Tony Dittrich:
CLASS OF 1985
Mankato East High SchoolClass of 1985
Mankato, MN
New Heights SchoolClass of 2003
Stillwater, MN
Northland High SchoolClass of 1999
Remer, MN
Minnesota State University Class of 1997
Mankato, MN
Tony's Story
Life
After an incredible summer following graduation from East High School, my funds completely exhausted, I shipped out to Marine Corp Recruit Depot, San Diego in September 1985. This was the first step in what would become a 7 year career as a Marine. During the next 7 years I was stationed in 29 Palms CA, Okinawa Japan, Oceanside CA, and 8 months in Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm. Somewhere along the way I managed to get married and have two boys.
I decided to pursue a college degree at Mankato State and left the Marines in January 1993. Soon after, I enlisted in the Minnesota Army National Guard. I graduated with a teaching degree in Life Science in 1997. Unfortunately, after 7 years, my marriage became a casualty of long days in college, weekends with the National Guard and living on the shoestring budget of a student.
After months of substitute work, I started my first teaching job in March of 1998, just South of Grand Rapids in Remer, MN. I recieved an officer commission with the Guard during my first summer off. After two ye...Expand for more
ars I moved South and started my second teaching job in Stillwater at a Charter school for at-risk youth. Fulfilling Guard obligations increasingly interrupted my teaching schedule and I was eventually forced to take an indefinite leave of absence to deploy to Kosovo for 10 months during 2003-2004. Upon our return, I continued to work full-time with the Guard in Stillwater.
In July of 2005 my Infantry Company was alerted to deploy again to Iraq. Fortunately it did not interrupt prior marriage plans and I wed again one month prior to the date before departing for Camp Shelby, MS to train for Iraq. We arrived in Iraq in the spring of 2006 and returned to the U.S. in the spring of 2007. My two wonderful boys are at home with their mother in New Ulm and I spend every possible weekend with them in Mankato. We are active with the Boy Scouts of America and spend our weekends fishing, camping or wrenching on some old cars we pick up.
I am currently a full time student at Minnesota State University, Mankato pursuing a Masters degree in Biology.
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