Josh Beninga

The fall after high school, I was on my way down to Basic Training at Ft. Leonard Wood MO and then to Ft. Bragg NC for Psychological Operations Training. A year past and I drove out to California to the U.S. Army Defense Language Institute to study Korean as a second language for 63 weeks, received my Associate of Arts in Korean. January 2, 2003 I received a call that I was to report to my Unit in Arden Hills for possible deployment. February 14, 2003 I left Minnesota for Ft. Bragg NC, left Bragg on 3/21/03 for Kuwait, and six days later was in Iraq where I spent 6 months following the front lines up to Baghdad working in Prisoner Camps disseminating information.
I started attending SMSU in 2004 and received my BA in Psychology in 2006. Worked as a probation officer in Montevideo, a field agent for an electronic home monitoring company (house arrest), and as a Case Manager at Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton.
I was laid off due to lack of contracting agencies at the prison so I applied for a position at Lac qui Parle County as the County Veterans Service Officer assisting veterans in obtaining veteran's benefits. I plan on retiring from this position. There's no position more rewarding than this one; the feeling you get when you see a veteran in need, assist them in obtaining benefits, and the thanks in thier eyes when they come in afterwards is unexplainable.