Potential Olympian says being in Army Reserve is bargain deal

Photo By Maj. Valerie Palacios | Capt. Chad Stoermer, 310th Quartermaster Detachment petroleum officer, is proud to serve in the Army Reserve after leaving active duty. He is currently training to make it into the Army's World Class Athlete Program while working on his doctorate's degree and running two local art businesses.  

CONROE, TX, UNITED STATES

05.18.2015

Story by Capt. Valerie Palacios 

412th Theater Engineer Command

CONROE, Texas -- Some things are more important than the Olympics, like God, country, and family. That is what Capt. Chad Stoermer says motivated him to make the difficult decision to postpone his long held dream of training and participating in the Olympics to join the U.S. Army.

Stoermer was raised in San Antonio and attended Judson High School, which he says is known for training athletes to compete from the heart. He then attended and received his commission from Texas A&M University in 2009.

Though he was not recruited into college for any sport, he managed to demonstrate his talent during a walk-on tryout, made the team, and helped build a National Championship Track program at Texas A&M.

“I was never a first string kind of athlete. I’ve always had to start at the bottom and fight my way to the top, in every sport, on every team, at every level,” says Stoermer.

During his senior year, they won their first ever National Championship Track title under Head Coach Pat Henry.
Soon after he received his commission, Stoermer deployed to Afghanistan with the 3rd Sustainment Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division. His four years on active duty in the Army made it very difficult to pursue his dreams in track and field. Though he feels his development for Olympic level competition declined, he remained positive and recognizes that the Army gave him the opportunity to further develop his character and provided him with rare life experiences that he could not have received in any other profession.

While deployed to Afghanistan, he realized he needed to fulfill his dream of training for the Olympics. He began training for the long jump since the environment did not allow him the capability to pole vault. He says the approach and take off are similar in long jump and pole vault.

After four years of active duty service, he then made the decision to join the 310th Quartermaster Detachment, an Army Reserve unit based in Conroe, Texas, so that he could return to his former alumni and continue training for the 2016 Olympics. He joined the Army Reserve to continue serving his country and because it allows him the opportunity to train to meet standards which could lead him to be part of the Army’s World Class Athlete Program.
Even though he did not pole vault for four years while on active duty, he was able to return and jumped higher than ever before.

Stoermer says there are open competitions all over the world which allow him to compete without having sponsorship. He is very confident and hopeful that he will be accepted into the WCAP, in which he would then be sponsored by the U.S. Army in the 2016 Olympics.

“I would love to represent the U.S. Army,” said Stoermer.
“The Reserves has been fantastic,” says Stoermer. “It truly is a great program to pursue two careers at once without having to compromise.”

As long as he stays in the Army Reserve, he has access to world class training to help get him into the Army’s WCAP. Once in the program, he would then get put back on active duty to train full time in preparation for the Olympics.

“I believe our country is always in need of positive influences and role models who do things for the right reasons,” says Stoermer. “I push my mind, body, and soul so that I may be one of those role models.”

Stoermer thrives on the adrenaline that accompanies dangerous activities which attracted him to pole vaulting, which he explains is fast and dangerous.

“I train to be able to compete at my absolute very best,” says Stoermer. “My goal is not to show the world that I am a world class athlete; my goal is to remind our country what one person is capable of doing when they use ALL of what they got.”

Stoermer serves in the 310th Quartermaster Detachment as an assistant petroleum officer and says his commander, Lt. Col. Rose Bean is very supportive of his goals and training. She says he is a very positive person and an inspiration to others.

“I would not have been able to get where I am at or where I go if it weren’t for the Reserves being so flexible and working with me,” Stoermer said.

Aside from being in the Army Reserve and training for the Olympics, he also started two local art businesses and is working on his dissertation for his doctorate’s degree in education research.

He says he does not see any excuse for not being in the Army Reserve.

“I feel that’s a bargain deal for what they pay us and for what we get out of the deal,” Stoermer says, “the amount of time I put in the Reserves is certainly worth it.”

While deployed he came to the realization that our education system has a lot of room for improvement and that the next generation of our country is going to face some rather difficult challenges over the next 20 years.

His research mathematically defends universal methods to optimize the learning process. He plans to apply the processes to our national education system with the goal of improving the efficiency of our public education system.

He is using himself as practical evidence of his research, thus training for the Olympics is very important so that he can provide hard proof of what we are all capable of when we maximize the capacity of our mind, body and, soul.

• Date Taken: 05.18.2015
• Date Posted: 05.18.2015 19:28
• Story ID: 163728
• Location: CONROE, TX, US
• Hometown: SAN ANTONIO, TX, US