From Football Field to Battlefield…to our Office
By Keysha Bradley
AT&T Staff Writer
In 2001, Stanley Ugoji was looking forward to his sophomore year of college in Texas. He was playing football and even drawing interest from professional teams.
Then tragedy struck – on Sept.11, 2001.
Five days later, Stanley joined the Army.
"I felt my sole purpose was to find out what was going on with my country and see how I could make a difference. That's why I left it all behind and joined the Army," said Stanley, an AT&T financial analyst in Dallas. "My parents were big on education so my decision to leave school was not very popular. It all worked out though."
Stanley served 13 months in Iraq in the 1st Cavalry Division, 5th Brigade Combat Team. He served as the lead driver for over 150 convoy missions. He also served as the U.S. military liaison by coordinating mission efforts with newly formed Iraqi police, fire departments, paramedics and the Army.
While he was serving in Iraq, the arches in his feet began to fail. This caused nerve, back and joint damage. The Army processed him out of the Army and into civilian life as a disabled vet. Reconstructive surgery on his feet kept him from working for a year.
During his transition back to civilian life, he attended a few technical schools and worked odd jobs here and there. He then decided to go back to college to pursue an engineering degree.
During his final semester of college, Stanley joined AT&T through our TechOps Technology Development Program. It is a 3-year program that focuses on building our future technical leaders.
Get to know Stanley and his story better by taking a look at this video.
