“We have 62 years of military service between us,” Geri Streeter said, about her and husband Keith, who met in the U.S. Army National Guard in 1984. They spent much of their lives dedicating one weekend per month, and two weekends each summer in the Guard – participating in deployments, trainings, and other duties.
Keith joined the National Guard after serving in the U.S. Army beginning in 1975. He started training in Kentucky just two weeks after high school graduation in Dorset, Vermont. “I was milking cows on a farm and knew I didn’t want to do that for the rest of my life. I didn’t want to go to college either, at the time,” he said.
Shortly after turning 18, he arrived in Germany for active duty, working on a unit that operated tanks. It was during the Cold War and his unit practiced defense scenarios in which they would keep Russian forces from invading Europe. “Now tanks are kind of obsolete in warfare,” he said, “probably because they’re so easy to defeat.”
After two and half years in Germany, Keith started his work for the National Guard, mainly doing trainings across ten countries, including Iraq, Kuwait, and the Dominican Republic. In 1983, he trained as a pilot and flew helicopters out of the National Guard base in Burlington.
While he served in the Guard, Keith worked for the U.S. Postal Service and studied agriculture at Vermont Technical College and the University of Vermont. He retired from the Guard in 2016.
Geri, who grew up in Warren, joined the Guard in 1982 and did 20 years of service – mostly from the Burlington base. She worked on a medical unit, an air traffic control battalion, and an aviation unit.
Her work on the medical unit included setting up field hospitals – tented emergency rooms with operating facilities – at Fort Drum, New York, and other locations. There, her unit would engage in mock war scenarios, like handling causalities and relocating the hospital.
During her time in the Guard, Geri earned a nursing degree from the University of Vermont. She went on to work as a nurse for 30 years. She said that in her experience, the lack of social supports for veterans constitutes some of the biggest health care issues in the armed forces. “They need medical benefits, and housing, and advocacy,” she said about vets.
Keith and Geri agreed that serving in the U.S. Armed Forces comes with a lot of benefits, like affordable health care and pensions. “I think it’s a good thing for a lot of people, and for young people,” Geri said. “They’re encouraged to go to college, and then find a job to pay it off, which is not easily done.”
Another perk, both said, is getting to stay at military-owned RV parks when they travel to other states, which gives them access to military base facilities like swimming pools and commissaries, where they have access to inexpensive groceries. Their past trips have included California, Texas, Montana, and Arizona. They are headed to South Carolina next.
