Graham City Manager Eric Garretty served 29 years on active duty in the United States Marine Corps before starting a career in local government. He said Veterans Day is a time to reflect on his military service and remember fellow service members who did not come home. "I miss those guys and I sometimes wonder why I'm still here and they're not," Garretty said. "But I tell you what, I'm going to make the most out of it."
Garretty, who is from Mississippi, enlisted in 1984 after an earlier attempt at college did not go well. He served mostly in the Western Pacific, with travel to countries including Russia, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Australia, Thailand and Indonesia. He also served a six-month tour in Iraq after ground operations ended, as a senior military adviser to a battalion of the Iraqi Interdiction Force. His specialty was artillery. He was stationed in Hawaii, worked in recruiting in Arkansas and served a tour at the Pentagon near the end of his career.
Garretty returned to the University of Mississippi in 1987 through an officer candidate program and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1990. He later attended Auburn University during his final assignment in Alabama, taking doctoral-level public administration and public policy courses. He holds a master's degree in management with an emphasis on financial management. After retiring from active duty, he took his first local government job in South Florida. His career then led to Fort Worth, Mexia and, in October 2022, Graham.