Mike Doleac Interview

Q.  I know that your family has a long history in the military.  Tell us about your families service?

A.  Both of my grandparents served in the military.  I think they were both Army.  My dad’s dad passed away when I was younger but I knew my mom’s dad really well.  He was a lot of fun and he served in 5 foreign wars as a surgeon.  He would never write anything down but he had some many stories.  He was captured by the Germans in WWII.  Once, he was helping Catholic Priests bring supplies to a Jewish community and the Pope found out about it and invited him to the Vatican for a personal tour.  My grandfather was amazing.

Q.  Your brother is in the Army, right?

A.  Yes, he is still in the Army as a Captain.  He is a Blackhawk pilot finishing up his last year of service down at Fort Hood.  He was a Company Commander on his last tour in Iraq. 

Q.  With you being the older than your brother, what changes have you seen in him as far as his maturity and his character?

A.  Ha ha, my brothers and I laugh a lot because he was used to make fun of him because he was the youngest.  He went to West Point and so did my dad as well.  It was fun for me because I was playing ball in New York for over a year while he was at West Point which allowed me to see him and his classmates when they were going through that experience.  Just talking to him through the years I was able to see the maturity.  When he came back from Iraq the first time he said that before he thought he knew how to fly but going there he realized he didn’t know anything about flying.  It has been really cool to see him grow from every experience that was put in front of him.

Q.  You said your dad was in the military?

A.  He was, he served 22 years in the Army.  He went to West Point and then on to Dentist school and then Orthodontist school, so I grew up bouncing around from Army base to Army base.

Q.  What was that like for you to move around from Army base to Army base?

A.  My older brother and I are only 22 months apart, so we were really close.  Obviously you have to make new friends quick.  We lived in really cool places; Texas, Kansas City and then we were over in Germany.  My dad bought a pop-top camper while we were over there and every weekend he was off we would travel from place to place and go see different castles and other cool things.  We spent a lot of time as together.  Then we moved back to Texas and then up to Alaska.  We lived right on the edge of Fort Wainright.  Behind our house was just beautiful.  We could walk anywhere and our dad had 2 snowmobiles.  It was such a great experience.

Q.  What was it like being in Europe as a kid?

A.  I learned how to ski in the Alps and was actually more in to skiing before I started playing basketball.  I was not funneled in to one sport like many kids are these days, so I had a well rounded childhood which I think helped me out a lot.

Q.  You have gone on a USO trip, tell us about it.

A.  I went over to Afghanistan with a company called Pro Sports MVP back in 2006.  We had no training before we went over but we knew that the Army would not put us in a place where the danger was really high, although there is always a chance, no matter where you are at over there.  The only disappointing thing about when we were there was they canceled all of our flights to other forward bases either because of weather or enemy activity.  We spent 80% of our time on Bagram but still had a great time walking around the base interacting with all the military members there. 

Q.  Did you try the Army food?

A.  My favorite part was of course the DFAC and the B-Hut, ha ha.  You have to love the Army slang.  Pat Garrity was there with me as well and we were joking around that we were going to call our kitchens the DFAC when we got back.  The only dangerous part about the food was serving ice cream at every meal.

Q.  Did you ever try an MRE?

A.  Not on a trip but with my dad growing up I did.  We thought it was the coolest thing in the world and thought they were great.  You guys would probably laugh at us.  It is probably good when you don’t have to eat it everyday.

Q.  On the trip did you get to fire any weapons?

A.  I did, one of the days we got on a helicopter and I got to shoot the M-60 out of the side of the Blackhawk, which was a lot of fun.  I was tearing up a lot of rocks.

Q.  Have you ever thought about going over there again?

A.  I would love to go back over there!  I would rearrange my schedule to make it happen.  I love the troops and am 100% behind them.  Regardless of your political views, the troops are just doing their duty, they don’t have a choice.

Q.  What message do you have to our troops?

A.  Thank you!  I appreciate everything that they do and the sacrifices they are making for us.  There are people back here who fly our flag and who take pride in them.  It is a lot more than putting their lives on the line.  They also put their family life on hold.  You also have those that are dual military and I have a huge amount of respect for what they do.

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