Hometown Hero Alicia Grube of Appleton handled classified information in the DMZ
APPLETON, Wis. (WFRV) – Army Veteran Alicia Grube's family has a tradition of serving one's country across generations and the world.
'My dad is a Marine vet,' she said while showing several photos on the wall of honor in her home. 'This is my mother's father (in uniform) in Spain. This is my Uncle Danny from when he got his Purple Heart. And here's my grandfather Bill Borman.'
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With a family tree like that, you might think service would come automatically. But Grube says her reason was far more practical.
'I didn't want to put any financial burden on my mother. A single mom raising two girls sometimes has two or three jobs. And so one day my sister and I came home and told my mom we had both enlisted.'
Both were in the army. Her sister deployed to Desert Storm while she ended up in South Korea twice.
Her first tour dealt with classified communications. The second tour, while in the same country, was completely different with her dream assignment with the The 1st Air Cavalry Brigade.
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'You saw where the North Korean flag was and where the South Korean flag was right there,' Grube recalled. 'You realize we're right at the border, training and shooting our weapons all the time. It was an eye-opener that we were right there.'
Grube left the military after 6.5 years of active duty and a couple more in the National Guard.
She married a Marine, and her youngest daughter is a Marine.
Now Grube serves the community as a county fraud investigator.
'It's all about my community and how I can make my community better.'
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Her only regret is that she didn't stay in the military longer.
'The camaraderie with the rest of the soldiers, there's nothing else like it. The bond that you create with these people, you don't even know that you trust them. You know every single person is there to take care of themselves and each other.'
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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