Jose Guerrero 
BROWNSVILLE – “I served 7 years in the United States Navy, where I did two deployments, one to Iraq in 2007, and one to Somalia Africa in 2009.”
This is a soldier who’s protected his country for nearly a decade.
“I was stationed in Pearl Harbor Hawaii on the U.S.S Chung-Hoon, it’s a destroyer DDG-93, where I served my sea duty, then I served a shore duty at Naval Air Station in Jacksonville Florida.”
And he is now advocating on behalf of his fellow veterans at UTRGV as program coordinator for the Military Veterans Success Center.
“As I got out of the military, I wanted to continue being with my fellow veterans, helping them out, I mean I went to school myself I got a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree, and I just want to help those become successful as well,” said veteran Gabriel Carrizales.
Carrizales has been helping veterans transition from military life to becoming a student.
“We make sure all the veterans and dependents utilize their benefits and essentially graduate with a degree from the university,” he continued.
He tells us that instead of having Veterans Day, the Military and Veteran Success Center has opted for honoring veterans with for an entire week.
“Veterans week typically isn’t what we normally do. We normally just celebrate veterans day, but of course the veterans do go to school, they are busy,” he said.
Carrizales says he hopes there will be a bigger turnout for the events lined up for the week.
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