AJ In The Air Force

AJ, a former member of the air force, and current student at Texas State, provided a unique perspective on life in the military and the transition back into civilian life. AJ is a black woman in her upper 30s from a small rural town outside of Summerville, South Carolina. She is currently enrolled in the full-time Master of Social Work program, while also maintaining a family life with her husband and three children. AJ has two brothers who both served in the military, her younger brother in the Marines, and her older brother in the Army. Other than that, AJ said she did not have any other close family members serve. AJ stated her family did not influence her to join, and it was something she just wanted to do. In high school, AJ joined the Air Force Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC), and she enjoyed her time in the ROTC all four years of high school. AJ maintained that while her instructors were encouraging, enlisting was a choice she made independently. To her, the Air Force seemed like a great organization, and she knew about some of the college benefits, so at 18 she enlisted. …show more content…
Her basic training was at the Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, and she her stations include the Shaw Air Force Base near Sumter, South Carolina and the Kunsan Air Base in South Korea. AJ was deployed to Baghdad in 2007, but she first spent pre-deployment at Camp Shelby in Biloxi, Mississippi and at Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina. She then spent 7, supposed to be 6, months in Baghdad. Her specialty in the Air Force was Information Management, which she described as a broad career field. She did administrative work, record management, and during her deployment she was on postal