Andrew Powers

Andrew Powers born in Oakland, CA to Robert and Nancy Powers and raised in El Cerrito for the better part of my first 30 years of life. Like many of us, the events of 9/11 began to consume my thoughts and in 2003 I approached an Army Recruiter to explore opportunities to serve my country. My priority was to be in the fight so infantry was the natural choice. I signed on for 6 years 11B (Infantry) with Airborne School right out of Basic. After Basic and Airborne school at Ft. Benning Georgia in 2003/04 my first assignment placed me with B Co 1/30 Infantry, 3rd BDE 3rd ID also at Ft. Benning. The next 8 months consisted of various training exercises leading to our eventual deployment to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom III. While in Iraq B Co provided for convoy security, QRF (quick reaction force) and performed cordon and search missions out of Various FOBs (forward operating bases) in Diyala Province and finally Ar Ramadi for the later half of the deployment. On 3 August 2005 while on a foot patrol of an agricultural area in Eastern Ramadi, our platoon came across a large cache of munitions and explosives buried in a mound of dirt. I was manning the metal detector that day and made the initial discovery. After four hours of digging in shifts and pulling security for one another we finally extracted the largest weapons cache of B Co OIF III deployment. After an inventory and removal of the munitions was complete, our squad took up the trailing element of our patrol and headed back to our egress point on a local road where our Bradley Fighting vehicles and HMVEEs were providing traffic control and security. As our dismount patrol passed the trailing Bradley the enemy detonated an IED in the side of the road. No one else was injured in the blast, thankfully, but I did sustain a shrapnel blast to the face resulting in the loss of use of my left eye, second degree burns a broken jaw and some nasty lacerations. I was whisked away from the scene as our column of armored vehicles engaged the enemy with a wrath only a mechanized infantry company can. After a three-day trek and total of five days in a medically induced coma, a flight via Landstuhl Germany to Brooke Army Medical Center and over a year and a half of recovery I was medically retired from the Army in February of 2007. Almost immediately upon my retirement, I took up positions at USAA. First as a Licensed Insurance Producer (Property & Casualty), establishing and servicing Auto, Homeowners and Valuable Personal Property policies. Later an opportunity to join the brokerage presented itself as a Licensed Brokerage Representative whereby I acquired my series 7, 63 and 65 securities licenses. I remained at USAA for four years and in 2011 left for a position at Wounded Warrior Project as an Outreach Specialist, meeting, advising and supporting the latest generation of wounded warriors as they begin the process of recovery at San Antonio Military Medical Center. Fast-forward eight plus years and I found myself drawn, once again, to serve my fellow service members in a financial industry capacity. Having met Paul Perez, now our branch manager, several years ago, his message always resonated with me. His collaborations with us at WWP in educating our veteran homebuyers further reinforced my belief that they were doing the right thing. Much like my experience providing guidance and services to others through WWP, the information being freely given at Veterans Lending Group was changing lives in a tangible, meaningful way. The realization of the truths that so many are ignorant of (myself included), the resources that so many fail to avail themselves of and the impact VLG has and will continue to have in our veteran community, left me with little choice but to seek out VLG as my new home away from home.