We were recently featured in VoyageKC’s Inspiring Stories!
Jeff
Jeff was born in Lakewood, California. He lived with his parents and two younger siblings in Long Beach until his sophomore year in high school. The family moved to Dayton, Nevada, a small town outside Carson City. There, Jeff played basketball, golf, and was sponsored by a local skateboard shop. Jeff loved to draw and paint as a young kid. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and became a truck driver.
Jeff’s first duty station was Germany where he spent his younger years traveling and driving trucks. Moving to Europe at such a young age gave him a love for travel and experiencing other cultures. Eventually, he was selected to become a VIP driver the second highest ranking Army officer in Europe. Jeff would often have to drive his boss to various airfields where he would see helicopters taking off and landing, and he knew then he was destined for bigger things.
In 2007, Jeff was selected to attend U.S. Army flight training located at what was then Fort Rucker, Alabama (it was recently re-named Fort Novosel). It was there where he met his wife, Michelle. She was a staff writer for the Fort Rucker newspaper and was working on a master’s degree in International Relations. Michelle and Jeff both shared a love of travel early in their relationship. They married in 2008 and in 2009, Jeff completed flight school and they moved to Fort Drum, New York.
Jeff completed three combat tours with the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade at Fort Drum – one tour to Iraq and the other two to Afghanistan. Michelle and Jeff welcomed their first son in 2010. During his deployments, Jeff developed a love for photography.
In 2015, the Army moved the family to Fort Riley, Kansas. Michelle and Jeff decided to build a home in the small town of Wamego. Duty called once again, and Jeff deployed to Afghanistan a third and final time with the 1st Combat Aviation Brigade. During the deployment Jeff was interviewed and had a spread in Vertical helicopter magazine (starting on pg. 30). He also won first place in the 2017 Army Aviation magazine photo contest. In 2019, Jeff retired from the military as a Chief Warrant Officer 3 with 20 years of service and finished his bachelor’s degree in professional aeronautics.
In 2020, Jeff and Michelle adopted two boys (half-brothers), bringing their family from three to five. Jeff enjoys Brazilian jiujitsu, photography, art, sports, and travel.
Michelle
Michelle was born in Fort Campbell, an Army post located on the border of Kentucky and Tennessee. Her father was a helicopter pilot and one of her first memories is growing up in Germany. From a young age, she has enjoyed traveling and learning about other cultures and history. One of her favorite places she visited was South Korea.
She and her family (including three younger sisters) have lived several places during her childhood, but she lived the longest in Enterprise, Alabama, where she attended middle and high school. She attended Troy University and graduated with a degree in Journalism and Public Relations. Her first “real” job after college was at the Army Flier newspaper at Fort Rucker, Alabama. Seeing that newspaper reporters didn’t make a ton of money, she decided to work on a master’s degree and try to join the military as a Public Affairs Officer. It was during this time that she met Jeff, who was attending flight school. Knowing how difficult it is for dual-military couples, Michelle finished her degree, married Jeff, and joined the ranks of military spouses instead.
Throughout their marriage and moves, Michelle realized that it was difficult for spouses to find work in their specific career fields, and sometimes had to take the jobs that were available. However, she was lucky. She did get a job working for the Fort Drum Public Affairs office while they were stationed in New York. There, she won several awards for writing and photography. The experience she gained set her up to land a great job in marketing and communications when they arrived in Kansas. She now works remotely for a global company.
Michelle enjoys traveling, photography, cooking, yoga, cross stitching, playing the ukulele, and spending time with family.
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