Q&A with Lt. Col. Justin Constantine
A Wounded Warrior and the Upside of Change
WINTER 2019
Lt. Col. Justin Constantine joined the Marine Corps while in law school and served for six years as a JAG officer. Then as a Reservist, he deployed to Iraq in 2006. During a combat patrol, Justin was shot in the head by a sniper. He credits his wife Dahlia with being the cornerstone of his recovery. Justin is a Presidential Leadership Scholar, was named a Champion of Change for Veterans by President Obama, and was one of the wounded warriors painted by President Bush in “Portraits of Courage.” For his service in Iraq, Justin earned the Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon, and Navy-Marine Corps Commendation Medal. Q: You’ve shared many of the sacrifices that Dahlia made to support your recovery. Please share some of the sacrifices you’ve both made in support of her education and career. When I was shot in Iraq, Dahlia and I were just dating, and she had recently started a PhD program at Cambridge University in England. This was a lifelong dream of hers, and she was very excited to be there. However, Dahlia dropped out of her doctoral program to be with me in the hospital. Although she originally anticipated going back to school later in the semester, she had to permanently leave the program because of the extent of my injuries. We were in Virginia at the time, and Dahlia started teaching third grade. Years later, in 2015, we moved to New York when she was accepted into the PhD program at Teachers College at Columbia University. Dahlia has completed all classes for her PhD and will begin her doctoral thesis next year. In October we moved to England, specifically to Cambridge University, and Dahlia started a one-year Master's program in Children's Literature. She finally will have the Cambridge experience, and we are doing it together. This certainly isn't the educational path Dahlia envisioned 13 years ago — and of course I hadn't imagined moving to NYC and England — but it has been an incredible journey. Q: How did you and your wife grow personally from making such sacrifices? Going through such a traumatic experience actually brought us incredibly close together. I had to rely on Dahlia for virtually everything and had to learn to be okay with that. I have also done everything I can to help Dahlia actualize her dreams. While we have both made significant sacrifices, we view them more as chances to be a true partner in life. I have learned that you gain so much by helping others, and that incredible opportunities can arise from situations that at first seemed incredibly daunting. Q: Please share a little bit about your message of leadership, overcoming adversity and the upside of change as it relates to military family members interested in advancing their education or careers. I heard someone say that you can't help other people until your own house is in order, and I thought that was accurate and profound. We all want to help others, but we can do so much more when we have set ourselves up for success. To me, in today's day and age, that means securing a college degree and identifying a career that you truly enjoy. Neither of those might be easy to do, but neither are military deployments, cross-country moves, and many other things our military family members have to overcome. Personal leadership means determining what you want to do with your life, identifying the steps you have to take to get there, and then putting your plan in action. Of course, that should all be done in consultation with your loved ones. Then you will be in a much stronger position to embrace change, take care of those around you, and to help more people. Q: Why would you encourage others to support ThanksUSA’s mission? Our military family members often put country and family first at the expense of their own education and careers. ThanksUSA helps these family members go to college and move forward in life. Very often it is the troops who get the attention and the family members are shadows in the background, but it shouldn't be like that. Dahlia was there for me when I needed it the most, as are other military family members. This is America's chance to make them a priority. |
Left: Justin featured in “Portraits of Courage,” a book of oil paintings and stories by President George W. Bush
Right: Lt. Col. Justin Constantine at the ThanksUSA Military Family Gala in October 2019 |
