Courtesy Photo | Construction Electrician 1st Class Alyssa Miller poses with a Navy recruit at her...... read more read more
FORT SNELLING, Minn. – While it used to be relatively commonplace to have multigenerational families serving in the U.S. military, statistics have shown that it is happening less and less. However, Petty Officer 1st Class Alyssa Miller is happy to help the tradition make a comeback.
Miller, a Navy recruiter stationed in Davenport, Iowa, is the third generation of women in her family to serve, with her grandmother serving in the Air Force, her mother and father serving in the Army, and her now serving in the Navy.
“Our family boasts two Air Force veterans, one Army veteran, two career Army (fully retired), two Marine veterans, and our Alyssa, in the Navy,” said Barbara Ann Miller, Alyssa’s grandmother. “We are proud of all of our big Military family.”
Barbara served in the Air Force from 1952-1958 in Korea, just four short years after women were allowed to serve in the Air Force in the first place. All told, approximately 12,500 women were serving in the Air Force by the end of the Korean War compared to nearly 70,000 today.
“It gave me an opportunity to do something, to be involved in the world,” said Barbara. “I was proud to be the first in my family to serve in the [military]. My younger brother joined two years after me.”
Alyssa’s mother also heard the call, but chose to join the Army, where she would ultimately meet Alyssa’s father while serving in Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm in the early ’90s.
When it came time for Alyssa to choose her own path, she decided to add a branch to the family’s service tree. She joined the Navy as a construction electrician (CE).
Miller said that going into construction made the most sense to her. It has also proved to be beneficial in her civilian life. Miller is a Reserve Sailor currently on orders and assigned to Navy Talent Acquisition Group (NTAG) Northern Plains as full time canvasser recruiter, but in her civilian life she is a civilian electrician, an opportunity made more possible by the training and skills she learned in the Navy.
Miller is benefiting greatly from a path well worn by her mother and grandmother. Not only is she among the 20 percent of woman serving in the Navy, but she excels in a predominantly male career field.
Miller said the military is even more welcoming to her as both a woman and a construction electrician than the civilian world is.
“They don’t get the training like we do,” said Miller, referring to the training available in the civilian world. “And the mindsets are completely different in the military than they are on the civilian side. Construction on the civilian side, there are even less women, so the mindset is, they still view women as fragile and like, ‘you don’t really belong here.’”
Only time will tell if a fourth generation Sailor is in the cards, so for now Miller focuses on other people’s children, and helping them determine where they belong.
NTAG Northern Plains is responsible for enlisted and officer recruiting, covering 393,000 square miles, in the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, and parts of Illinois and Wisconsin.
| Date Taken: | 03.23.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 03.23.2020 14:50 |
| Story ID: | 365728 |
| Location: | DAVENPORT, IA, US |
| Web Views: | 425 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, 3rd Generation Female Continues Family Tradition, by PO1 Christopher Lindahl, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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