Daniel Gonzalez intensely flips through the pages of a thick black binder. He’s almost to the letter he needs.
The papers and certificates protected by plastic sleeves whizzing by tell the story of Gonzalez’s life in the military. It’s what he calls a “love me” book. Almost all veterans have one.
There’s good, bad, ugly. He doesn’t open it often. For as many good memories that exist in there – like the time Gonzalez helped deliver a baby in the front seat of a car – there are others he wishes he could forget – like when he hopelessly tried to save an Army airborne student whose parachute betrayed him during practice jumps from a plane.
“It’s why veteran lounges like this are so necessary,” he says, sitting on a soft couch in a room tucked away on the second floor of the College Center on SUNY Jamestown Community College’s Cattaraugus County Campus.
“Because we need a time and a place to come and see that there are other people here that know what I'm going through, that have gone through what I've gone through, and have some sort of idea that you're not on an island, that there's all these services that are out there.”
Gonzalez, who resides in Jamestown, served in the Army from 2009 to 2022 as a combat medic. A licensed practical nurse since 2018, he joined JCC’s Nursing program to become an RN.
Beyond schoolwork, Gonzalez advocates for fellow veterans at JCC and beyond. He is active in the college’s Veteran & Military-aligned Club. He played a vital role in starting JCC’s annual Veterans Day 5K Run/Walk on the Jamestown Campus – “That’s my baby,” he says. And he recently attended the Student Veterans of America national conference in Colorado with two others from JCC, thanks to funding from the 5K.
“What we do is provide fellowship for fellow veterans,” Gonazlez says. “This is not just for veterans themselves. This is also for military-aligned students. So, anybody that had a family member – your grandma, your great grandma, your great grandpa – it doesn't matter who served. If you had somebody in your family that did serve, you are eligible to come join us as a military-aligned student.
“There are benefits for you. There's the veterans’ scholarship. There's a veterans’ lounge. There are other services that are accessible to JCC students that are military aligned that are often underutilized. I see it every day I'm on campus. These resources are underutilized, and we need to keep using them. But they're underutilized because students don't know that they're eligible for these programs and these benefits.”
Don Pool, JCC’s Accessibility Services coordinator and veterans club advisor, said Gonzalez is “instrumental in JCC’s mission of helping student veterans get the support and tools they need to succeed.”
“He is a great advocate and model for his fellow students, in and out of the classroom,” Pool added of Gonalez, who has served on JCC’s Student Senate. “This includes his fellow veteran and military-aligned students but also extends as a role model and leader for our traditional students.
Gonzalez has talked with JCC administration and leaders about making it easier for veterans to get started with college and streamlining the process for them to transfer to fellow State University of New York system schools after graduation. He is also pressing for JCC to offer online classes to active military members at Fort Drum’s college center.
Gonzalez believes more veterans don’t take advantage of educational benefits because they’re afraid to apply, afraid of being rejected, afraid of not being able to navigate college procedures for veterans' benefits.
“I think the one thing that stops a veteran from actually coming to college and using their benefits is the fear and difficulty of just applying,” he says. “If you're scared of the application, don't be. Apply for your benefits. If you want to do something, if you want to accelerate your life, if you want to become better, come to college. Use your GI Bill.
“Come to JCC, start off small, take small bites. That's how you eat an elephant, one small bite at a time. Start here and work your way forward.”
Gonzalez has been there. His journey to JCC is one of perseverance and inspiration.
When he decided to join the Army in 2009, Gonzalez was barely making ends meet as a bartender in Buffalo. He rode a bike to work in all kinds of weather conditions. He had made bad decisions.
“What I was doing at that current time in my life was not working out,” he says. “I wasn't being successful. I wasn't in a position where I was happy with what I was doing. I thought I had more to give.”
The “love me” book is proof that he was right. He finally pulls out the letter from 2011 written by the thankful mother of the baby he helped deliver outside Fort Bragg's Womack Army Medical Center, where a weary Gonzalez was leaving after a 12-hour shift.
“That's something that the military taught me," he says. “How do you deliver a baby on the front seat of the car when you've never done it before in your life? Being flexible, adaptable, and calm.
"Yeah, I kept this letter. Because it's definitely one of my happier moments.”
After Gonzalez witnessed the parachute death at Georgia's Fort Moore, it didn’t stop him from getting back in the plane and jumping out himself. And after Gonzalez’s first attempt at JCC in 2016 didn’t work out, he returned in 2023.
Not surprisingly, he has big plans for what's next.
“One thing while I was in the military that I loved was being in the helicopter in the back of a Black Hawk,” he says. “I cannot wait to go back to flight medicine. I don't know if I'm going to be too old, but that's not going to stop me from pursuing my dream, getting my BSN, getting my EMT paramedic license. It's not going to stop me. I might be too old to actually fly, but knowing that I still have the capability to do so, I'm still going to go out and tackle that dream that I have.”
No matter, Gonzalez will be content serving others.
"I love helping people for just the satisfaction of seeing them become better, seeing them move over an obstacle or a challenge," he says. "And that's why I love nursing, because when you're working with the patients and you're working with them one on one, you really get to see them overcome the adversity that they've experienced."