My Veteran

Veteran's Day is a day to celebrate and honor all of those amazing Veterans who have given so much to our country. 

Of course, I am married to a veteran and an incredible one at that. 

I thought about how I wanted to honor him in a blog post and I thought instead of getting incredibly mushy that I would share some of the highlights (and my favorite moments) from his 11+ years of service. 

1. Homecomings from Haiti 2010 and Iraq 2012

Obviously the reasons behind these are self explanatory. Any military family will tell you that there is nothing quite like a homecoming! Even when they are in the middle of the night and you can barely keep your eyes open haha.

2. Kyle receiving his Senior Parachutist Wings.

In order to receive these you must be a Jumpmaster and have completed 30 jumps with 15 of them being combat equipment and 2 night jumps. He worked SO hard to get these wings before we left Bragg in 2012 and he got them a few months before we left. He is now working towards his Master wings (65 jumps). Granted, I will never understand why he wants to jump out of a perfectly good airplane on a regular basis haha.

3. Taking Company Command.

As a MI (Military Intelligence) Officer, it is extremely competitive when it comes to getting company command. Kyle was extremely lucky and took command of an MI Company in 2013. It was one of the best experiences for both of us. This company of soldiers was more like a family. Kyle will tell you to this day that he learned more from them than they ever could have from him. 

4. Being recognized for saving a classmates life.

Back in February while attending CGSC, Kyle noticed that a classmate of his was choking. Without hesitation he sprang into action and administered the heimlich maneuver. He saved his classmates life but acted as if nothing had happened. He was recognized about a month later by the leadership of the school for his actions. He was a bit embarrassed because he didn't want a big deal made out of something that he felt anyone would have done. I didn't even find out about what had happened until about a week later because he didn't think it was a big deal haha.

5. Promotion to Major

As some will tell you the first few officer promotions are pretty much a guarantee (well unless something crazy happens). However, when you move into the field grade ranks it becomes more competitive and it's nerve-wracking waiting for that list to come out. We were thrilled when Kyle's name was on it and so excited for when the time came for him to actually promote. I had missed his promotion to Captain so we wanted this to be special. Watching him take the oath again and move into this part of his career was pretty amazing. This was also our first military event with E and gosh that was so special.

At the end of the day I am just so proud of Kyle for his willingness to serve. He truly loves what he does and even when things get hard he stills see a purpose and he still sees the good in this job. 

Thank you Veterans, for all you have done and continue to do.