I was born in Springfield, Massachusetts in May of 1967, the same town as the Smith and Wesson.

I’m the only one in my immediate family that served in the military. I joined the U.S. Navy. Before entering the service, I was in high school and I worked two to three jobs, standing on my feet 10 hours a day. When I took a job downtown, I was right across from the MEPS. It filled the whole front of the store window. All day, my view was of all the branches of military.

I loved the training. I loved military life, I loved that my Commander was badass!! I have no regrets on joining, serving, and being there. I enlisted happily. It was not a family expectation. I did not stop to think of college benefits. Plainly, it was just who I am with all of the sincerity and seriousness with, which I take life and the meaning of it all. Being in the military was like having a bigger and better family. We did things together and contributed to each other. Overall, it was very nice.

I served in the late 80s in Yeoman. I was across the lobby from the Captain and Executive Officers for the whole base. The threat against America at the time was from Iran. Somehow that does not appear to have changed much. The military takes threats and makes assessments very seriously. My female commander served in Vietnam and was one of the few women to do so. She made sure that we were trained tough. We did more than any other training company of the men and women on base.

The accomplishment I am most proud of when I did serve is simply being there, handling what happened during the night including deaths and pivotal/critical moments in the lives of young servicemen. Back then, a night watch commenced after work, a shower and food. So you worked 8 hours, did the overnight watch and still showed up at work on time for another 8 hours. It was a responsibility for someone else and required total commitment and dedication.

My mother and one brother were proud of my service in the military. There was not a return reception because my mother had moved to another State. In the beginning when people would walk up or give a gift to thank me for serving the country, I simply accepted it because I thought it was what anybody would do. But then the failure of Hillary and the fact that those men in Benghazi had asked for help, had called for help, had emailed for help, and no one answered them just floored me. The two men fought all night, and were so sure that help would come if they held on until daybreak. But no help arrived and they lost their lives. It was heart breaking. Responsibility in the military and in government should be taken very seriously. A human life is NOT a piece of paper to shuffle. A PERSON is on the other end of what you’re doing! nBut many people are blindly following and answering polls in favor of people that do NOT care whether they live or die and whether this nation lives or dies. They go on with the ritual of election, whatever is placed in front of them by those with other ideals and agendas and things to gain, not realizing that it will cost us all in the end. I am Pro-God, Pro-Gun, Pro-Life, Pro-Military, Pro-Israel and Pro-Constitution.

In going back to discussing when I served, because the country was under threat of a foreign power, our base here in America went on lockdown. We were being pulled from desk jobs to be medically evaluated and trained to go into combat overseas. The damage of my bones collapsing previously and the limitations set by the doctors, made it to risky for them to forward me into training. I could have permanently lost the ability to walk 100%. Several doctors looked at my x-rays and predicted that with normal living I’d lose the ability to walk by age 40. I kept to the doctors orders and limitations. However, I’m now 48 and still able to walk. They gave me an honorable discharge in the late 80s. I wanted to go into combat but the risk was too high that I would not get through the training in order to head into combat.

Being in the military has changed me for the better. I evolved to my fuller self. Training was like a completion. I think I was meant to be there and to handle the emergencies of people dying both on and off base, managing those situations by calling in the essentials and getting help at inconvenient hours. We handled classified information. It was our mission. The planes flying overhead day and night due to foreign threat, base lockdown, high security, again just fit into being military.

One of the best decisions ever made in my life was to join the United States Military.
~ Val Kittington, U. S. Navy Veteran

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