Pvt. Gabriella Sullivan
V Corps
Public Affairs Mass Communications Specialist
Victory Corps’s Soldier of the Year
FORT KNOX, Ky. -- If you think being promoted on the spot, being an inventor, and Soldier of the Year, all while keeping up with your job in the Army is hard, then talk to Spc. Joseph G. Muir Jr., a wheeled vehicle mechanic (91B) at Victory Corps.
“I always wanted to serve when I was younger, I just never got around to it,” said Muir. “I realized it’s a great opportunity for my career and has good benefits for my daughter. It will really help her in the long run with college, so that's pretty cool.”
Muir said his cousins were in the Marines when he was 18. He almost joined when they were in, but “life happened” and he never got around to it.
“I feel like I would've loved to serve with my cousins in Iraq,” said Muir. “They just talk about it all the time. They had a lot of terrible things happen to them, but you always get the good with the bad.”
Muir said one reason he joined the Army was for the opportunity to operate and maintain the Wreckers.
“I was gonna be a 12N which is a heavy equipment operator, but this is one of the reasons why I became what I am,” said Muir. “I got to play with the wreckers pretty much all day when we weren't doing other stuff.”
Muir’s passion for engines is not restricted to just his job, it is also something he pursues in his free time.
“I've been working on engines since I was like 12,” said Muir. “I've always wanted to be a mechanic, we kind of get to do that here. We change parts, but don't really rip out engines. That's like the old Army, but something I would've loved to do.”
Muir not only has a passion for engines but one for inventing as well. Muir has a product geared towards off-roading vehicles that is currently patent-pending. Explaining that it's so the engine doesn't get water in it.
“It's like a floatation device for the bottom of the vehicle,” said Muir. “There will be a pipe so that as water level rises the intake will rise. That way the engine won't be ruined.”
Unsure how much longer he will stay in the Army, Muir said he wants to serve at least one more contract where he plans to go airborne. The benefits that the Army can give to him and his daughter are worth pursuing. Although, he isn't sure he wants to re-enlist because he wants to see where his inventing career can take him.
One opportunity the Army has given Muir is the chance to work at a unit like V Corps.
“I would describe it as brand new,” said Muir. “With anything brand new there's a lot of growing pains, which everyone is very aware of, but they're just trying to do their best. I think the command team is doing a really good job, that it's a new unit.”
A big opportunity Muir was given at V Corps was he was made Victory Corps Soldier of the Year.
“Command Sgt. Maj. Webb told me I was Soldier of the year because of my ranking in The Best Warrior Competition,” said Muir.
Muir said that he also got to represent V Corps in Normandy for D-day.
“For the Remembrance ceremony, it was dedicated to the Native Americans, and a specific Native American who charged the beach,” said Muir. “He was present in the ceremony and I was in the formation behind him.”
Not only has Muir earned Soldier of the Year and represented V Corps in ceremonies, but he continues to work on engines and invent things, which has played a hand in his promotion on the spot by the Army Chief of Staff.
“The Chief of Staff of the Army, four star, was just like ‘Hey Sgt. Maj. do you think we should promote him?’, said Muir. “So, he just ripped my rank off. I thought I was in trouble, getting demoted.
“It was crazy, then a specialist rank came out of nowhere. I don't know where the rank came from, there were only like colonels, and the lowest rank there was my staff sergeant. There was no specialist in sight. So that was cool, then I was promoted.”
Through all of this Muir is still a very humble Soldier, always talking about his team and how they work together.
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