“I think what you find in military folks, they come in with a propensity to lead, whether it's next to someone as a peer or as a supervisor, their focus is on making the team better.”

 

Senior Associate Vice President for Administration Paul Odenthal said that pinpointing the moment he decided to join the military is virtually impossible. It was simply the path he knew his life would take from a very young age. 

“My dad served in the Army. My older brother joined the Army. My uncles were all in WWII in the Navy. My grandfather was a WWI veteran. I always kind of knew that I was going to go in the military.”
 
It wasn’t just the family history and the stories he heard from military veterans that convinced him to join. It was also his father’s example of community involvement and civic service. Even after Odenthal’s father left the military, he remained involved in public service through organizations like the Chamber of Commerce and the Knights of Columbus. And he expected his children to participate. 

“We always got drug along as kids,” Odenthal said. “And so I grew up in this mindset that I want to serve my country. I want to serve humanity. Which is part of why I’m still here at OSU, because as I got out of the military, I needed a mission – an important mission to do.” 

Odenthal started his military career in the NROTC program at OSU in 1984. He served in the Navy for 28 years, earning the rank of captain. His last assignment as the Commodore of Naval Construction Group II at the naval base in Gulf Port, MS.
 
The work Odenthal does now for OSU is a natural extension of the work he did for the Navy Civil Engineer Corps and the Navy Seabees (a nickname for the for the Naval Construction Battalions). The Navy Civil Engineer Corps oversees construction in combat zones, humanitarian work projects and manages the overall infrastructure of the Navy. That can include construction projects on base, facility maintenance, utilities, roads and environmental management. 

Odenthal also served as base commander at the Navy base in Gulf Port, a role which he describes as “the mayor and the city manager kind of rolled into one for a town of about 30,000 people.”

“I had a police department working for me. I had a fire department. I had barracks full of 18 to 25 year olds that look a lot like our residence halls,” he said.
 
Odenthal sees the unmistakable similarities between running a Naval base and running a public university.
 
“It’s very much like a college campus. It just has a fence around it. And a bit of a different mission as well,” he said.
 
When asked how organizations like the DFA should go about welcoming and recruiting staff with military skills and experience, Odenthal said that employers need to think carefully about how they assess the resumes of veteran job applicants. He said that he has helped hiring managers work through those resumes and translate the language of military jobs into work experience that matches university job descriptions. 

Odenthal also expressed concern about the potential for implicit bias against veterans – something he said he has noticed and even personally experienced. He gave examples of negative stereotypes that he has encountered - things like questioning the intelligence of people who choose military careers or assuming that they all have emotional problems and anger issues. Or that they are loud and aggressive. 

“People have to learn that that’s not who veterans are,” Odenthal said. 

Instead, Odenthal thinks we need to see veterans as people – just like anyone else. And he believes that veterans bring a distinct and valuable approach to work and leadership with them to their civilian roles.
 
“From the day you join the military to your last day, it's all about leadership,” he said. “We preach and we talk about leadership to every individual. Even if you're not in a position of authority, you will lead as well. I think what you find in military folks, they come in with a propensity to lead, whether it's next to someone as a peer or as a supervisor, their focus is on making the team better – in making the team succeed.”