Ohio PestVets Ramsey, Sparks Reflect on Military Service

 

Although Dave Ramsey and Brad Sparks served in the military many years apart, their stories have a lot of striking similarities.

 

Ramsey grew up on a farm and was a talented basketball player, who earned a college scholarship, but college turned out “not to be the right path for me.” He said, “I came back home and worked on the farm a little bit and realized that my life was going down a destructive path. So, I was driving through my town one day and I said, ‘Let's give this military thing a try.’”

 

During Ramsey’s time in the U.S. Marine Corps (from 1990 to 1994), he took part in multiple military campaigns, including Operation Desert Shield, Operation Desert Strom, Operation Desert Fox and Operation Restore Hope in Somalia. He also was a part of relief efforts in Los Angeles following the 1994 earthquake.

 

Similarly, Sparks wasn’t sure about his career path while in high school, but he started exploring the military option and “part of it was me being rebellious and young and wanting to get out from under mom and dad, so I chose the Army,” said Sparks, whose interest in the Army came from mentor Gary Hart, a former U.S. Army Ranger.

 

Sparks served in an airborne infantry reconnaissance platoon during Operation Iraqi Freedom, where he was stationed in Baghdad from 2008 to 2009. “We were light infantry attached to a brigade and our job was to acquire intel,” Sparks said. “We like to say ‘If we ended up having to fire our guns, we weren't doing our job right.’”

 

Ramsey and Sparks also had similar somewhat accidental introductions to the pest control industry. After returning to civilian life, Ramsey first worked as a security office at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, where wife Beth was pursuing a master’s degree. One day while mowing his lawn Ramsey was approached about an opportunity to work in pest control. Twenty-nine years later Ramsey is still in the industry as a highly regarded quality control professional.

 

After his discharge from the Army, Brad and wife Jessica Sparks moved to Florida, where he worked as electrician apprentice during the day and attended school at night. Jessica encouraged Brad to apply for a pest control position as a stop-gap job until he could get a full-time electrician’s job. Ten-plus years later, he is engrained in the pest control industry. He and Jessica, who runs the office and takes care of the books, launched of Elite Pest and Termite Control, Pataskala, Ohio, in January 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Sparks said his company actually may have benefitted from the timing. “People may have had more disposable income because they were not driving and commuting to work. They were doing projects and seeing a bug issue,” Sparks said. “I think the industry fared pretty well and we ended up doing really well that first year.” Sparks said Elite is continuing to grow. He added his first technician in 2021 and the company now services Columbus and surrounding areas. 

 

Sparks said Elite is succeeding by being upfront, honest and real “My wife and I like to promote what we call ‘Our story,’” Sparks said. “We are a family-owned business. Our kids are a part of it. So, we want to put that message out front and center.”

 

In reflecting on National Veterans and Military Families Month, the sacrifices families make are not lost on Ramsey and Sparks. “Spouses and families of those in the military and veterans should have a month of recognition because they are the lifeblood,” Ramsey said.

 

Dave and Beth Ramsey dated while he was in the Marines, but the couple did not have kids during this time. Ramsey recalled how taxing it was on those Marines who did have kids. “The unit I was with for most of my career was what we call a ‘flyaway unit.’ So we could get called and be on an airstrip headed somewhere in three days or less,” he said. “So you're always prepared and always waiting on that call. And so that's very stressful.”

 

When Brad was deployed, Jessica was five months pregnant. He credits her for supporting him during this time and while he was going through a difficult adjustment to civilian life. “When I got home there were a lot of things that I didn't know how to handle and how to deal with, including (Jessica),” said Sparks, “I’ll be vulnerable if this will help others out. We had to work through a lot of things with counseling. We fought for our marriage and we stuck it out.”