Name, Age, and State: Matt Yocum, 39, North Carolina

Job-title: Operations Officer, Joint Special Operations Command

Web/blog site URL: www.MattYocum.com

Give us your job description in 25 words or less. I’m a US Air Force lieutenant colonel working at JSOC, the Joint Special Operations Command. I coordinate special operations forces training and exercises.

Describe a typical workday. On any given day, I’m coordinating various details of special operations forces (SOF) in training exercises around the country and the world. Those details range from logistics (moving people and equipment) to the operations plans and orders for the SOF forces to execute.

What led you to realize that you wanted to do this type of work? I’ve been an Air Force officer for over 18 years, and I’ve always wanted to work with special operations as they are the military’s most elite forces. I knew I would get to work with America’s best, and that was a huge motivation for me. It took me many years in other military assignments before I had the opportunity to work in special operations.

Did you have any heroes or mentors in your industry that you admired? Over the years I’ve had many commanders that I learned and grew from (too many to count). However, oddly enough, it was the commanders I did not like who taught me the most. When I saw how some commanders were about themselves and not the members under their command, it taught me that one day, if I was ever in their shoes, I needed to find a way to do it different.

What type of education or training was required to land your job? To be an officer in the military, you must have a college degree. You can either go to one of the four military Academies (US Military Academy at West Point for the Army, US Naval Academy for the Navy and Marines, US Air Force Academy for the Air Force, which is where I went to school, and the US Coast Guard Academy for, you guessed it, the Coast Guard). Two other avenues to becoming an officer are to get an ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) or Officer Candidate School (OCS).

What do you love most about your job? I never know what’s coming each day when I walk into work. The variety of work I get to do, the number of locations I get to travel and live in, and the caliber of people I work with are tremendous. It’s a dream job and currently a dream assignment.

What one part of your job do you wish you could hire someone else to do? We could certainly use more people. There’s just too much work for too few people, and that means a LOT of additional hours, which means time away from my family.

What advice would you give to teenagers wanting to get into your field of work? Whether you want to become an officer in the Army, Navy, Marines, or Air Force, and no matter which route you want to go (Academy, ROTC, or OTS), in all of these they are looking for well rounded high schoolers who have good grades, have exhibited leadership in their schools, and have some degree of physical and aptitude.

How does your job allow you to use your God-given gifts? God has gifted me with leadership and administration gifts, and I get to use those to their fullest. Plus, we are God’s missionaries by being in the military. Every few years I and my family are moving to a new assignment, which means a new location with new people to minister to and be ministered by.

Do you have any hobbies or off-hours pursuits that teenagers would find of interest? I am an avid writer, and I have written novels and comic books. I’ve actually had a chance to write for Marvel Comics, including the Avengers and Wolverine. I also write independent comic books in a wide variety of genres, including science fiction, fantasy, and super hero. It’s a lot different than my day job, and it’s such a joy to see the artwork come in after I give my scripts to the artist.