Recardo Wright is a long way from home. The Screven County High School alumnus is currently serving his country in Singapore as a chief petty officer and chief electrician's mate for the U.S. Navy's Destroyer Squadron 7. Recently, Wright also got to meet U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin during his visit to Singapore, and even shared a few laughs with him. The Sylvania Telephone spoke with Wright over ZOOM on Monday, June 27, to discuss his military journey, life in Singapore and his goals for the future:

Q: For Sylvanians who don't know you, tell them a bit about yourself.

A: I was born in Augusta, I was raised, a little bit, in Waynesboro … I grew up in Sylvania. Graduated from Screven County High School in 2002. Joined the Navy in August 2002.

Q: What made you want to enlist?

A: When I graduated, my parents gave me two options: either go to college or join the military, gotta do something with your life. So, at the time, I didn't come from a rich family so I didn't wanna put that burden of going to college on my parents 'cause I didn't get a scholarship, and coming right out of high school, I was done with school.

Q: Why did you choose the electrical path?

A: When I was growing up in middle/high school, one of my uncles, he was an electrician. So, during the summer breaks, I used to work with him, do little small stuff, like showing me how to wire up a receptacle or ceiling fan and stuff like that. I was like "You know what, I like doing this!"

Q: So how is military life similar or different from what you imagined it would be when you first signed up?

A: A huge culture shock. My first time leaving Georgia was in 2002. I got on a plane headed straight to Illinois, it's a boot camp. After the boot camp, I went to my electrician's mate school, then went to Norfolk, Virginia, and Norfolk, Virginia, was a culture shock too because, being from a small town, we don't have those big buildings or that traffic.

Q: When did you get to Singapore and what's it like over there?

A: Been in Singapore coming up on three years. Living here is very different. Singapore is a very clean country, it's a very safe country, and a very rich country. The food is very different. Mostly Muslims live here, so a lot of the foods are Halal, or permitted by Islamic teaching.

Q: Have you had any family or friends visit you there? What did you show them?

A: Some of my friends came out to visit … brought them out here, showed them the culture, showed them the different foods and lifestyles.

We've got these spots called the "Hawker Centres," it's a center with what looks like mini food trucks, and they got all different foods you can choose from.

Q: How is life there similar or different from being in Sylvania?

A: I don't see no similarities [laughs] you know, back home we'd go fishing, we'd go hunting, we'd go mud bogging, stuff like that. You can't do none of that here. You can go fishing, that's about it.

Q: What was the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on your end?

A: Here in Singapore, almost everything closed down. The majority of the country couldn't go to work, everybody was teleworking from home. 

We had this one period called the "circuit breaker" where nobody could travel anywhere, come in the country, go out the country, for like three weeks.

Singapore is very transparent, so they're not ashamed to say how many COVID cases we got this day or that day, so they pretty much keep everybody up to speed.

Now that the traveling's opened, I've been to Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, all the southeast countries.

Q: Do you have a favorite place from those Southeast Asian countries you've visited?

A: Hong Kong and Thailand. Thailand's a very beautiful country, the beaches are awesome, food is great, the U.S. dollar goes a very long way, so I can probably get a five-star hotel room for probably, like, $60. 

Q: Your trip has given you a lot of unique stories to take back home, and on June 12, you got to add another: Meeting the secretary of defense. What was that like?

A: I found out a couple days before. I was coming off of duty Saturday, and came into work that Sunday, and me and my two other shipmates got together, went to the other base (we have two bases here), set everything up. He came in, did a little interview with my chain of command, talked with him a little bit, shook hands, gave me a nice coin … I think that's probably one of the biggest highlights in my naval career.

Q: What did you talk about and what was he like?

A: He asked me what made me join the military … and was like "Sylvania's a long way from the ocean. How'd you join the Navy?" We laughed about that.

It was surreal, like "Am I really meeting this guy right now?" Very tall guy, very soft spoke, but his words are very powerful. 

Q: You've already accomplished a lot. What goals do you have going forward?

A: I am coming near to my military career. So, after Singapore, I leave here in September, and I'm headed over to Bahrain, so I'll be in Bahrain for 18 months. Then, after 18 months, I'm gonna go ahead and retire and I'll probably come back here in Singapore to work as a civilian, 'cause I've got a guaranteed job to work here; doing the same thing I'm doing now, I can do the same thing in the civilian world, but making more money.

Q: For the young Sylvanians looking up to successful Sylvanians like yourself, do you have any advice or tips?

A: I'd tell them to, first of all, listen to their parents, because their parents aren't going to tell them anything wrong. Graduate, set goals for yourself. If you wanna go to college, if you wanna go to the military, set that goal, set it high, aim for it, shoot for it, and reach that goal; and everything that they learn in that path, pay it forward to somebody else behind them.