Goodwill Store Manager Tyneisha Stroud, or TY, as she’s known, served in the Air Force from 2001 to 2006, enlisting just after high school. Ty joined the military hoping to gain some direction in life.
“I didn’t have the maturity or the focus for college right then and I thought the military would help me gain some discipline,” she remarked.
Maturity would come quickly in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. “We really thought that this was it. That we were at war right then,” Ty said. Ty would deploy the first time to Al Udeid, Qatar in 2001 during Operation Iraqi Freedom as a member of the security force team and a second time to Ali Al Salem, Kuwait in 2004 as a heavy machine gunner, trained to operate the big guns atop Humvees. “I was nervous at times. Even with training, there is no way to fully prepare for what you might encounter, “Ty explained.
Ty returned from Iraq and spent the remainder of her active duty at a base in San Antonio, Texas. While there she would use her first aid training to help stabilize a gunshot victim and later help resuscitate a 75-year old veteran who had been rushed to the base medical hospital. “I can’t believe I did all that,” she exclaimed. Ty doesn’t regret a moment of her military experience. “It built my confidence and gave me some of the proudest moments of my life,” she remarked.
