By Nicole Gregory, contributing writer
While serving in Afghanistan, Justin Gardiner managed to take college courses between his duties as an infantryman. “We only had a couple of computers that had internet access,” he said, “so I’d run up to there and download everything onto a thumb drive, then come back and then work on my stuff on my laptop all week.”
Under these difficult circumstances, Gardiner kept taking classes whenever he could, and it paid off in ways he could not have imagined.
Today, he works as an adjunct professor at Santiago Canyon College and is the code compliance manager for the city of Cathedral City, positions he is thrilled to hold. From infantryman to college professor at Santiago Canyon College and city manager has been “a nonstop crazy journey,” said the 37-year-old veteran.
Born in the San Fernando Valley city of Northridge, Gardiner was home-schooled until he attended Cathedral City High School. He joined the Army as an infantryman and was stationed in Germany with the 173rd Airborne. Whenever he could, he took college classes on his computer.
He deployed to Afghanistan from 2007 to 2009. “As an infantryman, I was assigned to the personal security detachment,” Gardiner explained. “We were essentially the bodyguards for the command sergeant major and the battalion commander. So anywhere they went, we went.” Still, he said, “I was pumping out college classes while I was downrange.”
Gardiner sustained a serious injury to his left ankle and was awarded a Purple Heart. He returned to Germany for several years and then came home to California.
Eventually, he earned his associate degree in criminal justice, and after he got out of the Army, he was hired on as a police officer. He continued to take classes, working around his job schedule.
“I was going to National University to earn my bachelor’s,” Gardiner said. “We met once a week on Tuesdays and then all day on Saturdays. I would schedule my break…
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