Brad Noftell, U.S. Navy; Public Utilities/Wastewater
Brad Noftell had planned to be a drummer. He started drum lessons when he was 3 years old and entered college as a music major. That’s when he realized how difficult it might be to make a living as a professional musician. “Let’s face it, the music industry is very competitive,” Noftell says. “And music was more of a hobby for me.” So he graduated from college without knowing what career path he should follow.
At age 25, he joined the Navy. He considered becoming a career military officer, but, at the very least, he wanted to learn skills that he could use as a 
civilian. In the Navy, Noftell says he gained technical knowledge that would have cost him a lot of money to learn in school. He also learned how to adapt quickly to new situations and to a range of people and personalities.
Noftell was in the Navy for seven years. He was stationed in Guam for three years and was on ships that took him to places like Japan, China, Australia and Russia. “My experiences and what I was taught in the Navy help me all the time in everyday life,” he says. “From the technical side, to the responsibility side, to communication.”
Noftell is now an operator at the Long Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant. He says the City of Gastonia was welcoming to him as a military veteran and values his experiences in the Navy.
According to Noftell, Veterans Day is a day to honor and celebrate the men and women who have gone before him to defend our freedom and democracy around the world.
Travis Butler, U.S. Air Force, Air Force Reserves, Air National Guard; Public Works/Equipment Services
Travis Butler knows the meaning of sacrifice. In January, two months after his wife gave birth to twin boys, Butler was deployed on a seven-month mission to Kuwait. He didn’t see his sons, or his wife and 2-year-old daughter, until he returned from National Guard duty on Aug. 6.
Butler served in the U.S. Air Force as a fuels technician for six years, followed by seven years in the Air Force Reserves. In 2017, he joined the Air National Guard.
He has been deployed to the Middle East four times and was sent to Maine and Alaska. In the National Guard, he was sent to Kinston, North Carolina, to help deliver food and water in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence in 2018. And he went to Kuwait in January, leaving his wife with newborn twins and a toddler. “Oh, yeah, it was very hard,” Butler says of leaving his family. “But my wife is a trooper. And the brighter side is that I was deployed earlier on, rather than later on. So we tried to knock it out now (his deployment to the Middle East).”
When asked about his reunion with his family in August, Butler says, “It was great. The best part of leaving is coming home.”
Butler says he chose to join the military after high school because he wasn’t ready to go to college. He was influenced by his father, aunt, uncle and grandfather who had served in various branches of the Armed Forces. Butler and his wife met while they were both in the Air Force, and they chose to settle in Huntersville in 2008. Butler got his bachelor’s degree in business using the G.I. Bill.
For the past three years, he has worked as a mechanic for Public Works/Equipment Services and was recently promoted to automotive maintenance supervisor. He says the City has always worked to accommodate his schedule changes and deployments as a member of the National Guard.
Butler acknowledges that Veterans Day can be awkward for some, as civilians fumble to find the right words to thank those who have served. “The face-to-face stuff can be hard,” he says. “But just say ‘thank you.’ It goes a long way. Thanking has always been enough for me.”
Although people thank veterans like him for their service, Butler says he wants to thank other veterans. “I want to pay them back in some way for the freedoms I have received,” he says. Rather than thinking Veterans Day is about him, Butler says it is “more about those who served before us and paved the way.”
Maurice Taylor Jr., U.S. Navy; Police
Maurice Taylor Jr. says the military took him out of his comfort zone, gave him his perspective on life, provided the opportunity to earn two master’s degrees, and gave him the honor of caring for wounded or dying Marines and sailors. Taylor served for seven years in the Navy as a hospital corpsman, which is similar to an emergency medical technician.
Taylor grew up in Philadelphia, which he calls “a rough city.” When he was about 6 years old, he saw someone murdered. He got a football scholarship to Temple University, but the former high school honor student spent more time hanging out with friends than studying. With his football scholarship collapsing, he decided to reinvent himself and join the U.S. Navy. He had been in the Army Reserves while in college.
Because he loved the medical field, he served as a hospital corpsman with the Navy from 1992 to 1999. An accident during field maneuvers crushed his hip and knee joints. Once again, Taylor had to reinvent himself, as he could not stay in the military until retirement, as he had planned. The petty officer third class was honorably separated due to medical conditions and placed on inactive reserves from 1999 until 2002.
Taylor went on to earn a master’s degree in education and a master’s in criminal justice, and he is now a detective with the Gastonia Police Department. “The military gave me a new perspective on life,” he says. “I got a chance to see that there was good in the world and not everyone was out to get you.”
Taylor says tending to the sick, wounded and dying was “vital” to his maturity and growth. “As a hospital corpsman, you get used to the pedestal your Marines and sailors place you on. They would always say, ‘Take care of Doc’, as they would call me,” Taylor says. He explains that his fellow service members wanted to make sure that the Navy’s medical personnel were taken care of, so that the “doctors” could care for the wounded, if necessary.
Taylor’s son, Maurice Taylor III, followed in his father’s footsteps. The son (pictured right) joined the Navy where he was an aviation structural mechanic and petty officer second class, and he was deployed to Japan while in the Navy Reserves. Maurice Taylor III is now a patrolman with the Gastonia Police Department.
Veterans Day is important to Detective Taylor. In particular, he remembers those who served and did not survive. “Veterans Day means a lot to me,” he says. “It is a time to reflect on the many good Marines and sailors who served and gave their last breath with me.”