8 minute read
SHANE TIBIATOWSKI
Original publish date:
July-August 2017
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Where is he now?
Navy Veteran Shane Tibiatowski’s story originally ran in the July-August 2017 issue of The Good Life. In the last three years, Tibiatowski has worked to maintain relationships with friends and Navy buddies whom he served with.
He has also transitioned to a new company, Peoples Home Equity Mortgage Lending, continuing to serve people through mortgage work. Tibiatowski takes great pride in giving back to those who give back and is especially thrilled that the company has expanded who they give back to and what they give back for. He remains honored to be involved in the Homes for Heroes program and passionate about helping fellow veterans.
WRITTEN BY: BRITTNEY GOODMAN PHOTOS BY: URBAN TOAD MEDIA
Shane Tibiatowski, U.S. Navy veteran, has experienced the excitement of traveling the world on three different battle tours and even apprehended several drug running ships. However, for the last seventeen years, he has served a somewhat quieter, but satisfying role as a mortgage lending officer focusing on helping other veterans.
Tibiatowski is an award-winning specialist helping veterans own homes. For 2016, Tibiatowski was sixth in the nation among lending specialists in the “Homes for Heroes” program. Through the home loans he facilitated, he gave back $164,000 to veterans during 2016. And he proudly displays the big crystal trophy.
Graduating from West Fargo High School in 1990, seven days later he was in boot camp for the Navy in Orlando, FL. He said, “It sounds like a vacation spot, but it was not.” After ten weeks of boot camp during a very hot summer, he went to A School in Meridian, Mississippi, a place that he said “was even hotter than Florida. There was no cool breeze.”
Tibiatowski then went to San Diego: “I chose to stay stateside and to be on the USS Chandler DDG 996 – a guided missile destroyer. I selected the Navy because I wanted to travel and, honestly, it paid the most.” He added, “Did you know that USS stands for United States Ship? Many people don’t know that.”
Stationed out of San Diego, Tibiatowski went on several Western Pacific deployments (WESTPACs) from 1990-1994 on the USS Chandler and stopped at many ports all over the world, including Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, and more. He added, “In addition to the work, we did also get to have some necessary stress relief and fun on the way, stopping in Guam, the Philippines and Hawaii.”
His first WESTPAC was during Operation Desert Storm from JanuaryJuly 1991 and the second was from June 1993 - January 1994. During that time he was part of the Battle of Mogadishu – Operation Gothic Serpent. In addition to serving as a damage controlman doing firefighting and ship preservation, Tibiatowski was also part of the security force, working closely with the Coast Guard. “We would go out into international waters near Mexico and Panama and board ships that were carrying drugs. There were yachts with helicopters on top of them dropping drugs. We had boats trying to outrun us and even to ram us. We were a strong steel ship, so trying to ram us just wasn’t going to happen. I experienced some interesting situations, some of which I can’t talk about.”
Tibiatowski describes boarding a yacht near Mexico: “They were trying to outrun us and throwing drugs in the water when we finally stopped them. We pointed all of our weapons at them. We watched the Coast Guard board their vessel. The smugglers’ hands were zip tied. They were brought aboard our ship and spent a few hours in a blocked off passageway as we did not have a brig on board. They were eventually picked up by the Mexican police.”
Tibiatowski said that one of “the scariest moments” of his service was when an Iraqi aircraft was within 26 miles of his ship and enemy aircraft are not allowed to get within 32 miles of a USS: “We had this Iraqi aircraft coming straight towards us and we were literally seconds from letting our missiles go. Usually when you are out at sea you don’t have something like that happen. But when you have someone coming at you, it is different.”
Off the coast of Iraq, Tibiatowski was on watch duty looking for mines in the water using night vision goggles: “There are different kinds of mines; some of them are chained to the bottom. There are mines with chemical heads floating in the water. The Iraqi men would throw dead sheep and goats in the water and they would eventually bloat. They would turn upside down and all four legs would stick up. So you would not know what that was in the water. Is it a mine? Mine watch was …. interesting.”
He remembered a naval recruiter who was “hot after me to sign up. He went to my sporting events. He really pushed. And 90 percent of what he told me about what to expect was, quite frankly, crap. But he was good. Well, on my last trip to the Persian Gulf, guess who I ran into sitting at a bar? Yes, my recruiter. I sat next to him and told him, ‘Sir, you are one hell of a good liar.’”
Tibiatowski saw much of the world: “By the time I was 22 years old, I had been to Hawaii five times, and also been to Guam, Sri Lanka, India, Diego Garcia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Australia, Thailand, Hong Kong, up and down the coast of Mexico and all over the UAE.”
But the travel weighed on this family man. His first daughter, Morgan, came after his second WESTPAC. Tibiatowski said, “Although I loved the Navy and wanted to stay, being away from my family that much was hard on me. I was at sea every holiday for one reason or another.” Tibiatowski’s desire to be there for his family drove him to leave the service, retiring with a rank of E4. He was up for E5 but said, “I knew I was leaving and decided to make room for someone else.”
Tibiatowski has four daughters and four sons, ranging from ages 6 to 23. Two of his children are considering military service, but he says, “It is up to them. I would not sway them.”
Part of his service included humanitarian work in third world countries involving construction. Tibiatowski asserted: “It is important to give back. I show my kids that humanitarianism is important.”
Tibiatowski has gained perspective: “I look back at my time on the ship, and everything was arranged and done so strategically. Our young, naïve crew was trained well and we discovered just how important every single role on the ship was. As I sit back and look at it 27 years later, there were so many reasons behind how it was done. It was a big deal.”
His Navy friendships are valued: “I made many life-long friends in the Navy. We had a reunion last July. I keep in touch with a few of them. I’ve done mortgage loans for a few of them. The ties are strong. It’s a brotherhood.”
Tibiatowski recollected: “When I went into the military, I was arrogant. I had excelled at sports. But when I got to boot camp, I got knocked down a few notches. Right away, they show you that you belong to the government. It is a humbling experience – the discipline – everything from making the bed to how you fold clothes. I still fold my clothes the way I did in the military. Being from North Dakota, you go into it with a good work ethic. But I did not know
what to expect. At both boot camp and A School I was thinking ‘Holy cow... Am I really in this? Can I really do this?’ But then you get to use the skills they taught you. The discipline learned in the Navy has set me up for even more success than I imagined I could ever have. Because of my time in the service, I am more focused. I treat my everyday life with focus. My kids may say that some days I act like a drill sergeant. Discipline is still a big thing for me.”
He ran into his commanding officer years after he left the service: “I got to tell him what he did for me. Although he was awfully hard on me, it helped me be the sailor that I was and the man that I am.”
It all comes full circle: “The biggest thing for me, in the position that I had in the military and now having this job is to be able to give back to veterans. It is huge for me, because I know that a lot of them get taken advantage of. I want them to get into the home they deserve for the right price and the right interest rate. VA loans are amazing. There are many great advantages that many veterans do not know about.”
When asked what the phrase “the good life” means to him, Tibiatowski enthusiastically answered: “’The good life’ means being healthy, happy and able to provide for my family. I don’t need to be a millionaire or go on exotic vacations. I enjoy being able to give back — to be able to watch my kids grow and be healthy. To me that’s the good life. It’s having my family – I love that.”
Finally, I asked Tibiatowski if, going back in time, and given the choice to again join the Navy, if he would do it and he said: “Absolutely. Without any doubt, I would do it again.” •
