Carl Brosky served all over the world while he was in the United States Army for over 25 years.
Editor's Note: Hometown Heroes is a recurring feature in the Plant City Times & Observer in which we profile veterans from Plant City. If you have a loved one currently serving or who has served in the past, please contact Managing Editor Amber Jurgensen by email at ajurgensen@plantcityobserver.com or by phone at (813) 704-6850.
When retired Lt. Col. Carl Brosky first joined the United States Army in 1985, he had dreams of becoming a pilot.
It was just after his graduation from Plant City High School. Brosky had been inspired to join the armed forces after serving in JROTC for three years and having encouraging leaders.
“I had always had an interest in the military,” Brosky said.
Brosky retired in 2013 at age 44 after a career that spanned over 25 years and took him all over the world, including Iraq, Germany and El Salvador.
“It’s not for everybody,” Brosky’s wife, Patti, said. “It was a wonderful life, definitely difficult at times. But overall, we really enjoyed it.”
Soaring Through the Ranks
Brosky’s military career began with three years spent in the 82nd Airborne Division. Then he joined the reserve special forces unit in Tampa and went back on active duty to get a qualification for special forces.
Brosky later attended Florida Southern College in Lakeland, where he majored in political science and served in ROTC before graduating in 1993. He was commissioned as an Army officer and once again went on active duty.
Following his marriage to Patti, Brosky and his new bride moved to Germany, where he was stationed for three years and went on deployments to Albania, Hungary, Greece and Bosnia.
“After I came back from Germany, I went through an advanced course,” Brosky said.
Brosky became a logistics officer and enrolled in a parachute rigger course. His next move brought him to Fort Bragg, in North Carolina. He and his family were stationed there for seven years.
Both of Brosky’s children, Olivia and Jack, were born in Fort Bragg. During that time, Brosky was deployed to a number of relief operations in Central America.
“I went to a disaster relief operation in El Salvador,” Brosky said. “I also traveled to Nicaragua for Hurricane Mitch relief. That was a big deployment.”
The 1998 storm, which was classified as a Category 5 hurricane, never entered Nicaragua, but caused rain that eventually led to a massive mudslide.
During his deployments, Brosky worked as a logistics officer. As such, he was part of the largest and most diverse branch of the Army: logistics officers did everything from baking bread and water purification to working as parachute riggers.
“The Army chose it for me,” Brosky said. “I wanted to be a helicopter pilot, but ended up being a logistics officer.”
Still, Brosky was passionate about the work he did. He eventually worked his way up to commanding a parachute rigging company. The work was meticulous and precise, but absolutely necessary — parachute riggers are responsible for ensuring parachutes are properly packed, maintained and repaired.
“Chicks dig riggers,” Patti Brosky said. “It’s one of the most important jobs.”
“It’s a very small community,” Brosky added. “There were four companies. My company did personnel parachutes and light cargo. Two other companies did repair.”
As he progressed through the Army, Brosky transitioned into another branch of logistics as a civil affairs officer.
Three Tours
Brosky was deployed in Colombia during the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack.
He returned home to his family for the birth of his son, Jack, and deployed to Iraq one month later for the first of three tours.
“During my first tour, I worked with the British in the western part of Iraq,” he said. “We helped small towns get
reestablished.”
Brosky was in Iraq for about four months for his first tour.
His second tour lasted about a year. There, he was a contract logistics officer.
“We coordinated everything from dining facilities to sewage treatment plants,” Brosky said. “That was really challenging. It’s tough to do. Everything is a contract. Here you are in a war zone, working with civilians.”
Brosky’s third tour in Iraq lasted nine months. During this time, he served as an executive officer for a battalion that supported a brigade. Brosky was the second in command and in charge of the staff during that tour, until he left to go to school to become a lieutenant colonel.
He attended the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, from 2008 to 2009. After earning his master’s degree in national security and strategic studies, Brosky and his family returned to Florida. He served as a liaison officer at MacDill for special operation command units until his retirement in 2013. By that time, Brosky had a few wear and tear injuries from his time in the military, and he was ready to spend quality time with his family.
“My biggest lessons, I think, were being patient and learning how to influence things to get something done. You don’t do things the same way with everybody every time. You have to do what works.”
–Ret. Lt. Col. Carl Brosky
“I was kind of limping into the finish line,” he said.
“It’s very physically demanding, a lot of it,” Patti added. “He was ready to be home more than he was away. He was gone a lot still. He was ready to see a baseball game or a dance recital or whatever the kids were doing at the time, and not after the fact.”
While Brosky never became a pilot during his time in the Army, his dream will soon be realized. Brosky now works for Ground Level, a company that is focused on land restoration. Brosky works on the purchasing side but is attending flight school so that he will be able to fly to look at a piece of property.
Today, he attributes much of his success to the years he spent in the military.
“My biggest lessons, I think, were being patient and learning how to influence things to get something done,” Brosky said. “You don’t do things the same way with everybody every time. You have to do what works.”
Brosky continues to be inspired by the number of people who sign up to serve.
“They know what they’re getting into now,” he said. “It’s amazing what kinds of people are serving now. It’s phenomenal … it’s amazing how professional they are.”
Contact Emily Topper at etopper@plantcityobserver.com.
