Saluting service of women veterans

According to the Veterans Administration, nationally there are more than two million women veterans living in the United States today.

Women represent the fastest growing group of the veteran population. In 2000, they accounted for just 4% of veterans. By 2040 women are projected to be close to 20% of the veteran population with that percentage greater among younger veterans.

This trend is carried through on the state and local level with more women choosing to serve their country facing the same challenges as their male counterparts in deployments around the world.

March is Women’s History month and this month we are recognizing two local veterans Kelsey Brost and Megan Nolan.

Kelsey Brost joined the military in 2005 and completed her basic training in 2006 at Fort Jackson, S.C. and completed her AIT (advanced individual training) at Fort Lee, Va.

She worked as a unit supply specialist and was attached to the 724 Engineering Battalion. She worked in the supply division for the battalion.

She deployed to Iraq with the 724 Engineering Battalion in 2010-2011. At the end of 2011 she joined the Wisconsin Military Academy at Ft. McCoy and left the military as a Staff Sgt.

One of Brost’s most interesting memories is of playing softball on base while stationed in Iraq. She explained there was always a challenge to try to find activities to do for fun in downtime. She was stationed at Joint Base Balad.

“We called it Mortar City,” Brost said, of hearing mortar blasts going off all time. She said the first few times were unnerving but that they got used to it after a while.

Her primary job on base was to make sure all the people who left the base on missions would have the food and whatever else they needed to keep them going. The crew she worked with on base was her and four men and she noted that she never felt she was treated any differently than any other members of the crew. After Iraq she continued to work in supply and handled when soldiers lost or wrecked equipment and determined if they should be charged for the damage.

After her time in the service, Brost took advantage of her veterans benefits and continued her schooling. She is a Physicians Assistant (PA) at Bone and Joint Clinic.

She and her husband Ryan have two children, Rhyatt, age 6, and Jett, age 1.

Brost says she had a positive experience in the military. “I was very happy I joined and that I did what I did and I am happy to be part of the Medford VFW at this time,” she said.

Megan (Weinke) Nolan, 36, served in the Army National Guard from 2007 to 2016. She was an 88M and described her job as being a truck driver. When deployed to Afghanistan for a year she worked as a combat escort for supply trucks.

While deployed, she was stationed out of Bagram Air Base and achieved the rank of sergeant.

“We basically provided security to make sure supples

See SALUTING on page 8 could get to and from different bases,” she said. This put her in some dangerous situations at times.

The Fond du Lac native joined the 1157 out of Oshkosh and was deployed with that battalion to Iraq and then transferred to the 1158 stationed out of Beloit. She recalled the heavy equipment transports (HETs) used to haul things like tanks and really big machinery.

Nolan says the bonds she had with her comrades in the military are still strong. “They are my brothers and sisters,” she said, noting that while it is has been years since she has seen them she knows that they can pick up right where they left off and still have each other’s backs.

“They become family,” she said. Nolan said she never felt that as a woman she was treated differently than anyone else. She noted that her group was about 50% women. She said people were more focused on working hard, doing their jobs and getting home.

For Nolan, the desire to serve her country started at a young age.

“I was in 7th grade when 9/11 happened. I was in social studies class and we were watching CNN as it was coming through the news.” She explained that it was routine for them to watch the news broadcast and journal on it in class each morning.

As she got older and the recruiters would come to the high school she felt pulled toward service and noted she always enjoyed the obstacle course. After graduation she tried a semester of college and on her 19th birthday joined the military.

“I am glad I made that choice,” she said. “It shaped me into a strong, independent woman.”

The military benefits she received also helped her get a boost in her career. She is a registered nurse and thanks to her military benefits was able to complete her education without getting a pile of debt.

She works for UW Health and her husband, Ryan, works for Hooper, a Madisonbased HVAC company working to build their northern region.

She noted the invaluable support and advice she got from meeting with staff at the county veterans service office when she lived in southern Wisconsin.

After her deployment she went to the 1158th and while there she met her husband and they wanted to start and family. She decided to finish out her contract and while she had oppositions to go to NCO school she said she didn’t want to take that opportunity away from someone else.

Being a member of the National Guard is a constant balance between the civilian life and military life. Nolan said this gave them an advantage in dealing with certain situations when they were deployed and attached to active duty units.

She said one of the biggest supports to make the transition successful was with the family readiness group which arranged care packages. She noted one program where they had books that you could record yourself reading to send to members of their family back home. She described those type of things as being tremendous morale boosts.

“If you have that support you can get through anything,” she said.

Megan (Weinke) Nolan served in the Army National Guard from 2007 to 2016. During her military career she was deployed to Afghanistan where she provided combat escort for supply trucks. The pictures are from her deployment. She says serving in the military helped make her the person she is today.