Silver is currently serving in the Montana Army National Guard. She shares her story of joining the National Guard as a medic and then learning about ROTC and serving both in the Guard and working toward becoming an officer through ROTC. It was a challenging road to service but she grew from the experiences she had and today is working to help teach and inspire the next generation to serve as an ROTC Instructor at the University of Montana.

Serving in the Army National Guard

She decided to join the Army National Guard after her first year of college. She spent too much socializing and had to figure out how to pay for school and had a desire to join. The recruiter asked her if she had talked to her parents. She said, “No.” The recruiter told her to come back in a week after talking to her parents. She came back a week later still not having talked to her parents and joined as a medic. Eventually, she told her parents she was going to join the military. While in the at AIT she learned about the opportunity to become an officer and was able to join ROTC and continue to drill on the weekends.

Roadblock to service

While on her way to becoming an officer she found out she was pregnant and shortly thereafter became a single mom. She didn’t feel a lot of support at the time but looking back she can see how people did help her and allowed her to continue in the program and eventually commission. Her dad was also there to watch her daughter so she could work and go to school.

When she commissioned she went to become a Platoon Leader in the platoon she had been a medic in. This raised a number of challenges and made it a very hard assignment. To go from hanging out with her peers on the weekend to becoming the boss. She learned a lot of leadership lessons from that situation.

In Command

Eventually she became a Commander. She faced many challenges during that experience. Her husband was deployed, leaving her with 3 kids, the youngest being 4 months. Then COVID happened. She couldn’t take the stress and had a mental and physical breakdown. Fortunately she was able to get help through counseling and medication. She also moved in with her in-laws and was so grateful for the support. Things didn’t stop for the Army National Guard. Her unit was preparing for deployment and was on standby for the riot in Minneapolis and eventually got activated to help with the inauguration of President Biden. They also deployed near the end of 2021.

While deployed a position to work in ROTC opened up. It was two hours from her home so initially she didn’t apply. But her husband told her to apply and if she was selected they would figure it out. She was selected and is now doing her dream job helping cadets in their journey to the Army. She has an apartment during the week and drives home each weekend to spend time with her family.

You can connect with her on X at https://twitter.com/SkepticalGinger or check out her YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@SilverBeaty