Mel Ziebel

“I went into the service when I was 17 years old; my Dad had to sign a waiver for me to join. Spending my 18th birthday in a fox hole, my superior officer put a gas can on a stick and sang happy birthday to me and gassed the entire platoon. What more could a girl want, right? I was active for two years and inactive reserve for 6 years, only traveling to South Carolina for basic and Georgia for AIT. Then I was stationed pretty much back home at Fort Lewis in Washington. My duties were Record Telecommunications. It was my job to transfer information and messages from one base to the next and working with military intelligence. I handled most clerical duties. That was when email was first coming out, so we worked with DOS systems. When I got out I floated around and did some different administrative jobs.

    I grew up a city girl that loved the country. My family would take trips to the mountains to trail ride a few times a year. I also had a neighbor with horses that I would go ride with when I could. My husband grew up on a dairy and farmed for years. We melted our lives together and the rest is history, so they say. We live on about 3 acres, it’s a hobby farm but we have had just about everything from horses, a miniature donkey, steers, pigs, chickens and goats. My kids were in 4-H and FFA with all the animals when they were younger. I put my daughter on a horse and that was it for her, we couldn’t get her off…she has since been involved in WAHSET, drill teams, rodeo royalty, and ranch work. I can live vicariously through her riding.

    As my kids were growing up I decided to go back to school and get a degree in psychology because I knew I wanted to work with kids as a career. My husband and I had fostered kids in the past, been a 4-H leader and I love working with kids that struggle. I went back to school and just recently finished my master’s degree in elementary education. I am very proud of that. I have taught first and second grade and I am now teaching 5th grade and love it. I love them all.”

#agriculture #veteran #teacher