Women Who Serve feature
Story by Ashley Elvington • Photographed by Laura McBryde Gainey
Kristen
GIFFORD
WHEN IT COMES TO KRISTEN GIFFORD AND HER MILITARY CAREER, one might
say that it was more than just a decision based upon the inspiration of her family
members who had served. To Kristen, it was a calling from God.
Although her father had been drafted into the Army during the Vietnam War,
Kristen had never considered service during the years of her youth. “I just knew
I would go off to college, graduate, and start my career.” A year and a half into
college, Kristen felt as if something was off. “I can’t really explain it other than I
had a strong gut feeling that joining the military was what I needed to do. I tried to
ignore it for a while, but I just couldn’t shake it. Looking back now, I can see that
it was God’s plan for my life, and He was just steering me where I needed to go.”
Developing an interest in the Air Force, Kristen enrolled in 2001. “Even though
I was looking forward to this next chapter of my life, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t
have any doubts or fears.” The biggest one of all was moving away from her
family, from whom she had not been separated for more than a few nights. Questioning her decision at times, she often thought about where she would be stationed and how far away she would be from her family. However, that gut feeling
remained, and Kristen knew she was making the right choice for her life.
That February, she left for basic training in San Antonio, Texas. “I was
definitely nervous and scared, because I knew the next several weeks in
basic training were going to be hard. I knew to some degree what to expect, but
it’s hard to prepare yourself for such a drastic change in your life. As nervous as
I was, I was still excited to begin the next chapter of my life. I knew it would be
quite an adventure.” She then moved to Biloxi, Mississippi, for job training at
Keesler Air Force Base. Her first assignment was at the Eglin Air Force Base in
Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Here, Kristen began work as an Interface Control
Technician/Trainer. During this time, she was deployed twice - once to Ali
Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait (for three months) and to Baghdad, Iraq (for
seven months). “The mission of our squadron was to deploy out to the middle of
nowhere and set up a ground radar site. We had all the various people necessary to be able to have a fully functioning mini-base: vehicle maintainers, cooks,
security forces, heating and air conditioning maintainers, communications technicians, etc. Once the radar was set up and operational, it was our job to identify
everything that was flying in our airspace as being friendly or being enemy within
two minutes of the radar picking it up.”
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JULY 2016
“As nervous as I was, I
was still excited to begin
the next chapter of my
life. I knew it would be
quite an adventure.”
If the aircraft was identified as an enemy, Kristen and her team had to scramble
the jets to intercept. It was her responsibility to set up data connections so the
squadron would send the live radar picture to generals, various other leaders, and
the Command Center. She was also responsible for training new Interface Control Technicians. As with any job, there were some aspects that