Susan Buckingham has known the military from many sides.
In 1976, she joined the U.S. Army and was in the last class of the Women's Army Corps at Fort Jackson, S.C. Her three years in communications allowed her to use the GI Bill to go to school.
Buckingham is in her third year as the special services director for the Russellville School District.
Before she left the Army in 1979, she met her husband John at advanced training. And she became a career army wife, living three years in Germany.
These days, she also is an Army mom with all three sons in active duty military.
"I'm okay with it," Buckingham said. "It's easier for me than for moms who have not been in."
And to round out her angles to veterans, her father served eight years in the Army before she was born, and her grandfather retired from the British Royal Marines.