Troops to Teachers Tom Dorsey transitions easily from 24 year Military Career to Teacher

Troops to Teachers graduate and mentor, Tom Dorsey, doesn’t just “talk the talk”, he “walks the walk.” After 24 years of service in the U.S. Army and retiring at the rank of First Sergeant, E-8, Tom now “proudly serves again” as a JRTOC Instructor. He states, “I feel there are many values learned in the military that directly correspond to the teaching environment. Of primary importance is the caring of subordinates and the success of the mission. Likewise, you must care about your students and insure they accomplish the mission of getting good grades and graduating. All TTT participants have their own way of involving their military environment and relating it to the education experience, and contribute to the teaching our children, who are the future of our great country.”

After twenty years of experience in discipline, responsibility and structure, a military retiree can usually adjust to any employment situation. “I feel that military retirees can give back to the community through their talents and work ethic in the noble profession of teaching and understand that they are desperately needed to guide and influence the young people of our country. My following story exemplifies how I discovered my passion for teaching in the Army, which changed into a
life-long endeavor with Troops to Teachers after I retired. I would advise the potential participant that the country needs educated people and that they are in the best position to educate students. You can continue your service to the country as teachers.”

Teaching in the Military
States Dorsey, “I was selected to attend the Instructors Training Course (ITC). I taught my first classes at, of all places, a hand grenade range where one of the instructors had to go on sick call. I was taken from my usual job as ammunition point supervisor and told to teach concurrent classes of ten trainees each on how to hold and throw the hand grenade.  I found it to be genuinely rewarding teaching something they wanted to learn, I liked the feeling. I was forever rewarded with the self-confidence needed to choose that I wanted to be a teacher, no matter what the subject was, for the rest of my life.  I taught in the military, in formal classes, and served two tours as a Drill Sergeant where my love for teaching was drawn upon in every context. When I retired from the military, I can honestly say that I taught every day for six years, as well as on and off again for five more.”

Teaching in Civilian Life
“My greatest reward today is to see my students not only succeed in my classes, but to do well in other classes.  “I enrolled in the Troops to Teachers (TTT) program in 1998, and taught as a long term substitute science teacher and physical education teacher in two correctional settings. I held TTT in such high regard that I volunteered to mentor and promote the program at job fairs and at National Guard Armorie. I was also a special education teacher and JROTC Instructor at schools considered to be “at risk.” At the juvenile hall where I taught PE part time, I used the standard Army conditioning drills in a regimen that I used as a Drill Sergeant.” Troops to Teachers has really helped with the transition from a career military soldier to civilian teacher. Troops to Teachers is a Department of Defense program administered by the Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support, DANTES.