The Start of My Military Career

I joined the military for 1. INFACTUATION WITH JETS. PERIOD. I grew up on a farm and my parents are / were both truck drivers. I am a tom boy who loves to turn wrenches and get greasy and dirty that is what I have always known. 2. Since I was a little itty bitty girl, we always attended rodeos. Before all rodeos started they would have a young lady riding around on a horse (which intrigued me) carrying the American Flag and she would ride around and around with that flag while the song “God Bless the USA” by Lee Greenwood was playing followed by the National Anthem. I would get goose bumps then as a 5 year old and still do. Don’t believe me try me JSo as a young girl I thought my infatuation with that whole demonstration was that pretty girl out in the middle with all eyes on her; a rodeo queen they called her. When I was 18 I ran for Miss Rodeo North Dakota Winter Show where I had seen this demonstration over and over year after year as I grew up. As it turned out, I hated the entire process of the rodeo queen competition; I was a tom boy, not a pretty girl on a horse. So I decided being the rodeo queen was not what my infatuation was. So off to college I went, I did not win the rodeo queen crown but I did win Miss Congeniality J. (I did not testify to this back ground.) 

 

Few years into college I started to run a lot and I mean a lot. Ask my dad he thought I was going insane…..10 – 14 miles every day no matter what. I would run by the Air Guard base every day and always thought hmmmm that might be fun, wonder what they do… I had no clue I did not come from a military family. Then one day I was running by and an F-16 with Happy Hooligans written on the side took off. It was loud. It shook my rib cage. I was totally giddy. Next day I looked into the unit and within a week I was enlisted and had a Happy Hooligan long sleeve denim shirt that I still have to wear to show I was a member. I went home that weekend to tell the folks. They were less then impressed to say the least. Well didn’t matter I had made a commitment and I was excited. Reason no. 3….. BENEFITS.

 

 

I enlisted in the Air National Guard in October 2000. Actually I enlisted in April of 2000 in North Dakota. I was transferring to college here in Nebraska and had not attended basic training yet but had attended all drills since my enlistment in ND. It was cleaner to have an honorable discharge from ND and transfer to NE instead of all the other paperwork so that is what I did. When I MET Colby I was in the military, just had not gone to basic or anything yet, I was still attached to the ND unit when we met.  I enlisted at the base in Lincoln, the 155^th , in October of 2000. When I attended basic training Colby and I were in a serious relationship, however not serious enough for him to come to basic training graduation. Clue number 1. I had a break between basic and Tech School. I went to our home in Grand Island. I left for Tech school a month or so later after my return from basic, I graduated tech school, he did not attend that graduation either, clue no. 2 he was not supportive. (I did not testify to this back ground.)  

 

What made me join? Number 1,2, & 3 listed above all had equal roles, they still do. I was well into college and was making it on my own working many jobs, grants and scholarships.