Every Veteran’s Day, we pause to honor the men and women who have worn our nation’s uniform. Service in the military is built on a foundation of selflessness, teamwork, and an unwavering commitment to caring for others, even in challenging, sometimes chaotic conditions.

For many veterans, their call to serve and live these values doesn’t end when they retire, it just takes on a new form. At Galen College of Nursing, there’s no better example of this than U.S. Navy veteran Moises Zaragoza, who recently graduated with his Associate Degree in Nursing as he starts a new career and life in the private sector.

Zaragoza encountered plenty of obstacles during his time at Galen, including learning how to think and care like a nurse, but his dedication, passion, and unwavering commitment to his education serves as a shining example for all veterans looking to further their careers as a nurse.

Growing up in Puerto Rico, Moises Zaragoza and his friends idolized Sylvester Stallone’s character John Rambo, from the Rambo film series. So it was no surprise that after graduating high school, Zaragoza enlisted in the Navy and pursued joining the Navy SEALs.

An injury during training camp ended that dream, but it resulted in an impressive 22-year career as a Navy Chief Hospital Corpsman (HMC) and a member of the Special Amphibious Reconnaissance Corpsmen (SARC), who provide military medical services for the U.S. Marine Corps. Zaragoza traveled the world, both on the sea and on land, serving eight combat tours as well with his Marine Corps team in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kenya, Djibouti, and Thailand among other locations.

As a Hospital Corpsman, Zaragoza was often the only person, or part of the only team around to provide any medical services to Sailors and Corpsmen, whether that was medical, mental, dental, or even veterinary services for canine units. After retiring from the Navy, Zaragoza took some time off and was then considering his next move in the private sector, thinking about going into a medical-based role like a physician’s assistant.

But his old Navy HM buddy Joseph Benperlas encouraged him to go the nursing route. And after nearly attending another nursing college, he saw a sign for Galen’, saw it was approved by the Veterans Administration, and decided right there to attend Galen’s Miami campus.

“He said ‘don’t be a PA and work for someone else.’, Zaragoza recalled about a conversation he had with Benperlas, who is now a licensed physician. “He said, ‘go get your RN, and go to nurse practitioner school and you’ll be on the same level (as me).’

“He’s the one who put the bug in my head, so to speak. And the rest is history.”

Zaragoza admits that he struggled with the transition to nursing education. Not because he didn’t know medical terminology already or struggled with the long hours. But because as an HM in the Navy, your job is to stabilize the injured soldier or sailor and help keep them alive as they are transported to a hospital.

In nursing, there’s a different focus, on tending to the injured and making sure that the patient is comfortable and cared for. Diagnosing and solving the symptoms aren’t as much a focus for nursing, and it resulted in Zaragoza having to repeat his advanced med-surg class.

:”I would say that that mentality changed after I repeated advanced med-surg, the last class before the last one,” he said. “I had my eureka moment. Why couldn’t I have thought about that closer to the beginning?

“As a SARC, I am surrounded by war and death and brothers dying in my arms, so I do get the cold because that’s how I was. It took me a while, but Galen did show me what compassionate care is, especially in the clinical setting. It’s one thing is when you’re in class, but it’s another when you’re really seeing a live patient. I have to be compassionate to this person, and not just the patient but to the family too. I would say that the moment for me hit when I was on my third clinical rotation at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at HCA Florida Kendal Hospital. I remember a patient having complications, he had coded two or three times. The family was distressed. It was someone’s dad and husband and grandparent. And actually the nurse, I know she was from Galen, and I was assigned to her that day to shadow her. I saw how she treated not only the family but also encouraged the family to seek some resources. I saw how she treated the patient after he expired for the last time. So I’m like, ‘That’s the other side of the coin.’”

Even though his academic struggles, Zaragoza never stopped working as hard as possible to be the best nursing student he could be. He would arrive an hour before early morning classes, beating some faculty members and staff into the building. And he could regularly be found studying between or after classes in one of the Miami campus study rooms. In fact, he was in one of these study rooms so often that he even put a sign up saying “Moises’ Office”, and joked with faculty members if they wanted to see him, to just stop by his office on campus.

“His determination was unyielding,” current Galen Miami faculty member Michelle Davis, APRN, AGPCNP ADN/BSN, said. “He would do study notes, and he would always share with anybody. He even purchased additional resources and he shared them with everybody too. He was very kind and driven and very persevering and throughout the program, this is the person he is. He failed, and he came right back and repeated the course.

“He’s a serious student, he had his goal to become a nurse, and he did it, and stopped at nothing.”

At Galen, we are proud to be a nursing college that military veterans choose to pursue their nursing education. Our tremendous faculty and staff help all of our students overcome challenges, find a sense of belonging at Galen, and help them realize their best selves as compassionate, talented nurses.

Zaragoza entered Galen and encountered different obstacles to his education, but he never gave up, and now can officially celebrate with his degree and an RN next to his name after he passes the NCLEX test.

Along with our Miami campus, we have active Student Veterans Associations at multiple other Galen campuses, including in San Antonio, Texas. With hundreds of active duty and retired military veterans attending Galen, you can find your small military community at any of our campuses across the nation.

If you are an active duty member or military veteran, Galen College of Nursing can help you on your way to becoming an RN. We offer numerous degree paths with multiple start times during the year for new nurses like yourself.

Consider our PN/VN diploma program, Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) program, and 3-year Baccalaureate Degree in Nursing (BSN) program. Check your local campus location on our website to see which degrees they offer on-site!