About
Discussions
Recent Activity -
Bio
My full name is Jose M. Hernandez-Sanchez and was born on January 31, 1972 in Santurce, Puerto Rico. I graduated high school in 1989 at Pedro P. Casablanca High School in Jardines de Caparra, in Bayamon. After graduating I pursuit a career/degree as a Mechanical Engineer and attended to the Polythecnic University of Puerto Rico for three years before getting the bug to join the United States Army.
I join the US Army in December of 1992 and because of my limitations with English I was sent to the Defense Language Institute at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. After completing the course, I proceeded to attend to Basic Training Course in Fort Leonard Wood, better known as “Fort Lost In The Woods”, in Missouri. And me, a young man coming from Puerto Rico where is warm pretty much the entire year to Missouri, oh my! I have never been so cold in my life at that time. Upon basic training completion, I attended Advanced Individual Training or AIT in Lowry AFB in Denver, Colorado to become a Combat Documentation/Production Specialist which at that time the MOS was 25P, but later became 25V which is a combination of video acquisition and editing, and still photography.
Before arriving to my first duty station I attended to Basic Airborne Course in Ft. Benning, Georgia. I then arrived to the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California where I was assigned to Operations Group with the “Vultures” Team or video. Other duty stations include, Training Support Activity Training Korea or TSAK, in Camp Coiner, Seoul, 55th Signal Company also known as combat camera in Fort George G. Meade in Maryland, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) based out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Defense Information School (DINFOS), and become an instructor. After three years of instructing, I returned back to Combat Camera and deployed to Afghanistan in support of Enduring Freedom and Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) under the US Army Rangers.
Changing gears, I have been married twice, and have a daughter during my first marriage. Her name is Rachel and just about to turn 26 years old this month. I’m currently married to a lady named Katherine, we've been married for 20 years. We have two stepdaughters, Stephanie who is 30 and her sister Aliza who is about to be 25.
Military Experiences
2010 - 2013
Squad Leader/Plt. Sgt.
In addition to the duties of a squad leader, I shared duties with my Plt. Sgt. when he was not present or deployed which left me in charge of up to 75 personnel at any given time. Those personnel were tasked to support the SOF community mission at a moment notice.
2007 - 2010
Team Member
The Video Production Documentation section consisted of three teams of 4-5 members from various services. The VPD course is a 72 days course and can have up to 24 students from the Army, Navy and Marines. We provided the knowledge and skills needed to perform the duties required for visual information production assignments supporting video documentation of training and operations, public affairs, joint operations, and studio missions throughout the Armed Forces.
2005 - 2007
Section Leader
Documented units activities/missions both in garrison and deployment environments. As a Section Leader, I was in charge on the welfare of three Soldiers that were embedded on each of the three Battalions. I took a more administrative role under Information Operations /Combat Camera representative, reported directly to a LTC officer and Group Commander.
1997 - 2005
Squad Member
-Operate and perform unit level maintenance on motion, still and studio television cameras.
-Prepare captions for documentation images both on garrison and deployment environments.
-Operate electronic and film-based processing, editing, audio and printing darkroom equipment.
Deployments
(4 years)Aug 2011 - Jan 2012
Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) - Afghanistan
Video and still photography acquisition, and Team Leader/Advisor.
Aug 2006 - Mar 2007
Sep 2005 - Feb 2006
Mar 2004 - Mar 2005
Military Credentials
Professional Development Schools
2007
Basic Instructor's Training
Individual & Special Skill Schools
Certifications
Foreign Language Skills
Security Clearance
Top Secret/SCI or higher
Personal Information
Interests