It’s rare to find someone as open about their lives – warts and all, so to speak-but at the AEGIS Training and Readiness Center (ATRC), one instructor feels that through his openness, he is helping one Sailor at a time avoid potential pitfalls and be successful in their Navy career and life.
Fire Controlman 1st Class Dan Taylor credits organized sports and the Navy as the two key aspects of his life that have kept him on an even keel – that and his grandfather’s (Dan Potopsky, Sr.) words of wisdom.
“I started playing organized basketball when I was six at the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) and throughout high school,” Taylor said.
After joining the Navy, Taylor continued playing on his ship’s team, even playing against the Army team in Bar, Montenegro.
“There are so many life lessons you can learn from sports: stay driven, be organized, be a good team player, learn how to take orders from your coach,” Taylor explained.
Taylor went on to explain that while your coach is supposed to be your leader, there will always be other stand-out players that you want to emulate and for him, sports has been a defining factor in shaping his outlook on life.
“I can’t imagine what my life would have been like without organized sports,” Taylor said. “You really find out what you’re made of when the chips aren’t falling the way you want them to.”
Growing up in North Royalton and graduating from North Royalton High School in 1997, Taylor credits his parents, Zack Taylor and Susan Potopsky, and grandparents, Dan and Pat Potopsky, with his upbringing and reflects fondly on his grandfather’s words of wisdom that made such a deep impression on how Taylor conducts his own life.
His favorite quote comes from his grandfather, who, at the time, Taylor admits he didn’t give enough credit to.
“It’s difficult when you are dealing with someone two generations ahead of you, you think, ‘you’re just old, you don’t know what you’re talking about’ and you don’t pay attention to that experience that they have,” Taylor said.
“I wish, as they say ‘I knew then what I know now’. My grandfather said to me one day, ‘At the end of the day, if you can look yourself in the mirror and say you gave it everything you had to be better than you were yesterday, then you have nothing to worry about. If you can’t say that then you better get back out there until you can.’ It really stuck in my head and I wish I would have followed it even more,” Taylor remembered.
Taylor credits the people he has met during his 18-year Navy career as the best part of his job and with continuing to shape his viewpoint, and that’s something that he passes along to his students.
“If it weren’t for the Navy, I probably wouldn’t have left northeast Ohio,” Taylor noted.
“I’ve shoveled snow with people from Jamaica, I’ve been on a beach in Spain with someone from Alaska,” Taylor explained. “At the time, you don’t pay attention to it, but it’s those different personalities that help to expand your world view. It’s truly awesome,” Taylor said.
For his students, Taylor is able to use those experiences to reach the variety of Sailors that come through his program.
“We get so many different backgrounds of students, they don’t know what to expect once they get to the ship,” Taylor said.
He credits all of the ATRC instructors for doing a great job at preparing the students for what they like to call the “Real Navy.”
“The ship experience is so much different than a training command. I would say 99 percent of our students are preparing for their very first ship deployment,” Taylor said.
Taylor tries to prepare his students for the unknowns in a ship environment; the variety of coworkers they will have to work with, how they need to conduct themselves, and the living conditions in addition to the technical qualifications they will need to have.
“We explain the living conditions but until you’ve experienced someone sleeping 12 inches above, you just can’t really simulate that,” Taylor explained.
Taylor was nominated by Chief Fire Controlman Jason Lauver as a Naval Support Facility Dahlgren Unsung Hero. Lauver credits Taylor with his dedication to his students to ensure their success while at ATRC as well as his duty as one of the assistant Command Drug and Alcohol Program advisors, where Lauver states he has literally saved lives.
“Even on the tether of the duty phone or his responsibilities as the class counselor being a 24-hour-a-day role, Taylor makes time to give back,” Lauver explained.
In his off time Taylor volunteers with the Dahlgren School Mentorship Program serving in a “big brother/father figure” role. He has also volunteered as a coach with the Dahlgren boys and girls basketball teams.
When not at ATRC or volunteering, Taylor and his wife Jennie Waler enjoy spending time watching sports, relaxing on the water and being a part of their local church.
His best piece of advice? “Do the right thing. It doesn’t matter if everybody is looking or no one is looking. Life doesn’t work in gray areas. Just do the right thing and you’ll have no problems,” Taylor said.