ALI AL SALEM AIR BASE, Kuwait -- Senior Airman Ramandeep Kaur, a Reserve Citizen Airman assigned to the 911th Airlift Wing, Pittsburgh International Airport Air Reserve Station, Pennsylvania, came to Ali Al Salem Air Base, Kuwait, this summer as a Defender originally assigned to the 387th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron. After arriving on station, she was quickly transferred to help the Office of Special Investigations Locally Employed Persons Screening Team because of her unique upbringing.
“I speak three other languages - Punjabi, Hindi and Urdu. That’s basically what most other country nationals speak here,” Kaur explained. “I was working at Cargo City since I got here in July until the first week of September. Then I was brought over to OSI.”
Kaur was raised in India and moved to the United States when she was 10 with her family. Her special linguistic capabilities were not the only reason she was an obvious candidate to work in the investigations department doing background checks.
“I have a law enforcement background,” she said. “First, I was a deputy sheriff for about three years in Northern Virginia. I was assigned to jails and didn’t really like that. So, I left that and before I joined the Air Force, I was with Homeland Security as a contractor.”
Kaur has been extremely busy since going to basic military training in October 2020.
“I got out of BMT and tech school and they said ‘hey do you want to deploy?’ I said, ‘why not?’” she said. “A lot of good things have been happening for me since I got here.”
Since arriving to ASAB, Kaur has also joined the base honor guard.
“Have you seen those uniforms?” she smiled as she explained. “I mean, just being able to put the uniform on and marching with pride, it just gives you goose bumps. They have the taps on the shoes and every step they take, it makes your heartbeat go faster. It’s something I’m really passionate about.”
Since joining the base honor guard, she said it has helped give her perspective on what she wants to do down the road in her military career.
“As far as in the Air Force, I want to join our honor guard and slowly build my steps up and I want to join big Air Force honor guard.” Kaur explained “The big honor guard where I get to travel to different countries and present colors, it’s such an honorable thing. I think that’s one of the reasons why I joined, to be a part of something like that.”
Even though she has only been in the Air Force for a short time, Kaur says she is staying focused on what’s important to her.
“We take some things for granted, like the luxury of living in big houses,” she said as she talked about deployment life. “I think we all get lost in our lala land sometimes, but I’ll definitely be walking away from this just being grateful for everything that comes to you in life.” #ReserveResilient
(Murphy is assigned to the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing public affairs office.)
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