Before Subdural Hematoma:A National Guard Captain

Before Subdural Hematoma : Kelly Part Four

Kelly talks about who she was and what she did before subdural hematoma.  She was not only a sales rep for a country music station but also a Captain for the National Guard.

Let’s talk about who you were before you got hurt, Kelly before subdural hematoma.  How old were you?

I was 36, had just turned 36 in August.

That makes you how old now?

Well, I’m female, and no one’s supposed to ask a female how old, their age, but I’m 50.  I was 50 in August.

What were you doing for a living before subdural hematoma?

I was a marketing advertising sales representative for a country music radio station there in LaGrange, Texas.

How did you get into that job?

Well my, my degree in 1987 was in mass communications with specialty in PR/ Advertising.  So I’ve just been in advertising sales for a long time.

How I got to Texas is I was working as a prison extradition agent, extraditing prisoners from one state wherever they had been arrested and were being held back to the requesting state where they had left or escaped or whatever.  Whatever reason.  And they put me on the road for three months.

I was living at the time on a ranch where I was kind of responsible for watching the animals and making sure they didn’t get out and things of that nature.  They went and put me on the road for three months nonstop.  I just could not do that, so I gave my notice to the extradition company, applied for this job with this radio station and was accepted, and went from there.

Now I assume at the you were already in Texas?

Yes.

Where did you go to college before subdural hematoma?

Middle Tennessee State University. I graduated when I was 26.

Had you  done some part-time work or been out of school for some time before you got your degree and before subdural hematoma?

Uh, no, well as far, if you count the Army Guard as being out of school.

Tell me about that.

When I was in college I got hooked up with the ROTC group which is the Reserve Officer Training Corp.  And they were going to New Orleans for Mardi Gras.  Well it just so happened that right before getting accepted and moving up to go to college, I was, I had gone, this is kind of funny…

I went to take a test, the ACT testing, in Birmingham, Alabama, where my mother was living at the time.  And leaving the test this really hot fellow, he liked my jacket and he made a comment about where my, it was a high school football jacket.  He made a comment about my jacket and I told him where it was, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, anyway he asked me out.  We went on a date and I really liked him.

He just so happened to be stationed in the Coast Guard at Abbeville, Louisiana. So then he says: do you think maybe you could come down to New Orleans for Mardi Gras?  Well he was a really nice guy so I said, I’ll do everything in my possibility and I do stick behind my word.

So this ROTC department was offering or promoting that they were going to Mardi Gras in February and if anybody would like to go come see about joining the White Berets.  The White Berets were the precision drill team.  They twirled the rifles and things of that nature in parades, and so I went and signed up and low and behold I went to Mardi Gras, so that’s how I got into the National Guard.  That’s my entrance to the military.

So you got into it because there was a guy you were interested in?

Yes.

And how long were you in ROTC.

Until 1983 when I was early commissioned.

So you were an officer in the National Guard before subdural hematoma?

Yes, I was a second lieutenant.  I became a second lieutenant in May of 1983.

How long were you in the Guard?

‘Til 1996.

What rank did you achieve?

Captain.

Did you ever serve overseas before subdural hematoma?

Yes, not on active duty, but on training periods.  I’d go overseas for different like reforger, and just different training periods.

Next in Part Five – Coming out of Her Coma

By Attorney Gordon Johnson

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