LEON, Kan. (KSNW) — Eli Marsolf grew up on a farm in northwest Oklahoma. He graduated from Burlington (OK) High School in 2000, and a couple of months after receiving his diploma, he joined the Army National Guard.
Then, he was off to Fort Benning, Georgia, for basic training and to begin his 11-year military journey.
Little Leon, Kansas, is a quiet place to come home to at the end of a long day. Every working day is a long day for Eli Marsolf. He’s an over-the-road trucker. His road to the highways and byways of the Midwest began back when he was 18.
U.S. Army Veteran from Cheney deployed to Afghanistan twice
“I chose the Army National Guard so I could go to college,” he said.
Marsolf was in a field artillery unit in the Oklahoma Army National Guard, and he used his G.I. Bill benefits to start attending college at Northwestern Oklahoma State University.
He was in class on Sept. 11, 2001.
His unit was told it would be activated and deployed overseas in early 2002.
“We were there (in Iraq and Kuwait) for six months. Well, they were there for six months. I was there for four. I blew my right knee out,” Marsolf said.“When we first got there, we were guarding an Army RETRANS site. That is your communications. Army, Marines, and for all of us,” he explained. “Then the war started, ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom,’ and then we started guarding Patriot missiles against Fort Bliss, Texas.”The MIM-104 Patriot is a surface-to-air missile (SAM) system. It was the primary system used by the U.S. Army and several allied states during the war in Iraq. The Patriot was one of the first tactical systems in the U.S. Department of Defense to employ lethal autonomy in combat. The system was successfully used against Iraqi missiles beginning in 2003.After four months overseas, Marsolf was sent first to Germany for surgery, then back to the States to rehab his knee in Colorado.After that, he resumed college in Alva, Oklahoma and joined the Kansas National Guard out of Dodge City.Then, his life changed in a big way […]
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