Today, Texas Land Commissioner and Veterans Land Board (VLB) Chairwoman Dawn Buckingham, M.D., is proud to introduce the next installment of the series highlighting the VLB's Voices of Veterans oral history program. This week, we spotlight the service of Lt. Col. Kitty Meyers who served in the United States Air Force.
Meyers grew up in a suburb of Baltimore called Catonsville, Maryland. She was the first in her family to serve in the military, but her family was mostly supportive and let her do what she as called to do. She felt that the Air Force had the best opportunities for women at the time. She mentioned that officer training was 90 days of marching in panty hose and heels through the Texas heat.
Meyers served for over twenty-three years, including five and a half years on active duty. She managed food operations as a food services officer and services operations officer in New Hampshire, Arizona, and Germany. While living in Germany with a host family, she mentioned the importance of immersing herself in the country's history and culture.
She joined the reserves unit and was an Individual Mobilization Augmentee (IMA) to the Chief of Air Force Food Service, meaning that if wartime broke out, she could step up to fill that position.
She also worked as a mortuary officer during Operation Desert Storm. Her last assignment was an IMA to the Chief of Air Force Mortuary Affairs at Randolph AFB, Texas. During her service, Meyers also had a fulfilling career in human resources, providing unapparelled hospitality and restaurant management. She retired in 2014.
Meyers said that one of her favorite parts of being in the military was the many opportunities she was given to experience life, saying, "I got to do a lot of stuff that I never ever would have had if I had stayed in Catonsville, Maryland."
She also spoke of the difficulties and triumphs of being a woman in the military:
"As a woman, you’re always proving yourself. I don’t care where you are because people have expectations, and those expectations are not reality. They will project those expectations onto you, and they will try to force you into a mold, and that doesn’t work. You’ve got to look at people as individuals... You learn your resilience; you learn to rely on people and to respect yourself."
After retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel, Meyers dedicated herself to helping Military Members and Veterans. She is the President of the Alamo Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA), Texas State Veterans Cemetery Committee member, and Texas Veterans Commission’s Veteran Services Advisory Committee member.
To listen to Lt. Col. Kitty Meyers tell her story, click the button below:
Veterans can email VoicesofVeterans@glo.texas.gov to tell their stories. Please note that the Veteran must be a resident of Texas at the time of their interview.
Voices of Veterans is a state agency's first Veteran oral history program. It records the stories of Texas Veterans through their time in service and after returning home from combat.
The VLB records interviews with veterans over the phone or in person. Their interviews are then permanently archived in the Office of Veterans Records at the GLO, where they join the historical documents of other Texas heroes such as Sam Houston, Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, and William Barret Travis.
Veterans' interviews are also available to researchers, historians, genealogists, and the public. These precious records inspire future generations and remind us of our Veterans' sacrifices.
To listen to the over 500 archived stories of Veterans documented through the GLO's Voices of Veterans oral history program, click the button below: