Brian Bassett, 47

Chicago Auto Show at McCormick Place

What are you doing at the Auto Show? We’re displaying some of the technology and vehicles of the U.S. Army and talking to the public about opportunities to serve.

So, recruiting? Yes. Last year, we got about 20,000 leads due to our presence here. About 8,000 of those paid off.

When did you join? Twenty-six years ago. March 6, 1986. I was attending college as a junior and doing well—but all I really wanted to do was jump out of airplanes and run through the woods. So I dropped out of school, went straight to a recruiting station and joined up. Twenty-six years later, I’m a lieutenant colonel and my wife’s also on active duty in the military. We met while we were serving.

Have you been, as they say, “in the shit”? I’ve been employed in theaters around the world, yes: Germany, Korea, Spain, Ukraine, Poland, Iraq. Theaters of operation—not movie theaters, although I have been in movie theaters in other parts of the world. [Laughs]

Favorite military film? Francis Ford Coppola’s Gardens of Stone. D.B. Sweeney plays a young infantry soldier assigned to the Old Guard, which protects the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, until he ships off to Vietnam.

Are you happy President Obama withdrew all troops from Iraq? Uh…I think as long as we’ve completed our mission there, the Army will respect the commander in chief’s decision.