Inside the Boxx – Don G.

Meet Don Garcia! He has worked for Sandboxx since April 2022 as a Navy Relations Manager. He spent nearly 28 years in the U.S. Navy, and retired as a Master Chief Petty Officer. Now, he’s serving in another way—connecting our military community, making service members and their supporters more mission-ready than ever before.

Find out why he chose Sandboxx and what it means to him as a Veteran.

Don G. At the Navy Recruit Training Command

What first attracted you to work at Sandboxx?

Sandboxx’s mission of helping to ease the transition for military members and their families is definitely what appealed to me. I have always felt that success in the military depends on support from family and friends. Sandboxx takes their mission seriously, helping military members be successful from their very first day. Every person who I met at Sandboxx while onboarding really cares about supporting service members and that is something that I wanted to be a part of.

What is something unique about your team?

The Military Relations Team is a lot of fun. Even though we are from different branches of service, we all have many shared experiences from our active duty time. I really enjoy interacting with other senior enlisted retirees who share the same passion that I do to help all the branches of the DoD in any way we can. There is also the friendly banter about which branch is ‘better’, but it is all in good fun and it actually enables us to work closer together to support all of our service members.

What is something you’re proud of that you’ve achieved at Sandboxx?

I am most proud of representing the Navy as best as I can to ensure that the uniqueness of each service’s recruiting mission and recruit training mission is highlighted. Updating the weekly updates that are sent to the families gave me a lot of pride. It is impossible to capture everything a recruit may experience or do in basic training, but I feel that some information about what their recruit is experiencing can help the families who are on their own emotional journey.

As a Veteran, what does Sandboxx’s mission of connecting our military community mean to you?

Having spent almost 28 years in uniform, retiring was a challenge because I missed the interaction with my military friends and family. The sense of community between you, your family and friends with your fellow service members and their family and friends is not only critical to success in the military, but also to growing as an individual. Sandboxx’s mission to help build this sense of military community is very appreciated because Sandboxx has taken this task on to properly assist in welcoming family and friends to their military community.