William Sumner: Hello, my name is William Sumner and I'm a Major in the United States Army. From what I can tell from searching the internet, William means "Determined protector" or "Protector of the realm." I think this is appropriate considering my career in the Army.

My family has a long tradition of military service, and I'm the latest in my family who chose this career path. When people first hear my name, however, they typically assume I'm called "Bill". Even though my full name is William Edward Sumner, most people know me as "Wes."

My parents chose my initials as my everyday name and I've never gone by anything else. When I was in Iraq, however, I used my proper name of William and not my nickname. Because of the way surnames are used in the Middle East, I was always known as Captain William. Every time there was a problem, I could hear "Captain William must see this!" Or something similar being called across the zoom.

This created a problem at times when messages were delivered or people tried to find me since no one really used my last name, which is directly in contrast to the way the Army works. I still get the occasional email and a letter addressed to Captain William and it brings back a lot of fond memories of the time I spent on the other side of the world.