Branch Served:
- US Air Force (15 years 29 days)
About Jayar Kindsvogel
Jayar Kindsvogel grew up in Mandan, ND, graduated from Mandan High School, and enlisted in the Air Force right out of high school as a Fighter Jet F-15 Eagle Crew Chief.
He has always been a gearhead who likes to work with his hands.
“Making jets fly was something I truly enjoyed,” Jayar said. After 15 years in the Air Force, he was medically boarded and honorably discharged/retired. So Jayar, his wife, and three daughters packed up their house in Las Vegas and moved back to North Dakota. From there, Jayar began working as the lead mechanic on skid steers at Twin City implement in Mandan. He worked there for one year before starting at Center Machine Inc. Eventually, he became the shop manager and finally the owner-operator.
Q. What was deployment like?
A: There are lots of mixed feelings that go along with deployments. On one hand, I was excited to go perform the tasks I had trained to do, to defend our country, fly, fight, and win. On the other hand, it is scary, and really hard to be away from your family, wife, and kids and just knowing you are going to miss milestones while you are deployed.
Q. What was your first job after service and what was that experience like?
A: I was a skid steer mechanic. After working on Fighter Jets for 15 years, it was kind of a smooth transition to working on construction and farm equipment. Equipment is equipment whether it’s farm equipment, construction equipment, or airplane equipment—they all generally work the same. The work transition was smooth except for the environment. There was no comradery like in the military. In the civilian workforce, you go to work and then you go home. You have nothing to do with the other employees except when you are at work. You do nothing with these other individuals unless it is during duty hours. Which to someone coming out of the military is weird. In the military, you don’t really separate your work from home life. You hang out with your fellow work crew in the military.
Q. Did you have any struggles after returning to civilian life?
A: Oh heck yeah. There are struggles even now after 13 years of returning to civilian life. Togetherness and the one goal that the military has compared to the everyday life of a civilian is hard to get used to.




