Veterans Archives: Preserving the Stories of our Nations Heroes
In a world where storytelling has been our link to the past since the days of cave drawings, there exists a timeless tradition. It's the art of passing down knowledge, and for Military Veterans, it's a crucial piece of their legacy. Join us on the Veterans Archives Podcast, where we dive deep into the heartwarming and awe-inspiring stories of those who served, no matter when or where.
Here, Veterans get the chance to be the authors of their own narratives. Through guided interviews in a relaxed and safe environment, they paint their experiences with their own words and unique voices. The result? A memory card in a presentation box, a precious gift they can share however they please.
But that's not all. These stories find a secure home in our archive, a treasure chest of experiences for future generations to explore. The best part? It's all a gift to the Veteran – our way of saying thank you for their service.
Tune in to the Veterans Archives Podcast, where history, heroism, and heartwarming tales come to life.
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Veterans Archives: Preserving the Stories of our Nations Heroes
How A Detroit Kid Became A Soldier, Leader, And Mentor (Chuck Fowlkes)
A Detroit childhood filled with Belle Isle picnics, DIY bike “Olympics,” and a grandparents’ house that welcomed everyone set the stage for Chuck’s lifelong commitment to service. We sit down with him to follow the arc from neighborhood games to a 30-year Army career, a leadership run at Consumers Energy, and a purposeful reinvention as an educator, nonprofit founder, and leadership coach. The moments that shaped him—an English teacher who flipped his view on writing, a drill sergeant who turned pressure into fuel, and a young family that sharpened his ambition—become practical lessons anyone can use.
Chuck opens up about joining the Army at twenty for the challenge, carrying admin and training roles that supported drill sergeants and infantry skills, and later commissioning through BOLC as a Mustang officer. He shares how online college enabled a late-degree comeback, why balancing reserves with a demanding utility leadership job built resilience, and what it felt like to stand in final formation, uniform on for the last time. Along the way, we get real about promotions, the pull of command, and the choice to step away at captain to protect health, family focus, and long-term impact.
Today, Chuck channels decades of experience into teaching, the Chuck Folks Organization guiding people into skilled trades, and “Talk to Chuck Folks,” where he trains teams on leadership and resilience. His core message lands with clarity: discover your gift, maximize it until work becomes purpose, and use it to lift others. If you’ve ever wondered when to double down, when to pivot, or how to align career, family, and meaning, this conversation offers a grounded roadmap shaped by Detroit grit and military discipline.
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Good morning. Today is Wednesday, November 26th, 2025. We're talking with Chuck Folks, who served the United States Army. So good morning, Chuck. Good morning, Bill. How are you doing? Great. Always good to see you. Great to see you as well. It's been a minute, I think. Yes. Yeah. So we'll just get started right out with uh um questioning here.
SPEAKER_01:When and where were you born? I was born in Detroit, 1965, at Harper Hospital. Awesome. What month? I'm just curious.
SPEAKER_02:September. Okay. I was born in April of 65. I'm a fall baby. Okay, all right. I'm a I'm a spring baby. Okay. I think we had tornadoes when I was born.
SPEAKER_01:That's almost two, by the way. So great. So did you grow up in Detroit then? Born and raised uh in Detroit. A lot of history growing up in the city of Detroit. Um, as a kid, I remember uh going on the Bobolo boat, Edgewater Park, uh spending numerous family outings at Bellau Park. Uh so I was born and raised in Detroit. Okay, and brothers and sisters? I have one brother and one sister. Okay. And I am the oldest. Oh, you are?
SPEAKER_02:So you're in charge?
SPEAKER_01:Ah, Charles in charge. I'm Charles in charge. Uh, kind of sort of.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Well, my older sister thinks she's in charge all the time. So I think it might be a trend. I don't know. Um, and how far apart are you in age with your siblings?
SPEAKER_01:Actually, my brother, ironically, he just turned 52. My sister is 48. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:All right.
SPEAKER_01:And you just turned I just turned the big six, six. Oh, I just joined the 60 club. I uh consider myself uh old or older gentleman. Not the original gangster.
SPEAKER_02:Not the original gangster, no, the older gentleman. Older gentlemen. We need to put together a line of t-shirts for that.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yes. I think and just just for the record, you don't become an older gentleman and uh old until the age of 50. Okay. Yes.
SPEAKER_02:All right. So you might be able to get your ARP card before then, but you're not going to be an older gentleman before that. That's correct. That's that is correct. So talk to me a little bit about growing up in Detroit and what kind of the what are some of your earliest memories?
SPEAKER_01:Well, Bill, um, growing up in Detroit um was just fantastic. I can honestly say I had a phenomenal childhood. I was raised by my grandparents, ironically. My mom and dad were still uh a great part of my life, but I was raised by my grandparents. Um with that being said, um, our house was the Kool-Aid house because we um our house was the house that everybody um migrated to to visit uh my grandmother and grandfather, and we had uh numerous family uh dinners and things, things of that nature. Um I remember as a child uh having an extended family of uncles, aunts, cousins. It was just remarkable. Uh recalling the time spent at Bellau Island, which I just heard uh rumors that they're trying to re revive that experience. I don't know, uh not the island itself, but the boat. Uh I just heard rumors, I'm not sure how true that is. Uh Edgewater Park, uh Seven Mile Evergreen area, uh going to Bell Al Park uh for family outings and different um sporting outings, things that things of that nature. Uh then just playing with the neighborhood kids. Of course, um remember uh playing all three sports. In the summertime, we could play all three sports in one day baseball, basketball, foot, football, all in one day. And uh another uh activity that we established in our neighborhood, well, a couple couple activities. One was um in the summertime, we uh played what we call Olympic, where we lined our bikes up and we um utilized them as hurdles. We ran races and we jumped over each bike as a hurdle. That was our our our Olympic. Then me and the boys in the neighborhood, we got so good we called uh called it on our bikes catwalking. Catwalking is the art of being able to ride a bike on one wheel. Oh yeah. So we got we got pretty good at it where we can actually strategically start at the beginning of the block and go for a full block on one one wheel. It was just it would just, of course, that was with numerous practice. You know, we started out, you know, uh um a quarter of a mile, half, you know, half a quarter of the block, half the block, then the full block. So things things like things like that um that we um engaged in at as a kid and growing up in our neighborhood. Um of course we wasn't angels by any stretch of imagination, but we wasn't bad kids. Right. So sports was our way of uh, as I can say, keeping us out of uh any um mischief.
SPEAKER_00:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01:You know, because by the time we got finished with sports, um, we're too tired to be. I was gonna say you probably slept pretty well in the school. I slept well, particularly during school, uh during the school year, because after you got out of school, you rushed to do your homework, got out of your school clothes, then you went outside and play for a little bit, then you came in for dinner, uh uh got bed, bathed, bedded down, started the whole day over again. So childhood was just great, and then kind of uh wrapping up the childhood uh memories, as I recall, um I did a little everything. It's just just the nature of me as a person. I remember uh being a Cub Scout, I remember being a Boy Scout, um, of course, playing playing playing sports. I remember my dad uh, of course, after my mom and dad divorced, my dad dating uh this young lady whose mother was a square dance teacher. So I took square dancing. Imagine a young African-American kid in the 70s square dancing. It was just uh wasn't wasn't, I could say wasn't wasn't the norm. Yeah, I can't wrap my head around that. So I uh I square danced, uh uh done junior achievement. I can't remember anything that I I I didn't I didn't try.
SPEAKER_00:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01:Uh then then one significant uh uh point in the childhood. I was born in 1965, so during that whole 60 civil rights uh era, and I remember uh my family moving from the east side of Detroit to the west side, which my whole uh childhood and adult life was on the on the west side, but I remember our family purchasing our first home on the west side of Detroit in 1971. We were the first African-American family on our block in our in our neighborhood. Again, very fond memories because I remember um there was a family that lived down the street. They had a swimming pool and they invited me down in the summers, they invited me down there every day. I remember going down there, having meals. One particular day I remember they had spaghetti. We swam, ape spaghetti. That's another uh uh memory of uh of my uh childhood. So um basically that's that's that's that's the uh Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Now, did you carry sports on through uh junior high and high school? Did you play like organized sports in school?
SPEAKER_01:No. I uh I played uh me and my cousin who grew up uh my first cousin, we grew up more like brothers than than cousins. We were first cousin. We played on the YMCA team, but um ironically, uh of course the neighborhood guys, if they were here, they probably would uh challenge me on it. Doing elementary, middle school, I was the best in the night.
SPEAKER_00:Playing, you know, all all all all the sports. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But I um the competition uh caught up with me. I I should say by the time high school, of course, um my height, you know, kind of slowed down. You know, I was a normal uh a relatively short guy, uh skinny and bill. So um after middle school, I didn't pursue any high school or or any sports beyond that. I got involved in other activities as uh uh uh like say junior achieved uh co-op. A lot of us for for whatever reason at that age a lot of business um uh uh activities interest me. So I I pursued those over uh over sports. Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02:All right. Any any favorite subjects in high school?
SPEAKER_01:Actually, uh my favorite high my favorite subject throughout school and high school has been math. Always been pretty pretty good at math. Um English is not so not so good, but I um in the ninth grade, I had an English teacher named Mr. Gates who turned my whole um perspective towards English around. Then I got more interested in the dynamics of writing and stuff like that. But throughout school and high school, college, the whole nine math has always been okay.
SPEAKER_02:So you uh you got through high school and uh what happens after high school?
SPEAKER_01:After high school, um I went to community college here locally. I graduated from Redford High School in 1983. And as I stated in the beginning of the interview, I'm an old gentleman. So I graduated in 1983. Ironically, Redford High School closed in 2007, right there at the uh corner of uh Grand River and Six Mile. It is now Myers, a Myers store. So I jokingly say the auditorium is now the produce section at Myers. Oh no. That's always sad when an old school goes into it. Yes, yes, yes, yes. And and and it's kind of it's kind of uh um typical for a lot of uh um popular schools in Detroit because Refert closed, uh Cooley closed, and a couple well-known schools close. There's uh a couple of those core schools that are still open that they're in the process of uh uh rehabilitating, you know, um closing the old schools, I mean rebuilding. Oh, yeah. I I should say. But um I tend I tend to uh refer refer refer I so after high school um went to Henry Ford Community College for a couple years, um, and then I um attended uh Oakland Community College.
SPEAKER_00:Um and be quite frank, Frank, uh after I got out of high school, I wasn't serious.
SPEAKER_01:I think I maintained uh uh it was higher press C average at best. I just wasn't serious.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Then after a couple years of uh Harry Ford community, Oakland community, um started dating my who is now my wife.
SPEAKER_00:Um then I stopped stopped going to school.
SPEAKER_01:Um married, had a family, and then go back to school later on, which became one of my um goals in life is to achieve a college degree. So I went back later on after my kids were a little older, family a little family dynamics was a little resettled.
SPEAKER_00:Um went back and got my how long have you been married?
SPEAKER_01:Ironically, uh coming up this is uh end of November come up on DC. I've been married for 36 years.
SPEAKER_02:Well, congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. That's pretty incredible.
SPEAKER_01:So I s I I say uh my running joke is I've been married practically my whole adult life. I uh I got married at 23 years of age, had my first child uh at 25, had my second child at 28. So uh got married and started my family pretty pretty early, which um which was an asset because now uh my kids are grown uh and I'm still relatively young.
SPEAKER_00:I can pursue a lot of things right now life that got at boy and still uh share those kids.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, I I mean I highly recommend having kids early, not too early. Right. But but early enough so that you you aren't, you know, you're not going to high school graduation when you're 75. That would be tough, I think.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:I mean my kids wore me out when I was in my you know 30s and 40s. I can't imagine uh trying to do that at an older age, but people do it. God bless them.
SPEAKER_01:God bless them, people people do it, but um yes.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. So you uh um you have two children then, right? Um married 36 years. So how so you uh you met your wife, um, decided hey, college isn't for me right now, and start your family. Did you start working right away or uh did you go in the military? What what happened kind of in that mix?
SPEAKER_01:Actually, you you know what, Bill? Um I'm now an educator after retiring from Consumers Energy and retiring from the military. So kind of like on my third career, yeah. Uh in the twilight, uh, as I say, kind of in the later years, twilight, if if you will, of uh of my life. And I share with my students all often this this point in my life, um it's just uh uh more rewarding um because my focus has turned off from myself into how do I become more of a positive impact diet, and helping. So and that's a combination of where I'm I'm at in life and from my uh uh personality.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Well that's that's and that's great to pass down to students too. I think it I think your life does go in phases like that, right? You um, you know, you're in that kind of me where you're trying to raise your family, you're trying to work, you're trying to do all this other stuff uh to uh focus on others as you get older. Um so yeah, so let's uh so going back a little bit, um, you know, after you got married or you know, you met your wife, did you did you start working right away then?
SPEAKER_01:Right. Um so so basically um again, what I share with people at this point in my life, everybody to me, um everybody has that uh most people, some people for whatever reason never get it that motivation. So to answer your question, I uh me and my wife met at uh MBD Bank, National Bank of Detroit, which is now Chase Bank. Um worked there for uh about six years, I was making decent money, just had got married with a couple kids, but it motivated me because I had a family, I had stopped going to school, so I had to so basically my motivation now was I gotta get a job to make more money because I have a family.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_01:So I ran ironically at that particular time, started working at consumers, started out entry level, uh meter reading, worked my way up, uh eventually start, I mean worked my way up and start gradually making uh real good money. So uh started Consumers Energy early uh uh after a couple years after I got married, and one of my kids were very formative years. So basically I raised my family working out.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:And and another added point to that is uh what I share with people, particularly my my students, I started at consuming this energy at 26 years old. Um a lot of people, or I should say a a good percentage of people, if you really haven't found yourself or found that niche uh by mid-20s to early 30s, I mean, the world's not ending, but most people get that, you know, fight, you know, find that career path, start going down the road that they're going down. Of course, you switch gears, but by your mid-20s, 30s, if you ain't on some type of path, uh something something is something uh Yeah, it's gonna be rough.
SPEAKER_02:It's gonna be rough. It's gonna be rough.
SPEAKER_01:It's gonna be rough. So I can honestly say I started at Consumers Energy at 26.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:And then oh where did the military come in? The military came in at the age of 20. Okay. Uh I joined the military at the age of 20. And um, I often reflect back on that because at that time, I I believe I joined the military because I always been over ambitious, and that was just like the next big challenge. Um, so that's how I ended up joining the military and looking and reflecting back and looking back on it, it was the best I ever.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah. So you joined the army at the age of 20.
SPEAKER_01:At the age of 20.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Where'd you take your basic training at?
SPEAKER_01:Fort Dix, New Jersey.
SPEAKER_02:Oh boy.
SPEAKER_01:In New Jersey.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So what was that like? Tell me a little bit about what was it like when you got there? It's funny.
SPEAKER_01:Uh 20-year-old uh young kid joining the military. Uh and I have similar experiences, just a few interview a lot of people who joined the military at early age have similar experiences.
SPEAKER_00:I remember my drill sergeant. Wayne Edward Wigan.
SPEAKER_01:He had never he he he said it over and over in basic training. Um and I think it it was just his his his uh uh motivational tactic.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:He probably he he probably did this cycle after cycle while he was a drill sergeant. For whatever reason, I was that guy, that trainee that he decided to pick up. So I'm here, uh 20-year-old kid from the city of Detroit in New Jersey, out of my mind. Really the first time being away from home outside of being with with uh my grandparents or my parents or what have you.
SPEAKER_00:He looked at me, looked right, got right in my face. You know, of course, with the big uh drill sergeant hat around. I don't know what you didn't know and about you I don't know why I don't know what it is. I'm thinking, what did I do?
SPEAKER_01:I just showed up what again that was his motivational tactic that he probably used every cycle. He picked up he picked on me probably for about a week. Then he realized that that uh um I wasn't going to uh succumb to the pressure, I was just gonna do, you know, hey, I'm away from home. What what what am I gonna do other than uh do what I needed to do to uh to survive?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So um he realized that that uh he had achieved his goal of intimidating me and me being able to to um as they say man up.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So that experience uh I carry from uh life and then just the overall experience um of uh the you know what the military represents, the discipline, the camaraderie, um, the lifelong friends that you uh that you meet, the connections, and of course now being the older benefits uh are uh kicked in.
SPEAKER_02:Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely. So you can't beat that. No, no, not at all. So you're did you do you go in on like a four-year enlistment initially?
SPEAKER_01:Additionally, I signed up uh, I believe it was uh a four-year enlistment, enlisted enlistment, and you were obligated for eight years. So you did four years, and I think you were obligated the three or four years after that, uh, which they could, if you got out, they could call you up or whatever.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, the IRR, the individual reserve, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Right. But after that four years, ironically, I found myself um re-enlisting, and um, next thing I know, I I re-enlisted looking up, coming up on my 20 years, then I re-enlist, next thing I know, I'm coming up on 30 years, so at that point I made it uh made it a career. And what what motivated me because simultaneously I maintained a career of consumers, right? And um the military as far as being in reserves. I remember um after 15 years, you know, uh was pretty busy with the family, had started progressing at consumers. My responsibilities in and out uh were uh pretty uh pretty taxing.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And I remember saying at the 15-year mark, I remember it's like I'm ready out. But thank God I had the forethought to say, well, okay, 15 years, you're too close to 20. You might as well push it to 20, at least you can get a retirement out of this. Yeah. So then I got to 20. Um, once I got to twenty, uh I believe I had achieved the rank of uh like E6, E7. Then I started looking at the checks.
SPEAKER_00:Wow, okay, so that's pretty good money. So that motivated me for a couple couple more years.
SPEAKER_01:And then um at that time, I that's when I made the decision to go back to school to get my bachelor's degree. At that particular time, I mean, I was doing pretty good at consumers, so it it wouldn't affect me one way or another. I mean, it would look good for me to apply for, you know, different upper mobility positions with a bachelor's degree, but at that particular time, you know, I was in management making good money anyway. So but it was a personal goal of mine to get my degree, but it did set me up because I made the decision to commission as an officer. So my last rank as an enlisted was an E7. I decided to uh commission. I kind of mauled around becoming a warrant officer, but I decided on becoming a becoming a becoming an officer. So I ended up commissioning. That was a great experience. And I forget the term. You you can help me with the term. Uh officers that was enlisted now as an officer has more respect because you done seemed uh it's a term for it. I can't think of it right this time.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, well, so in the Navy they're called Mustangs. Mustang, yeah. Yeah, yeah, Mustang. Same thing.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, same thing. You you'll you'll you're you'll you're a must Mustang.
SPEAKER_02:So it was very close to my career because I um after 14 years enlisted, I was an E6, and then I went to OCS and got my commission.
SPEAKER_01:Correct.
SPEAKER_02:Um, and then I retired as a captain as well.
SPEAKER_01:It's funny because I retired as a captain as well.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And um so at that point, now, you know, I'm progressing at consumers. I'm an officer in the reserve, so I'm I'm doing pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty good. But um then I then I made the decision again, you know, of course my kids were older, so I, you know, my responsibility level from a kid and the family standpoint was, you know, kind of tapering off a little bit. But uh I made the decision as I got close to my 30 years because the responsibilities from the reserve component as I grew in rank was becoming as I was evaluating for like a full-time status. Right. So it's like it's almost like having two full-time jobs, because it wasn't like uh I was just a reservist, it was work that I had to do outside of uh that because of my uh responsibility level at that time. So at that time I made the decision when I get to the 30-year mark, I'm gonna retire. Because there's other things that I want to pursue. If I stay in the military, I had just re uh achieved the rank of a captain. I haven't, I had at that time I hadn't did my um um uh what's the name time?
SPEAKER_00:My uh uh why does it take me? Oh, your captain's career course?
SPEAKER_01:No, I haven't done the captain's career course, but uh as a captain, you have to do your uh time uh company commander time. Oh yeah, yeah. I hadn't done my company's commander time, so I decided to retire. I hit my 30-year mark, but if I had stayed in, I I uh at that particular time I would have done my uh uh um commander's time. Yeah. And be honest with you, uh reflecting back on it to alleviate the stress of juggling consumers and my military, I would have requested uh active duty time while I would do my commander time. So I would be away and I can focus in on that. Then after my commander time was was up, then I would come back and then I'd be promotable to uh major at that point. But it would alleviate commander's time, maintaining my uh I mean it would to me it's doable. I see people do it all the time, but it would just be more than what I would work.
SPEAKER_02:It's a lot of work, it's just a lot of work.
SPEAKER_01:And it's a lot of work, a lot of commitment, and basically you really have to uh block out everything else, really do it effectively, and then not to not to uh stress yourself out.
SPEAKER_02:Right, exactly. So you so I want to back up a little bit because we covered a lot of territory, but there's a lot of uh detail I'd like to get to. Okay. Um, so uh first, what was your what was your MOS? What what did you do uh as an enlisted person in the in the Army?
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so so so basically, and and and it goes back to my MO uh as a person. Every couple years, I look for that challenge. Right. And as we started on the military career, as I reflect back on it, that was the reason why I joined the military. As a 20 year old kid, I was looking for that next challenge. So every couple years I look for that challenge. So additionally, when I enlisted, I enlisted as an admin.
SPEAKER_00:Um and be honest with you, uh they call that uh ad, call that a uh got the admin. Something special. Basically, I was typing. Right. You know, taking care of records, taking care of records, type them up, uh, that that type of thing.
SPEAKER_01:So it was a it was a great experience. So basically, um, I was assigned to the Leadership Academy, which was a drill sergeant school. Basically, uh our our uh uh mission was to train drill sergeants, reserve drill sergeants to become drill sergeants. They went through uh, I believe the program was like a year, maybe two years. Then they became drill sergeants, and then throughout the brigade companies, they went through, you know, they deployed through the different companies as a so I worked as the admin specialist there as I um continue my career. So where was this at? This was in Lavonia. Oh, okay. Actually, my unit, they're still they're still up and running right there, uh Lavonia at Levan Row and School Crow. Okay. If you're going, if you if you uh traveling east, M14, you'll pass right by. I mean 96 going catching M14, you'll pass right by it. Okay. So it's drills, it's uh Leadership Academy, which was a drill sergeant school. Then I transitioned into um uh infantry training brigade, which our mission was to um go to Fort Benning every year and take over for the Fort Benning Infantry um unit and train soldiers in different specialties like uh um first aid, uh all types of, you know, all the infantry subject areas, right? First aid and the other subject areas, rifle uh marksmanship and things like that. Then as I progressed, as I continued to grow, I uh as an enlisted person, I became the PAC section, PAC sergeant, PAC NCO sergeant, because I was in charge of the the the uh office personnel. Then as I grew and commissioned, I became the S1 where I was in charge of the PAC section from the officer uh side of it.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. Then of course, you know, in the PAC section, uh personnel section, your primary mission is the soldier ready to maintain the soldier medical uh A personnel. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:So my uh whole military career was from an admin point of view, I did do that brief.
SPEAKER_00:I would say probably about seven years out of my 30 years as an infantry squad leader where I was in charge of parksman. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:So uh so between being an NCO and getting a commission, though, you did go to college. Now, where did you get your degree from? University of Phoenix.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, okay. And actually, I was one of the um the first wave of online um people to pursue their degree. Now it's like commonplace. Yeah, it's just how you do it, it's how you do you know how you do it, especially for a busy person. Right, but right uh back in the early 2000s, that was just a new phenomenon. And it worked out great for me for the simple fact that I was on afternoons at the time, got up, dropped my kids off at school, came back, did uh uh did all my schooling, um and went to work. So it was a perfect fit.
SPEAKER_02:It works out awesome. So did you did you do the uh OCS program or did you do direct how did that work? Your commission?
SPEAKER_01:At that particular time it wasn't OCS, they call it Bollock, basic off officer leadership course. Yeah. So um I went away uh three months at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, which uh uh they had an admin of officer program.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, and I'd be perfect.
SPEAKER_01:It was just it was the best experience is one of the best experience experiences of my uh military career. Best school by far that I took while I was in the military. It was just like being in college. I went, I mean, I was there for three months. Um the barracks that they had had us in, we had maids that cleaned up our, you know, of course I'm a neat freak. Um, so my maid, you know, had it easy. All she had to do just come in, clean the tiles, and clean the bar from. But um we got up, you know, of course, the any military uh operation. We got up, we did RPT, came back, showered up, we did uh we had breakfast. School was from like nine to five after after five o'clock was free. But during the weektime, you you would kind of review subject areas that you had covered. Weekend, weekends were free. I kind of buddied up with a couple of the older older guys, usually go out to dinner, play golf or something like that. Went to uh attended school with with a lot of West Pointers.
SPEAKER_02:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01:That was a great experience. You know, young kids, of course, at that time I was like in my early 40s.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And to be able to interact with people, young, young soldiers that were West Pointers, that was a great experience.
SPEAKER_02:Well, and you have as an as a prior enlisted with all those years of service, you have a little bit better understanding of of how things really work instead of how they theoretically work.
unknown:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I I I had real life experiences that that uh at that point, because at that point I was in my early 40s.
SPEAKER_02:So this would have been what, like 2005-ish time frame then?
SPEAKER_01:That was in 2011.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, okay. So we're okay.
SPEAKER_01:We down the road.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah. Now, um, so I served in the National Guard, so the program was a little bit different, but did you have to come in on a waiver then to get your commission?
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:Like I I think for me, I I was 38 when I got commissioned. So I I had a waiver, but I had to go through OCS. So I didn't know if I was actually gonna get my commission until after I had graduated OCS and then my waiver came through.
SPEAKER_01:Actually, I had to go through I had to uh fill out a waiver prior to uh prior to going and prior to uh uh being awarded my commission. All of that was done prior to me going to the Bollock course, um, but I did have to get a waiver for one, um and and it was primarily you know crossing over from enlisted to officer, but at that point my age was right, right, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:That's how the military sees it anyway. Yeah, so you uh you get your commission, you come back, um, you've got what 10 more years left in the military then? Because you're right at about 20 years?
SPEAKER_01:Thereabouts.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, and and you're still working at consumers. So what are you doing at consumers around this time?
SPEAKER_01:About that time at Consumers, I was an operation supervisor on the gas at the gas side of the business. Um, so I had bounced around a little bit, which gave me a lot of uh experience in the operations and running different at different headquarters. So I started out, ironically, when I first joined the military, my unit was the Leadership Academy in Lavonia. Right. And I worked in Lavonia with consumers.
SPEAKER_00:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01:So uh I could literally walk from consumers' headquarters to Army, our Army unit. So that's pretty convenient. Yeah, that was uh, I mean, you know, that was funny. So for years I had that uh that dynamic going. But uh so uh at that at that particular time I was an operation supervisor, and I had bounced around, started out in Livonia, went to um they had just opened up the Royal Oak Service Center. I mean, Royal Oak at that time was a um uh uh customer service where they took bills and a lot of uh admin administrator stuff. So in 2007, they opened it back up to uh operations where we uh moved back in distribution service and uh a lot of the operations uh um areas. So we moved over there and then I bounced around from Crawl Ope, uh Macomb, Groveland, couple couple different headquarters. Yeah, so uh uh operation supervisor, and then I was um at that particular time with seasoned season supervisor, so I was looking for uh kind of a um positioning myself to become a uh a senior manager.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And so you uh so if I'm doing my math right, about 40 years, so around 2015 you retired from the Army? 26.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, and you were one year off. Oh, okay, yes, yeah. 2016. And actually, um time flies by March will be 10 years that I retire.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I retired in 2010. So yeah, time flies. Time flies. It really does.
SPEAKER_01:It does.
SPEAKER_02:So talk to me a little bit about retiring from the military specifically, like what was it like to like put that uniform on for the you knew it was going to be the last time that you're gonna wear that in an official capacity?
SPEAKER_01:Actually, reflecting back on it, it was a great time because I enjoyed my whole military career. Of course, you know, like I like I stated earlier, due to my uh responsibilities, you know, I had to decide, you know, I I had uh kind of mauled over getting out, but throughout my military career, I I so those last couple years was focused on retiring, but at the same token, I was enjoying that.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_01:So close to let me fast forward to that last year that I was in, it was just phenomenal. You know, just the you know, reflecting back over your career, you can see the light at the end of the light at the end of the tunnel, then I remember the last couple months putting that uniform on, then that last day of them acknowledged me and acknowledging me in formation. This is Captain Folk's last day he's officially fired. So it was surreal, surreal. Um your whole military career flashed before you. You start reflecting back on on where you started, where you came, where you are, and how proud you were to where that you so uh that was it was it was awesome. Yeah, kind of bittersweet, right? It was kind of it was kind of bitter bitters bittersweet. And then actually reflecting back on it, if I was uh stick it out, uh most of my uh peers right now are majors promotable clinic colonels.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So if I had stayed in, I would be a major promotable clinic colonel. Right.
SPEAKER_02:Still, that's a lot of years to have to put in to get there.
SPEAKER_01:That's a lot of years, a lot of responsibility.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, absolutely. Yes. So you retire from the military, you continue your career on at uh Consumers Energy. Let's talk a little bit about that.
SPEAKER_01:So basically, I ironically, retiring from the military at 2016, there was only a couple more years that I before I left consumers in 2018. So it was only like two years after that.
SPEAKER_02:So you really so if we if I think about this right, you really only had two years at Consumers Energy where you weren't doing two different jobs.
SPEAKER_01:Correct. Yeah, correct, correct. I mean, because actually, uh, just like I stated, you know, that was the reason why, you know, I was really motivated and I kind of wanted that milestone. I think I wanted that milestone of retiring after 30 years. Yeah. Um, and then to be able to experience life of working at consumers and not have the uh military.
SPEAKER_00:So reflecting back on it, it was only two two years that uh that that happened because I retired at uh from the military 2016 uh consumers at 2008. So it's only a two year time.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And our our paths had crossed a couple of times at uh the consumers during that period. So um, you know, uh what have you been doing since?
SPEAKER_00:Since I have um and I do um some speeches on it. I have really reinvented myself, rebranded myself after leaving consumers again after the military course throughout both both entities I was in in leadership position. Right.
SPEAKER_01:So I developed and and perfected I wouldn't say perfected, but just developed uh my leadership style. So after afterwards, now fast forwarding I became an educator which uh working with uh young young young people I have develop uh started my nonprofit the Chuck Folks organization, which our mission is to help people get into skill trade.
SPEAKER_00:I've started my talk to Chuck Folks at L, which my um which I specialize in leadership developmental resilience. So basically uh reinvented myself, rebranded myself, and I can honestly say this stage and chapter in my life I have committed to helping being a service to others, uh because it's before at this stage of my life it's helpful. Yeah. And you get to pick what you want to do. And I can pick what I can I can pick what it's a great feeling. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Well, so it really so I had just a couple more questions then. The first question is Is there anything that we haven't talked about that you want to talk about in this part of your interview?
SPEAKER_00:Actually, I think we we we covered we covered uh most of it.
SPEAKER_01:I I guess probably I can kind of embellish this stage and this chapter in my life. Um run and joke, um the run run and joke I have uh at this point right now, I'm round in third base, I'm in the fourth quarter, I'm on the back nine of life, and I'm trying to make everyday count.
SPEAKER_00:And how I um make everyday count is to be of service to help. Yeah. And that's shooting the three-pointer.
SPEAKER_01:And that's shooting the three-pointer. That's that that's that's shooting that's shooting the tray. That could that covers all the sports. That covers that covers everything. So um again, um we we pretty much covered me from from A to Z. Okay. But again, you know, uh that phase, that chapter, where I'm at right now, um, I just I just really enjoy helping other people leaving.
SPEAKER_00:Oh no, all right.
SPEAKER_02:Well hold on one second because I'll ask you one more question after that. Okay. Oh, you got the but don't forget the microphone. Just you can just carry that with you.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, okay, gotcha.
SPEAKER_02:Otherwise, you'll be dragging it behind you.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, gotcha. Yeah, that's man. I thought I'd touch that on. That's how it works. Yeah, man, hold on. Let me turn it off now.
SPEAKER_02:All right.
SPEAKER_01:So we have to edit that part out.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, which by the way, I'm very good at.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, good, good, good. I turned it off.
SPEAKER_02:All right, very cool.
SPEAKER_01:I'm probably I'm probably about the only person who still has a ring tone.
SPEAKER_02:No, you know, you'd be surprised how often this happens. It's either it's either that or they got a they got a stupid grandfather clock.
SPEAKER_01:Really?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, bong, bong, bong. Okay, gotcha, gotcha. Okay, I don't feel so bad, yeah. All right. Um, so with with all of that said, uh, you're in this part of your life where you're really giving back, although you've led a life of service your whole entire life, uh, it really just kind of begs one last question. And that question is you know, a hundred years from now, when someone's watching this video or listening to you talk about your life, what would you like them to take away?
SPEAKER_00:What kind of advice would you have for people? What I would like the audience to take take away from my journey and my experience as a person, as a person of faith, the sooner you discover your God-given talent and maximize that that's what real life is because your work doesn't feel like work because it becomes more of a passion.
SPEAKER_01:So seek to find your God-given talent because God has given each one of us a talent to give to the world, find that talent, maximize that work. Well, thanks for that, and thanks for spending your morning with me, Chuck. Thank you for driving out on this soggy uh fall soon to be winter, um winter, but uh fall morning, and uh I appreciate the opportunity to share my story.
