Wichita native sees the world and makes his family proud by serving his country
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — One Wichita veteran spent most of his adult life in the Kansas Army National Guard, and he is grateful for all the opportunities it has brought him.
Wichita's Aaron Reynolds has always been inspired by the men and women who serve our country, but a national tragedy took that admiration to another level.
'I was in seventh grade when 9/11 happened, so of course that sparked another interest and want to serve somehow,' Reynolds said.
He joined the Kansas Army National Guard in 2008 and trained to be an infantryman. Around 2009, he began training for his first big deployment, focusing on search and rescue operations in Djibouti, Africa.
'It was pretty surreal just being there and experiencing a different culture. When I was there, the platoon that I was with, we got to do a lot of joint training operations with other branches and stuff that a lot of other people didn't necessarily get to experience, so that was pretty cool,' Reynolds said.
The next major milestone of his Army career came after he returned to Wichita and was promoted to Sergeant.
'I'm actually able to not only be part of a team but help lead a team and kind of help mold the people that come after me so that way they can step into a leadership role when their time comes,' Reynolds said.
And those leadership skills would be necessary for him during his second deployment in 2018, when he was sent to both Syria and Kuwait, spending part of his time on a support mission training with allies.
'I wasn't just responsible for me. I was responsible for X, Y, and making sure they were ready to go and they were prepared for what we needed to do for training, mission purposes, whatever,' Reynolds said.
He would do one more overseas deployment, and a few months after that, he made a major change by going active duty with the Kansas Army National Guard, serving in a logistical role.
'It's definitely been a learning curve spending over a decade in more of a combat arms-type job and then coming a doing something completely different outside my wheelhouse,' Reynolds said.
There are many reasons why Sgt. Aaron Reynolds stuck with the Kansas Army National Guard throughout the years, from seeing the world to making his family proud.
'It's been a sense of pride for them having somebody this generation, especially spending this long in the military, to still kind of stick with it and love what they do,' he said.
If you want to nominate a veteran for our Veteran Salute, send an email to connect3news@ksn.com or fill out our online contact form!
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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