Veteran Salute: Communicating for Kuwait combat
MANHATTAN (KSNT) - As the 1990's kicked off, so did Army Specialist Karin Myron's active duty.
With rising tensions in the Middle East, her service and communication skillset would send her overseas during the Gulf War conflict.
“I started at radio teletype operator," Myron said, "which was phased out, but I was also the first class in our training at AIT to go through satellite communications.”
As the Gulf War began, that training would be quickly put to the test with an eight month deployment overseas.
“I think I was so young, I was naive," Myron said. "There were scary times, but I knew I would come home, and that was a wonderful thought. I knew a couple of the other soldiers in my unit who mentally just broke down, it was hard to see. I was with the 101st which is out of fort Campbell Kentucky, the air assault division. My unit was at the border of Iraq in Saudi Arabia. I worked in the Generals' talk; I was sending messages to our soldiers who were moving forward into Kuwait to liberate Kuwait. I was working in that communications environment and getting all the messages to and from.”
Shortly after her time in the Middle East came to a close, Myron would see more of the world through the Army with a year and a half in Korea.
“That’s when I transferred into administration," Myron said. "I helped the main office where I was stationed at Camp Market. We got to work with the KATUSA’s, which is the Korean Army that worked with the US Army there.”
That administration work led Myron to a special opportunity stateside, with a job typically reserved for those with a higher position, such as a sergeant.
“I think that where more of my work came in is when I was stationed in Kansas with the 89th Arcom," She said. "That’s when things were a little bit different. Worked at creating SOPs for them, standard operating procedure, so I was very happy to have a hand in that and actually creating some of the ones that they started to work with.”
That time in Kansas stuck with the Californian, bringing her back to the sunflower state in 2013. Now enjoying retirement, Myron stays plenty active, helping fellow veterans through the Disabled American Veterans organization.