Summer 2021 Intern: Shawn C. Gremp

I was born in Casper, Wyoming, in 1998. My mom, Amy Gremp, and my dad, Charles H. Gremp III, were both 21 years old and looking for jobs when they had me and my brother Michael a year earlier. My parents were high school sweethearts and started a family right after they graduated. We moved to Brookfield, Illinois, within two years of living in Casper. My father worked as a conductor on passenger trains in Chicago and my mom worked as a paralegal in downtown Chicago. In 2004, we moved back to Wyoming.

I spent the rest of my childhood growing up in Casper. Throughout my schooling, I played every sport I could. My favorite sport in high school was swimming and I hoped to swim in college even though I was not fast enough. I still have a passion for swim lessons, and I have taught swim lessons in Casper. I graduated in the top 10 percent of my graduating class of 340 students at Kelly Walsh High School. I am a student at the University of Wyoming pursuing a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice with a minor in Spanish. I am a member of the Criminal Justice Club and the National Society of Leadership and Success.

From an early age, I wanted to become a surgeon. But I discovered the medical field was not my passion. I have also always wanted to be a special agent for the FBI or CIA and wear a nice fancy suit to work every day. I imagined myself doing awesome and exciting things for my career and seeing parts of the world I have never seen before. My uncle worked for the Pentagon in intelligence, and I always thought that was cool.

In high school, I got a flyer in the mail about the Army National Guard, which I knew absolutely nothing about. But I was curious, so I called the recruiter’s number on the flyer to schedule a meeting with him. Since my parents could not afford to pay for my college, when the recruiter told me the Army would pay for college, I was sold right away. I signed up when I was 17 years old and went to basic training in Fort Benning, Georgia, in the summer of 2016. I was and still am an infantry soldier in the Wyoming Army National Guard. I am a corporal and a fire team leader. I oversee a fire team of five men that conducts battle drills in urban combat situations.

In 2018, I went to Warrenton, Oregon, for Air Assault School. I learned how to inspect sling loads for helicopters to deliver equipment or vehicles via Army aircraft. I also learned how to rappel out of helicopters as well as how to handle Air Traffic Control for them. Air Assault School has a completion rate of only 55 percent, according to Fort Hood’s graduation numbers.

From May of 2019 to April of 2020, I was deployed to Kosovo, south of Serbia and north of Albania. We were there on a peacekeeping mission to provide freedom of movement and a safe and secure environment for the people of Kosovo. As a team leader, I oversaw planning for all our teams’ missions, briefing my team and other nations working with us. Also, it was my job to run a security team for our base’s security gate. I worked with Italian, Polish and Austrian team leaders to conduct tandem patrols in our area. Joining the Army gave me more experience than I ever thought I would have. I will be honorably discharged from the Army this December after six years.

After I graduate from college, I hope to work as a criminal investigator for the Border Patrol or go to the University of Wyoming College of Law. Every defendant should have a lawyer who genuinely cares about their circumstances and will do whatever it takes to provide the most professional legal counsel they can. It was an honor to serve my country and it would be a greater honor to do it again through criminal justice.

Working with the Wyoming Truth has been an amazing experience so far. I never really had much interest in going to law school before I started this internship but now it is something that I am considering. There are injustices and discrepancies in criminal cases all over the country and the work we are doing here in Teton County is a benchmark for something great to come. Being the voice for those who cannot tell their story on their own is such an amazing feeling.