The Good Life – July-August 2020

LOCAL HERO | SHANE TIBIATOWSKI
Off the coast of Iraq, Tibiatowski was on watch duty looking for mines in the
water using night vision goggles: “There are different kinds of mines; some
of them are chained to the bottom. There are mines with chemical heads
floating in the water. The Iraqi men would throw dead sheep and goats in the
water and they would eventually bloat. They would turn upside down and all
four legs would stick up. So you would not know what that was in the water.
Is it a mine? Mine watch was …. interesting.”
He remembered a naval recruiter who was “hot after me to sign up. He went
to my sporting events. He really pushed. And 90 percent of what he told me
about what to expect was, quite frankly, crap. But he was good. Well, on my
last trip to the Persian Gulf, guess who I ran into sitting at a bar? Yes, my
recruiter. I sat next to him and told him, ‘Sir, you are one hell of a good liar.’”
Tibiatowski saw much of the world: “By the time I was 22 years old, I had
been to Hawaii five times, and also been to Guam, Sri Lanka, India, Diego
Garcia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Australia, Thailand, Hong Kong, up
and down the coast of Mexico and all over the UAE.”
But the travel weighed on this family man. His first daughter, Morgan, came
after his second WESTPAC. Tibiatowski said, “Although I loved the Navy and
wanted to stay, being away from my family that much was hard on me. I was at
sea every holiday for one reason or another.” Tibiatowski’s desire to be there
for his family drove him to leave the service, retiring with a rank of E4. He
was up for E5 but said, “I knew I was leaving and decided to make room for
someone else.”
Tibiatowski has four daughters and four sons, ranging from ages 6 to 23. Two
of his children are considering military service, but he says, “It is up to them.
I would not sway them.”
Part of his service included humanitarian work in third world countries
involving construction. Tibiatowski asserted: “It is important to give back. I
show my kids that humanitarianism is important.”
“We had boats trying to
outrun us and even to
ram us. We were a strong
steel ship, so trying to ram
us just wasn’t going to
happen. I experienced some
interesting situations,
some of which I can’t talk
about.” – Tibiatowski
Tibiatowski has gained perspective: “I look back at my time on the ship, and
everything was arranged and done so strategically. Our young, naïve crew
was trained well and we discovered just how important every single role on
the ship was. As I sit back and look at it 27 years later, there were so many
reasons behind how it was done. It was a big deal.”
His Navy friendships are valued: “I made many life-long friends in the Navy. We
had a reunion last July. I keep in touch with a few of them. I’ve done mortgage
loans for a few of them. The ties are strong. It’s a brotherhood.”
Tibiatowski recollected: “When I went into the military, I was arrogant. I had
excelled at sports. But when I got to boot camp, I got knocked down a few
notches. Right away, they show you that you belong to the government. It is
a humbling experience – the discipline – everything from making the bed to
how you fold clothes. I still fold my clothes the way I did in the military. Being
from North Dakota, you go into it with a good work ethic. But I did not know
36 / THE GOOD LIFE