Travis and Kim Bell of Pineville are both retired military veterans with more than 20 years experience each.
Kim retired from the Army Reserve in 2013 after 25 years, and Travis retired from the Army in 2011 after 22 years.
Kim said when she was a senior in high school her parents sat her down and said, if she wanted to go to college, joining the military was her best bet. She was the oldest of four children and needed a way to pay for college, so she took her parents' advice. She went through basic training and advanced individual training. Then she started college.
Her father told her she might as well be an officer, so she joined ROTC and got commissioned as a second lieutenant.
When her initial contract was up, she said, "I enjoyed it, so I just stuck with it."
In the Army Reserve, Kim worked while enlisted as a patient administrative specialist. As an officer, she was a medical service corps officer. She spent some time in El Salvador as part of Operation New Horizons, where she was a company commander of a ground ambulance company.
She spent a year in Afghanistan and a year in Kuwait. In Afghanistan, she was a medical intelligence officer for a hospital and convoy commander for any convoys from where she was based. She spent three months working for the commanding general in Afghanistan as his office manager in the U.S. embassy. In Kuwait, she was the personnel officer for a hospital. She was in charge of all records for soldiers assigned to the hospital.
Asked what she enjoyed about her time in the military, Kim said, "Just the sense of being part of something bigger."
"I did a lot of hard things in the military," she said. "I'm scared of heights. Each time they pushed me through. I learned a lot about myself, that I'm capable of a lot more than I thought I was."
Afghanistan was a low point in her life, she said, and she was determined to make it into a positive by using that experience to educate others. She has spoken to kids at school, adults, the McDonald County Historical Society, Crowder College -- she has even traveled to Iowa to speak to an audience about her experience in Afghanistan.
Veterans can have trouble adjusting to civilian life after being in combat, Kim said.
"With both of us being combat veterans, it gets interesting. I can tell him he's being a big jerk, and he tells me I'm being a big dummy. We're pretty good for each other because we understand what each other's going through," she said.
Travis said he joined the Army because he wanted to work in law enforcement and joining the Army was the only way to do it before age 21. He joined in 1989 as a military police officer. After 17 weeks of basic training and advanced individual training, he went to Germany. He arrived as the wall was coming down. As an MP, he spent time in Bosnia, Panama and Germany. After 10 years, he changed his job to logistics. As a logistic non-commissioned officer, he spent time in Kuwait, Afghanistan and in different locations in the U.S.
"I enjoyed the traveling and the different jobs I did. Every day was different," he said.
Both Travis and Kim serve their community as volunteer firefighters with Pineville Volunteer Fire Department, County CERT and American Legion Post 392.
"We came home and decided to give back because this county has been so supportive through our military craziness," Kim said.
When Kim and Travis first got married, Travis was on active duty, and he was stationed in Utah. They saw each other about once every three months, Kim said. Then he got transferred to Illinois and they saw each other a little more often. Then, after six years of marriage, he retired and came home, and she was deployed for a year to Kuwait, she said.
They have been married 13 years. They have four children. Their youngest daughter is a junior in high school. Their two sons both got married over the summer. Their oldest daughter is going through nursing school at Crowder College in Jane.
Kim is the McDonald County clerk, and Travis is parts manager at Heritage Tractor.
The couple said if there are any veterans who are struggling with adjusting to civilian life, they will be happy to talk with them.
General News on 11/08/2018