CARLY KING
Office Administrator
Florida Air National Guard
Enlisting later in life makes me a bit of a late bloomer, I suppose. I highly recommend NOT going through boot camp in your 30s, but I did somehow make honor grad. They denied my request for a waiver to join active-duty Air Force, so I became a DSG (Drill Status Guardsman) with the Florida Air National Guard instead.
As a singer/songwriter, I had written and performed a few original numbers on stage, from the perspective of a service member, all the while feeling a bit misleading for not having served myself. My Daddy had served back in the day, my little brother also, with two tours in the sandbox, and an uncle as well – I woke up one day and realized it was my turn. I, too, wanted to be a part of something big and great and worthwhile, and feel like I had a real purpose.
For my first enlistment I was a missile troop, then re-classed into Public Affairs as a photojournalist, and am now in the Training & Education office. Guardsmen are notorious for wearing several hats, quite often outside their respective AFSCs, so I landed several sets of full-time orders doing admin work, which allowed me to learn SO much more about other units and their missions. I spent a year with the IG (Inspector General), and then was shuffled around for weeks or months at a time, to work with Civil Engineering, the Fire House, Security Forces, and then for a couple years with IPR (Installation Personnel Readiness), where I worked in-depth with our deployers.
Reentering the civilian world after years of wearing the uniform can be a bit tumultuous. I had great difficulty in feeling like I belonged, and sorely missed that mission mindset. And quite often when I spoke, folks didn’t know what I was saying, as there were a lot of acronyms and jargon in my vocabulary. When the opportunity came about to switch over to AEVEX, I was ecstatic! Now I could finally be back amongst my own people! Even the non-military folks who work here still seem to always have that greater mission in mind. I now have that sense of camaraderie back and am so thankful to be here!
