We believe veterans are our nation’s heroes and our Beacon Pointe team is proud to support veterans and military families. May we never take for granted the courage and sacrifice of the men and women of our nation’s Armed Forces who have served to protect our peace and freedom.
To our clients who have served our nation, you have our deepest gratitude. We are grateful to be your financial advisor and we hope that each of you, your families, and your communities have a wonderful Veterans Day.
Additionally, we would like to take a moment to thank our Beacon Pointe team members who also happen to be veterans, Chuck Carrick, Garth Flint, John Gray, Mark Moehlman, David Monsees, Scott Plamondon, Liam Powell, Ryan Quigley, Raul Marquez, and Justin Nelson for their dutiful service to our country. We are excited to share their stories below.
Resources for Veterans
Exiting the military and returning to life as a civilian is an exciting time, but also not without its challenges. If you are a younger veteran or are close with friends or family who are retiring from service, taking steps to preparing your financial future is critically important. To help adjust, our Beacon Pointe team has put together the following financial planning steps as a general guideline to start out on the right path.
Beacon Pointe Veterans
Garth Flint
Co-Founder & Partner
U.S. Navy
Rank Held at Beginning of Service: Ensign
Rank Held at End of Service: Commander
Service Dates: November 1963 – April 1968 Regular, November 1968 – November 1976 Reserves
Work You Did: I flew as a Naval Aviator in the F-4 Phantom, a carrier based with two cruises to North Vietnam. I had 217 missions, was shot down and rescued on the 194thmission. While in my raft in Ha Long Bay, one of the rescue aircraft, flown by a good friend of mine, made a very low pass over me then did a couple of rolls and went back to orbit with the other rescue aircraft. When we returned to the carrier, my friend asked me how I liked his aerobatics and I said, “they scared me more than being shot down!” Most of our missions were flak suppression (bomb the anti-aircraft sites) and then converted to fighter coverage (prevent engagement by enemy aircraft) for the jet attack bombers we were escorting. The balance of the missions was combat air patrol flown next to the coastline to protect the aircraft carriers from enemy aircraft.
Brief Story that Stands Out from Your Service Time: (in conjunction with the above…) My co-pilot and I were conducting a routine weather reconnaissance flight mission in our F-4 Phantom over Vietnam, and we were shot down in the icy waters in the Tonkin Gulf. We survived our emergency ejection from our jet, and we were rescued! A short story on our harrowing experience was published by Tom Wolfe, in “The Truest Sport: Jousting with Sam & Charlie.”
Charles (Chuck) E. Carrick, CFP®, ChFC
Partner, Managing Director
U.S. Army
Rank Held at Beginning of Service: Private E-1
Rank Held at End of Service: E-5 in the National Guard, upon later graduating from college and achieving 2nd Lieutenant status.
Service Dates: 1977 to 1981 Regular Army, 1981-1984 National Guard and Reserves
Work You Did: 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) Ft Myer, Virginia, spending 2 years as a Sentinel at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Brief Story that Stands Out from Your Service Time: I was fortunate to serve in a time of peace, however many of the leaders I served under were Vietnam veterans. They taught me about dedication, honor, sacrifice, and teamwork. These soldiers helped to ensure that we truly understood the incredible honor we had to be sentinels at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. A place where families from across the country came to connect and honor those who sacrificed everything so that we could enjoy our freedoms.
John Gray
Chief Financial Officer
U.S. Marine Corps
Rank Held at Beginning of Service: Private
Rank Held at End of Service: Corporal
Service Dates: 1989 – 1993
Work You Did: Military Police Officer
Brief Story that Stands Out from Your Service Time: I participated in Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Our MP unit provided security for a very strategic base that was approximately 50 miles from Kuwait. The base provided water and fuel to all the Marine ground units and aircraft positioned along the front lines. After the start of the air campaign, Iraqi military began to launch scud missiles over the course of 3 nights trying to hit our base. On the 3rd night, our military identified the location of where the missiles were being launched and destroyed the launch sites. Two missiles hit our base but fortunately there were no casualties. We felt like sitting ducks but knew it was only a matter of time before we would locate and take out the enemy.
Jurgen Scwarze
Operations Manager
U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Air National Guard
Rank Held at Beginning of Service: Marine Corps – Private (E1) and Air National Guard – Staff Sergeant (E5)
Rank Held at End of Service: Marine Corps – Sergeant (E5) and Air National Guard – Chief Master Sergeant (E9)
Service Dates: November 1974 – January 1979 Marine Corps, March 1985 – November 2016 Air National Guard
Work You Did: I served as a musician for my entire military career, starting as an instrumentalist/clarinetist in the Marines and retiring as the Band Manager of the 562 AF Band in Channel Islands. My expertise was as a woodwind doubler – Piccolo, Flute, Clarinet, (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bari, and Bass) saxophones.
During my last seven years of service, I operated at the strategic level as the Unit’s senior enlisted member representing the 36 Airmen of the 562nd Air Force Band. Some of my duties included organizational development, training and leadership mentoring, unit resource oversight, and strategic mission development and planning.
Brief Story that Stands Out from Your Service Time:
The most notable experiences include;
- 1990 – Air National Guard All-Star Band – Alto Saxophone Featured Soloist, Concert and Jazz Ens.
- 1992 – 50th Commemoration of the Battle of the Coral Sea in Australia
- 2003 – Drum majored the United States Air Force Total Forces Band at the Pasadena Rose Bowl Parade
- 2007 – The first United States and Peruvian Air Show in Lima, Peru
- 2008 – Deployed to Qatar, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq
- 2009 – NATO-fest with the United States Air Force Band Europe in Kaiserslautern, Germany
My career was extraordinary as a dedicated servant to my Airmen and our great nation as a musical ambassador. Military Bands are often described as a premier soft power weapons system. Whether we performed for community relations or military ceremonies, we were an integral part of Public Affairs, messaging high-level content to civilian and military communities.
Justin Nelson, CFP®
Financial Planner
U.S. National Guard
Rank Held at Beginning of Service: Airman
Rank Held at Beginning of Service: Private
Rank Held at End of Service: Sergeant
Service Dates: July 2001 to September 2012
Work You Did: I joined the Army National Guard after watching 9/11 on TV my freshman year of college. I wanted to do my part but never had a desire to be in the military, so the compromise was the National Guard. I joined as a 13B, cannon crew member; however, when we deployed to Iraq we didn’t bring our howitzers and filled an infantry mission. We did missions like route clearance, patrols, convoy security, and raids. When I was deciding to reenlist a recruiter convinced me to take the DLAB, which is a language aptitude test. I scored high enough that I could choose any language to learn at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA. So, I reenlisted as a 35M, interrogator, and went to DLI to learn Chinese.
Brief Story that Stands Out from Your Service Time: While we were out on patrol in Suladamia, Iraq in 2004 we got a tip that someone had buried an IED in the middle of town, so we followed SOPs and started to put security in the area to keep people away. We didn’t know how to get to the other side of the IED without driving right past it, so we got help from a couple of MH-6 Little Birds (small helicopters). They offered to guide us through town by hovering shortly in the direction I should drive to get through town (these are the days before Google Maps). They had to be fast because of how low they were flying so they would only hover for a few seconds and then speed off to safety, then their partner would hover over the next intersection for a few seconds. I had to drive much faster than we normally would to keep up. We were speeding down alleys, bouncing around on their unkept dirt roads, skidding around corners, all in a 3-ton armored hum-V with people jumping out of the way startled just like a car chase in an 80s movie. Blowing up the IED we were doing security for is another fun story, but bouncing and skidding through narrow streets in a hostile town was probably the most fun I had during the whole deployment.
Liam Powell, CFP®, CRPS®
Wealth Advisor
U.S. Marine Corps
Rank Held at Beginning of Service: Private First Class (PFC)
Rank Held at End of Service: Sergeant
Service Dates: 2006 to 2012
Work You Did: Coordinated supply logistics and served as platoon sergeant for C Co. 4th Combat Engineer Battalion.
Brief Story that Stands Out from Your Service Time: Our engineering unit was deployed to Kotzebue, Alaska (in the arctic circle) to survey a build site for a road to the town, as the people who lived there currently relied solely on barges for their supplies. For the entire time we were there, the sun never set, and the ground was covered in a thick layer of sponge-y moss over the permafrost. The sleep deprivation made for a surreal experience, and it was very interesting to interact with the Inuit tribespeople that live there, and to see how even though we are all citizens of the same country, our lives could not have been more different. I believe military service gave me opportunities early in life to interact with cultures outside my own and craft a larger worldview than I would have experienced otherwise.
Mark Moehlman, MBA
Partner, Managing Director
U.S. Army, Finance Corps
Rank Held at Beginning of Service: entered military service as a draftee (private)
Rank Held at End of Service: exited as a Specialist 4th Class
Service Dates: April 15, 1969 to January 14, 1971
Work You Did: Basic Training at Ft. Ord, CA, April-June, 1969; Payroll specialist at Ft. Hood, Texas from July, 1969 to April, 1970; Payroll specialist at DaNang, Vietnam from May, 1970 to January, 1971. I paid the troops that did the actual fighting.
Brief Story that Stands Out from Your Service Time: The highlight of my Vietnam tour was coming home for a two-week leave in November of 1970, and seeing both the SC-UCLA and SC-Notre Dame football games in the L.A. Coliseum.
Raul Marquez
M&A Analyst
U.S. Air Force
Rank Held at Beginning of Service: Airman Basic (E-1)
Rank Held at End of Service: Senior Airman (E-4)
Service Dates: May 7, 2012 – May 7, 2018
Work You Did: I worked in the Maintenance Group in the Precision Measurement Equipment Laboratory (PMEL) flight. The following is a description taken from the USAF website. “Any time a piece of equipment or machinery is used, there are an infinite number of things that need to work perfectly. Responsible for calibrating equipment used in virtually every phase of maintenance, Precision Measurement Equipment Laboratory specialists ensure that every piece of equipment is in precise working order. These experts must utilize exacting attention to detail as they take measurements in increments as small as millionths to ensure everything is safe for our Airmen to operate.”
Brief Story that Stands Out from Your Service Time: My time stationed in Misawa AB, Japan was special. This was an amazing opportunity to travel and experience the active-duty Air Force in a fighter base. I was stationed in Japan for two years from 2013 -2015 and this was my first assignment out from training. My flight (workplace) was small, we had about 15 personnel assigned and there was a consistent change of personnel. A brief story that stands out is during a war exercise, I was part of a team that successfully accomplished building out an F-16 fuel tank and traveled to Tokyo twice.
Ryan Quigley, CFP®, CRPC®
Wealth Advisor
U.S. Marine Corps
Rank Held at Beginning of Service: Private
Rank Held at End of Service: Lance Corporal
Service Dates: January 2005 – January 2009
Work You Did: Heavy Equipment Operator- Convoy Security during Iraq Deployment
Brief Story that Stands Out from Your Service Time: During a deployment to Iraq, our platoon was returning to base from a night patrol in search of IED’s and ensuring the main supply routes were secure. Our team was exhausted from a long day that turned to night, traveling hundreds of miles in our 4 Humvee (HMMWV) patrol. As we waited at the gate to enter back into base, our platoon leader shot a small pin flare into the desert night sky, he then got on the radio and told everyone happy 4th of July and to remember how good we have things back home. As I watched this flare go up like a “firework” it really put things into perspective for me how great it is to call the United States home and the many things I take for granted. The greatest part of serving was having people of all different backgrounds and walks of life, coming together for a common mission/goal.
Scott Plamondon, CLU®, ChFC®
Vice President, Insurance Services
U.S. Air Force
Rank Held at Beginning of Service: Airman
Rank Held at End of Service: Senior Airman
Service Dates: 1984 to 1987
Work You Did: Crew Chief on a KC-135 Air Refueler
Brief Story that Stands Out from Your Service Time: I joined the Air Force to help pay for college and got to travel the world on the plane. I was able to finish 3 years of college at night. I loved my time in the Air Force and it was an honor to serve my country.
David Monsees
Wealth Advisor
U.S. Navy
Rank Held at Beginning of Service: Ensign (O-1)
Rank Held at End of Service: Lieutenant Commander (O-4)
Service Dates: Commissioned April 2011, left active-duty November 2019. US Navy Reserves from November 2019 through May 2022.
Work You Did: I served as a Submarine Officer. My tours of duty were as follows: 1.5 years training in nuclear power theory, reactor operations, and submarine warfare. 3 years as a division officer on a nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine, the USS Greeneville. I worked as the Reactor Controls Assistant, Assistant Weapons Officer, and the ship’s Diving Officer. 1.5 years as Submarine Operations / Plans Officer for Destroyer Squadron Nine, which was attached to the USS Nimitz Strike Group (aircraft carrier and associated support ships/aviation squadrons). Assisted in planning missions for the strike group and coordinating activities that involved real or simulated submarine coordination and anti-submarine warfare. 2 years as a Team Chief for the New START Treaty, based at Travis AFB in CA. I led a team that escorted Russian diplomats periodically around the western US nuclear missile bases, airfields, and storage facilities. This was part of the US and Russia’s bilateral agreement (no longer an active treaty as of 2024) for on-site inspections of nuclear weapons for both countries in an effort to reduce the number of nuclear armaments held by each nation’s military. At the end of my active-duty service, I joined the Navy Reserves, working as an operational planner for the US 3rd fleet maritime component commander. I left the Reserves in 2022 to focus my full-time efforts in financial services.
Brief Story that Stands Out from Your Service Time: Near the end of a long deployment on the submarine, we were transiting back to port for some critical inspections and maintenance. We were struggling to maintain our usual fast underwater speeds. Early on the day of our arrival to port, I was the officer who, along with a lookout, was the first to enter the “sail” of the submarine and assume legal control over the ship as we surfaced to transit into port. This would be the first time anyone had been outside the submarine in about 2 months. As the lookout and I left the confines of the watertight hatch to enter the sail and climb into the bridge (space where the OOD controls the ship while surfaced), he screamed like nothing I had heard before at sea. This was about one or two in the morning, and once our flashlights illuminated the sail, we saw what looked like a giant aquarium dumped into this small space. There were fish, sea worms, barnacles, and all manner of aquatic life growing on every surface. After donning protective gear and outfitting ourselves with chisels and crowbars, we slowly climbed 25 feet up into the top of the sail. As sunrise came that morning, we discovered the entire surface of the submarine was coated in a thick layer of barnacles and algae. This thick layer of growth was the reason for our impaired speeds. Once the hot sun began to kill and bake the sea life, it got much worse. I will never forget the incredible amount of work the crew put into scraping the hull clean or the horrible smell of rotting sea creatures that lingered for weeks. The “glue” that barnacles used to anchor onto ships was unable to be removed and eventually had to be painted over while in drydock later that year.
Your Dollars, Our Sense
A Veteran's Day Tribute
In a special Veterans Day tribute, Beacon Pointe’s Dollars & Sense podcast host, Coby Cress, sits down with Beacon Pointe co-Founder and Vietnam Veteran, Garth Flint. Garth flew F-4 fighter jets for the U.S. Navy while assigned to several carriers, including the U.S.S. Coral Sea. In 1967, right after Christmas, his recon plane was shot down over Haiphong in the Gulf of Tonkin by a North Vietnamese AAA anti-aircraft gun. In this episode, Garth shares his story, providing insight into what life as a civilian and investment consultant has looked like since that fateful day, and more.
Important Disclosure: This report is for informational purposes only. Opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice. Beacon Pointe has exercised all reasonable professional care in preparing this information. The information has been obtained from sources we believe to be reliable; however, Beacon Pointe has not independently verified, or attested to, the accuracy or authenticity of the information. Nothing contained herein should be construed or relied upon as investment, legal or tax advice. All investments involve risks, including the loss of principal. Investors should consult with their financial professional before making any investment decisions. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Beacon Pointe is not responsible for errors or omissions in the material on third-party websites and does not necessarily approve or endorse the information provided.
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