Stir-fry guy discusses decision to join the Army
Frank Berta
Every morning at 7 a.m. Donald Meeks begins preparing his daily special, chopping vegetables and preparing sauces at the ‘World Fare’ station in the cafeteria.Around 10 a.m., depending on the dish of the day, a line begins to form. The ‘regulars’ arrive at the lunch counter, waiting for their daily fix.
Always aimed with a smile, and an infectious sense of humor, Meeks entertains his hungry guests. “The food might not be good, but the conversation is,” said Meeks.
“I come here to see Donald…to get harassed and to harass him,” said Doreen Kelly, one of the regulars. “It’s the bright spot in my day, he’s a lot of fun… he treats his regulars very well.”
But doing stir fry and making good conversation isn’t all that’s on his plate.
Unknown to most, Meeks is also a member of the armed forces, a multi-media illustrator in the US Army, and quite possibly the army’s best PR man.
Get him talking about the army and it’s easy to see why.
“It’s built to be a huge family. It’s one huge cohesive unit,” he said.
“You have to be able to trust the person next to you with your life. And you can just imagine, if you get in a bind, they are going to help you get out of that bind. With that kind of support system, life becomes much easier. You don’t feel as much stress as you would in the civilian world, where there’s not that support system.”
Born in Louisiana and raised in Virginia, Meeks moved to Arizona in 2007 to study graphic design at a local art school, but after a semester he joined the army reserves and was sent to Fort Benning, Georgia, where he spent 12 months doing his basic training. He is currently a multi-media illustrator in the reserves.
Returning to Arizona, he began taking classes at MCC in the fall semester of 2008, continuing to study graphic design and then began working in the cafeteria.
Quite possibly, this ‘stir fry conversation’ may have contributed to his decision to change his major to public relations and become a public specialist for the army, the equivalent of a public relations title in the civilian world.
Meeks’ decision to join the army also gives a glimpse of his character.
“I saw them sending soldiers over and over,” he said, “I thought, if I join up it will take a little of the stress off of them.”
“I know people who have been on nine or 10 tours, it’s slowly chipping away at their sanity. They have families, they have kids, all these different things going, and I don’t have that, so I figured, give them a break.”
Not a stranger to difficult situations, Meeks was in Louisiana during hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and was trapped by the storm.
“I was in Oakdale when Katrina hit, we tried to run from the storm, but we ended up running into the second one, Rita,” he said, “We got stuck in Lake Charles for about two weeks.”
Meeks later traveled to New Orleans to help with the cleanup.
“If you saw the waves,” he said, “then it wasn’t good. It was just tragic.”
Speaking on behalf of soldiers, he said, “You don’t have to support the war, but support the soldiers, because if you don’t, it’s disrespectful. They have to put on a uniform, pick up a gun, go out there and put themselves in harms way every night, so that I can clock in and flip food for people, so that everything that goes on here can go on,” Meeks said.
