Military service took Westmont’s Andrew Monroe across the globe

The military career of Westmont’s Andrew Monroe with the U.S. Army spanned more than 20 years and took him all over the world.

He retired from the military in 2022. The father of three children ages 17, 14 and 10, Monroe now works in logistics for a wholesale produce company with several other military veterans.

In this job, Monroe can share in everyday parental duties with his wife, who works as a behavior specialist for children with special needs.

It’s quite a departure from Monroe’s career with the Army, where he often was located in far-off parts of the world including Iraq, Afghanistan, Nepal, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Japan and Mongolia.

Aside from living together as a family in Japan for about five years, as well as three years in Hawaii, Monroe often was in one part of the world and his family was in another.

His wife calculated that Monroe had been deployed about 62% of their marriage.

Enlisting after college graduation, Monroe completed basic training and his initial plan was to stay in the Army for four years and then return to civilian life.

Somewhere along the way, his plans changed.

Monroe was first deployed to Iraq with the 75th Ranger Regiment, a highly competitive group.

Monroe’s training began with more than 350 soldiers. Upon completion, he was one of only 60 to complete the training successfully.

With the Ranger Regiment, Monroe was deployed three more times to Iraq and once to Afghanistan.

He recalled his final trip to Iraq, when his first son was born only six hours before he deployed for 16 months.

“For me, the job was always easy,” Monroe said. “It was the sacrifices my wife had to make.”

During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Monroe was stationed in Mongolia and his wife was living on a military base in Hawaii with their three children.

She was tasked with being their children’s primary caregiver, assisting the children with distance learning, and working part time and going to school.

Monroe was selected for officer candidate school in 2005 and served as an armor officer with the Army for about three years.

For the last 12 years of his career, Monroe served as an officer with the 1st Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group in Okinawa, Japan.

Monroe recalled one of his most challenging assignments: a six-month period when he served as a commander for Special Forces in the southern and western portion of Afghanistan.

“I was glad it was only six months,” he said. “I didn’t get a lot of sleep.”

After his retirement from the military in 2022, Monroe worked at J.P. Morgan Chase as a machine learning program manager before changing jobs.

“Serving in the military is a great opportunity for kids that don’t know quite what they want to do,” especially those who are going to college to just go to college, he said.

Monroe said his son is considering a path in the military.

Serving in the military is “a great opportunity to see the world” and “gain leadership experience,” he said.

Monroe said that unless children play a sport, it is hard to get leadership experience. Without that early exposure to leadership experience, they can stall out in the workforce.

Monroe is a member of American Legion Post 338 in Westmont.

“It is good to get around a bunch of guys who have similar life experiences,” he said. “It gives me some perspective on how to live in the civilian world.”