. “The way it worked out was the best for me to be where I am today.”

•Advice: “First and foremost, make the decision that that’s what you really want to do,” Stokes said. “Understand that you have a job to do. Understand that you can make it fun, or it can be drudgery.”

To become a USPA-rated instructor, you need to earn the association’s Coach Rating.

Visit the U.S. Parachute Association’s Web site for a schedule of instructional rating courses.

Mountaineering ranger

• The job: John Evans is one of eight mountaineering rangers who patrol Denali National Park during the busy summer season. The park is home to 20,320-foot Mount McKinley, the highest peak in North America and a prime mountain-climbing destination.

“We are responsible for protection of the resource, protection of the visitors,” Evans said. “For me, it’s ideal. I’m involved with the outdoors. Alaska is that sort of place — it’s that life you either love or you hate.”

The National Park Service looks after climbers attempting the Mount McKinley summit.

“When we go in on high patrol, we’re based at 14,000 feet. Then we go up from there,” Evans said.

The job is seasonal for four of Denali’s eight mountaineering rangers, including Evans.

For the half-year he isn’t on duty in the park, he works as a climbing guide, teaches wilderness medicine and does safety consulting.

• Experience: Originally from North Wales, U.K., Evans began mountain-climbing as a hobby. He came to the U.S. in the 1970s and became a U.S. Air Force pararescue jumper in 1981, leaving the service as a staff sergeant in 1989.

After the military, he worked as an oil-rig medic and a guide at Denali before landing what he considers one of the premier jobs in his field.

• Advice: “You have to have the ability and desire to look after other people,” Evans said. One good way to work your way up to becoming a National Park Service ranger is to start as a guide for a private company.

To learn more about becoming a mountain guide, visit the American Mountain Guide Association online.

Cave diving instructor

• The job: Michael O’Leary certifies open-water scuba divers in the techniques required to safely dive in caves — underwater areas where no light penetrates and untrained divers easily become disoriented and lost.

“People who are untrained end up perishing,” O’Leary said. In those cases, he’s called to recover the bodies of lost divers.

O’Leary works in Suwannee County, Fla., which he considers the cave diving capital of the U.S. His cave-diving instruction starts with cavern training and proceeds to introductory and full cave-diving courses. Clients from overseas frequently travel to central Florida to take his classes.

“I get great satisfaction and pleasure from teaching people the sport and doing it safely,” O’Leary said.

•Experience: A New York City native, O’Leary dove recreationally and received military dive training while also serving as a jump master with the Army Reserve’s 11th Special Forces Group. He ended his military career as a sergeant first class in 1989.

During his civilian career as a locksmith for New York City, O’Leary became an accomplished wreck diver in the Atlantic and taught diving at the community college level before discovering Florida’s underwater cave system.

“It kind of changed my wreck diving opinion,” O’Leary said. “Once I got started, I preferred to do the caves.”

He estimates he’s done about 10,000 dives in his career — about 3,000 of those cave dives. He’s a former president of the National Association of Cave Divers.

•Advice: “The love of diving, period, has to be there first,” O’Leary said. “You also have to have a love of the teaching — to enjoy teaching people from all walks of life.”

To learn more about becoming a diving instructor, visit the Professional Association of Diving Instructors or National Association of Underwater Instructors Web sites.

Big-Game Hunting guide

• The job: Scott Farr owns and operates Wilderness Outfitters with his wife, Shelda, in an area of Idaho so remote, there’s no local phone service or cell phone reception. The Farrs also manage the Middle Fork Lodge backcountry ranch on the Middle Fork of Idaho’s Salmon River.

Farr and his guides lead big-game hunting trips for bighorn sheep, Rocky Mountain goats, elk, mule deer, mountain lions and black bears.

He’s also a member of the Idaho Fish and Game panel devising a management plan for hunting wolves, which at this time isn’t allowed anywhere in the continental U.S., Farr said. The wolf population reintroduced to Idaho in 1995 has now fully recovered.

• Experience: A West Texas native, Farr went to work for an Idaho backcountry ranch as soon as he graduated from high school in California. He became part-owner of an Idaho outfitting business in 1963 and later was drafted into the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. He served as a courier for secret documents.

Farr left the service in 1967 as a corporal and returned to the Idaho outfitting business.

“I had really grown to love that way of life,” he said.

Farr sold his portion of the business in 1986, then outfitted in British Columbia, Canada, until returning to Idaho in 1995.

• Advice: “There are a number of good outfitting and guiding schools. It’s normally about a 60-day school. They teach all the basics. They get you familiar with working with horses and mules,” Farr said. “If you’re successful, they have a list of outfitting businesses looking for help.”

To find a guide school in your area, check with your state’s outfitting and guiding association.