Photo By Maj. Nadine Wiley De Moura | Brandon, Godinez, a U.S. Air Force IT specialist of the 690th Cyberspace Control...... read more read more
SAN ANTONIO—Brandon, Godinez, a U.S. Air Force IT specialist of the 690th Cyberspace Control Squadron, walked swiftly to the front of the 688th Cyberspace Wing Commander’s Call audience to collect his Wing level award for Civilian of the Quarter Oct 28. 2022. Few people in the crowd know what it took for Godinez to achieve the award, or that it is his 12th award since arriving at the Wing in August of 2018.
Godinez is 100% deaf and a survivor of thyroid and lymphatic cancer.
Disabilities that he says he will not allow to dictate his career trajectory or keep him from achieving his goals in life.
“No matter what, if I decide that I want something and I have the motivation for it I will find a way to get it done,” said Godinez.
“I feel like people put a lot of mental limitations on themselves but if you free yourself of those limitations you can accomplish a lot.”
Godinez, 30, began his career in the DoD as part of the Student Employment Program working at the Pentagon in Washington D.C. He then transferred to the 690th Cyberspace Control Squadron in August of 2018.
His ultimate goal was to become a Palace Acquire intern, which would require him finishing his bachelor’s degree.
“I really wanted to be a palace acquire intern and I really wanted to be a GS 11 and a leader in the Air Force,” said Godinez who was diagnosed with Cancer during the COVID-19 Pandemic resulting in the loss of all lymph nodes in his thyroid as well as the inner portion of his esophagus.
“I decided that then and there I wasn’t going to decide what was dictated to me even with covid and cancer and being deaf—I took 17 classes that year and I have the transcript to prove it,” said Godinez.
“It wasn’t easy but COVID made things easier because I got a lot of the mental energy back from the energy that I’d normally sink into coming into the work place and having to work around my disability. It freed up the time and mental effort that I normally take to engage with people at the office, deal with traffic and I was able to redirect it to school and work.”
Godinez said his parents taught him that you can do two things in life, give up or keep pushing forward until things become better.
“I had already been through a lot at that point and I am a very determined person—which sometimes makes me at odds with others,” Godinez added.
He underwent cancer treatment, surgery, and finished his degree all while working full time at the Squadron.
Godinez beat cancer, but was left with an accumulation of medical bills. In order to pay them down, he took up an additional night shift job working at a warehouse.
He successfully graduated last year with his bachelor’s degree in cybersecurity, networking and cyber warfare from Texas A &M.
That same year, Godinez was nominated to the Texas A & M hall of fame and has been named a spokesperson for people with disabilities at Texas A & M.
Godinez who says he had hard childhood growing up, doesn’t normally recognize his own accomplishments as his parents expected nothing less than perfection. And for him, he was so used to adversity that he always just finds a work around to get the task done and doesn’t see barriers as challenges.
As the child of an Air Force family, stationed in Germany for nine years of his life, he has also acquired skills in the German, Spanish, French, Italian languages and knows American Sign Language.
“My folks were pretty tough on me, expecting nothing less than perfection and didn’t see my disability as an excuse not to accomplish anything,” said Godinez. “It taught me how to function in a world where people don’t really work around your disability.”
Godinez says the downside to his upbringing was that it made him more of a confrontational person when ever someone tries to shuffle him under the rug or ignore him because of his disability.
“A lot of times I have to step up and say ‘you’re going to pay attention to me and listen to what I have to say’,” said Godinez. “Like my mom who was a Senior Master Sergeant in the Air Force, I have learned to have the personality where I am in not going to be just a butterfly on the wall.”
Like his mother, he has begun racking up Air Force awards for his accomplishments and work ethic.
“It has been really validating for me because under prior leadership many things would have won me an award, but the culture at time didn’t recognize that,” said Godinez.
Henry Hall, Deputy Squadron Commander for the 690th Cyberspace Control Squadron is one leader who has specifically noticed what an asset Godinez is to the unit.
“I’ve known him for four years and he is a hard worker, always comes in with a positive attitude, great demeanor and is easy to work with,” said Hall.
“He handles our accounts and gives us the access we need to do our work. He’s a doer and is always willing to get the job done no matter what.”
Godinez said he became interested in computers when he could no longer work as a mechanic after an accident.
“I have always been a bit of nerd and liked working on cars—I was a mechanic in Germany until a truck fell on me and crushed my left hand,” said Godinez with a laugh. “So I decided to get into computers which is much safer—unless I get crushed by a falling computer.”
Godinez sees himself as a leader and aspires to be a commander GS-15 one day and work in Cybersecurity.
“When you help other improve around you, the workplace improves as a whole,” said Godinez. “
“I have a great education in cyber security and strong interest in it. I build servers and I have built some internal networks before. I’d like to continue improving our security posture and find ways to disseminate that education to the civilian populace as well.”
Godinez said he consistently looks to help develop those around him and show genuine care and compassion.
“I don’t immediately dismiss others for their misgivings, I look for opportunities to help them find ways to advance in their careers and point out thing,” said Godinez.
“Having lived in Germany, been disabled all of my life, it is easier for me to open my eyes to see different perspectives especially because I come from a position where I have been on the receiving end of non-empathetic interactions.”
U.S. Air Force Tech Sgt. Alexander Samuels has worked alongside Godinez at the Squadron for the past four years.
“Brandon is a fantastic worker, direct, motivated and does not hold back,” said Samuels. “As someone with disabilities, I think he overcompensates and outworks all of the civilians around him. My previous perspective was that civilians didn’t always work as hard as uniformed members, but his performance has blown my expectations out of the water.”
Godinez’s advice for others with disabilities is to not shy away from advocating for yourself, or others will take subtle shortcuts so they don’t have to accommodate you and push you out of the way to get the mission done.
“Folks never accommodated for disability which made me develop to always find a work around to get what I needed done,” said Godinez. “If I couldn’t use phone, I’d get someone else to do it , or find resources to get what I need done, or delegate task until I got resources I need. It has happened like this my whole life.”
While Godinez continues to strive for greatness he has pointed out that there is still along way to go with facilitation of accommodations for people with disabilities in the workplace.
“I ask that people keep an open mind and not be shy about working with or helping those with disabilities,” said Godinez. “ I am my only frame of reference of someone with a disabilitiy in the workplace. I feel like I wouldn’t need to be so abrasive if more people were aware of disabled employees—most of us work harder than everyone around us because we have something to prove.”
I have to be my own advocate—which sometimes means rubbing people the wrong way if I want to get somewhere in life and be successful, he added.
“ We still need cultural change across all workplaces where people aren’t judged by their person as a whole, but what they are capable of doing,” said Godinez.
“The person I replaced wasn’t able to accomplish the things I have. It is all about your motivation, work ethic and will power to get things done.”
| Date Taken: | 11.01.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 11.01.2022 12:23 |
| Story ID: | 432412 |
| Location: | SAN ANTONIO , TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 96 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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