War bride, military mom ... and Soldier, too

Photo By Sgt. David Turner | Spc. Gina Keller shares a meal with her husband, Sgt. Kevin Keller, at the Forward Operating Base Kalsu dining facility.  

ISKANDARIYAH, IRAQ

08.04.2008

Story by Sgt. David Turner 

4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division Public Affairs

By Sgt. David Turner
4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq – Two years after the Army's raising of the maximum age limit for enlistees, it is not uncommon to find Soldiers over the age of 40 in the junior enlisted ranks.

Some served in their younger years; some always wanted to serve. Some are parents of children who serve – and found their motivation from them.

One Soldier's story stands out as being particularly special.

At the age of 41, with four children, two of them already serving in the Army, Spc. Gina Keller (then private) graduated basic training at Fort Jackson, S.C., and entered active duty. She said it was the realization of a dream she had for more than 20 years.

"I always wanted to join the service. I tried at 18, but because of family values and respect for my family, I chose not to," she said.

Keller's parents didn't think joining the military was the right move for her at that time. In the meantime, she started a family of her own and put her dream of military service on hold. Her children, three sons and a daughter, came first, she said. But she always hoped the chance to serve would come again.

"I still knew that if someday it came around, that I could do it," she said.

With her oldest son, Isaac, already serving in the Army, Keller learned the age limit for enlistment had been raised to 39. She was 40. She sought a waiver to join the National Guard, but was turned down.

"My heart was broken," she said. "I thought I would never get to do this."

Months passed. Then she heard the Army had raised the age limit again, to 42. An Army recruiter called her the next day and asked her if she still wanted to join.

"I was always hoping and praying somehow I'd make this goal, this dream, happen," she said.

Her son Isaac had just joined the National Guard, and mother and son shipped off to basic training within days of each other. He went to Fort Leonard Wood, Miss.; Keller left for Fort Jackson.

Despite the rigors of basic training, Keller proved herself in a group of younger recruits. Drill sergeants didn't treat her any differently, she said, and the female drill sergeants were the hardest on her.

"I was called 'grandma' and 'old lady' most of the time I was there," she recalled.

Her fellow Soldiers helped her manage the stressors of the training.

"I got a lot of encouragement from the younger [Soldiers] to keep striving and to make it," she said.

After basic training, Keller completed her Advanced Individual Training, qualifying as a wheeled-vehicle mechanic. Then, a strange twist - Keller received orders to report to her new unit, the 92nd Engineer Brigade, her son Andrew's unit.

"He said, 'You can't be coming here.' I said, 'Yes, I am," she recalled with a laugh. Keller said Andrew pleaded with his company's first sergeant, "You can't let that happen – I can't have my mom here."

Worries of standing next to Mom in formation subsided right away. Andrew deployed to Iraq, expected to return home in October 2007. He had not seen his mother in 18 months, and the day of his scheduled return turned out to be the day of his mother's departure; she received orders to deploy to Iraq, too.

Things were happening fast for the 42-year-old single parent. She relocated with her youngest child, now 13, to Fort Stewart, Ga., and began preparing for a 15-month tour of duty, assigned to the 703rd Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division. Her commander allowed her an extra 10 days before deploying to spend time with Andrew. Mother and son bonded in a new way: he helped pack her bags and advised her on her upcoming journey.

"He knew what I had to face," she said. "He knew where I was going."

Keller said the prospect of a long deployment didn't discourage her.

"I wanted to try and accomplish the rest of my goal, which was to come to the service and to serve the Soldiers. I knew what the Soldiers had to go through; I saw my sons go through it, and I wanted to be here to be of service to them, she said.

"All the way through basic training they kept emphasizing that we were going to be deployed. I was whole heartedly engaged with the fact that I was going to serve my country, one way or the other. Whatever my country expected of me, that's what I was going to do," said Keller.

While at Fort Stewart, Keller had another surprise in store for her. On the rifle range one day, she met the man she would call her husband.

"I wasn't looking for anybody to be my significant other when I got to Fort Stewart," she recalled. Sgt. Kevin Keller was a safety on the range that day, and while helping her adjust the sights on her rifle, they struck up a friendship.

"He came over to me in the foxhole and said, 'What are you shooting at?' I said, 'The targets, sergeant.' He said, 'Well, you're not hitting any of them.'"

After their first meeting, she began seeing him around the motor pool; she worked there as a mechanic, and he worked as a fuel specialist. He was a sergeant and she was a private first class, which made a relationship challenging. Though they served in separate companies in the same battalion, rules against fraternization drew criticism from their leaders. Sgt. Keller's warmth and confidence won her over, though.

"He said from the first day he met me, 'You're going to marry me.' He was telling everybody," she recalled.

There was little time for courtship, though. Deployed together to Iraq, the two were stationed at Forward Operating Base Kalsu, where different jobs and schedules prevented them from seeing much of each other. Still, their relationship was the cause of talk, so in January they decided to do something about it. Taking leave together, they travelled home to the U.S. to get married. Within two days of their arrival, they were officially man and wife. Then, they went back to Iraq.

Serving together as newlyweds has afforded the two a unique version of marital bliss. Though they do not share living quarters, and they work different hours in different places, they enjoy the moments they do spend together. They often share meals in the dining facility, and Spc. Keller frequently takes iced tea to her husband on the job.

Their marriage so far has been spent mostly apart, serving in a combat zone, Keller said she has not been disappointed with deployment. She currently works at the FOB's airfield.

"I've enjoyed everything that I've done. I've always felt that when Soldiers accept me as working hard and getting them where they need to be, helping them accomplish their mission – that is my reward," she said.

With her two-year enlistment soon to be over, Spc. Keller said she wanted to re-enlist, "but Sgt. Keller had other plans for me," she said. "He said that since he was retiring, I would be retiring, too."

The couple plans to purchase five acres of land and build their own house. Not one to shy away from a challenge, Spc. Keller plans to do the work herself. Her previous civilian job was as a carpenter.

She said others like her shouldn't be afraid of the challenge to serve their country.

"For anybody over 40 who really wants to come to the service, there is a very big reward here," she said. "You have to come here open-minded; you can't come here as your own individual. You have to be willing to change, and you have to be willing to serve."

• Date Taken: 08.04.2008
• Date Posted: 08.04.2008 17:20
• Story ID: 22121
• Location: ISKANDARIYAH, IQ