Local Air Force veteran served our country as a single mom

One Yuma woman takes on the military while being a single mom.

In April 1998, Jennifer Reeve rolled out to basic training, an unlikely place for her since she had no prior intentions of joining the military.

A high school test, called the ASVAB, led her to phone calls from a recruiter.

During that time, Reeve was working two jobs and attending Arizona Western College, but her future was already daunting.

“One day, I just happened to be talking to my friend and I was like, ‘what are we going to do like with our life? How are we going to get school paid for? This isn’t working for me.’ And I was like maybe we should go talk to that recruiter. I mean what’s it going to hurt? So, we went to go talk to this recruiter and he told us about this program where we could come in together. It was called the buddy system at the time,” said Reeve.

Reeve and her friend agreed to join together leading Jennifer to tell her parents she was off to join the Air Force.

“I told my mom this is what I’m doing and she’s like ‘What? You want to do this?’ And I was like well, I don’t really know what else to do,” said Reeve.

When it was time to catch the bus to head to the Military Entrance Processing station, her friend did not show up.

Reeve did not turn back. She went alone.

“I said I was going to do it and I signed the paperwork and so I went by myself and here I am 20 years later,” said Reeve.

She thought she would serve he four years and be done, but when the time came she was not ready.

“Life happened and I was pregnant with my second son. I was like what am I going to do,” said Reeve.

Then 9/11 happened. Reeve was pregnant with her second son and remembers that day vividly.

“There were so many unanswered questions and people were just scrambling all over the place. There was like no sense of normalcy. I remember thinking I don’t know what’s going to happen in the next 24 hours,” explained Reeve.

She then served our country in Afghanistan.

It was during that time that she faced another battle. This time it was in her own country.

Reeve said she was in a custody battle with the father of her sons.

“The State of Arizona granted that request and said that I abandoned by kids and I fought it and said that I didn’t abandon them. I’m in the military and this is where I was assigned. I didn’t ask for this assignment,” said Reeve.

She had to leave Afghanistan early to get her sons back.

“So that I could go back to the State of Arizona and get my kids back. So that’s exactly what happened. I had to file with the court and ask for a junction to give my rights back and to give my kids back to me,” said Reeve.

Although there were challenges, Reeve said she would do it all over again.

“Even though it was really tough and there was a lot of trying times. I honestly think that everybody should join the military,” said Reeve.

Reeve married her current husband in 2005 and her family of five now lives in Georgia.

She still visits Yuma frequently.