--- title: "How this Native American veteran honored her tribe by serving in the Air Force" date: "2026-10-15" modified: "2026-10-15" authors: - name: "Stephen Ruiz" job_title: "Editor, Writer" link: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/authors/stephen.md" url: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/veterans/how-this-native-american-veteran-honored-her-tribe-by-serving-in-the-air-force/" categories: - "Afghanistan War" - "Air Force" - "History" - "Veterans" - "War History" tags: - "Afghanistan" - "Air Force" - "Veterans" --- # How this Native American veteran honored her tribe by serving in the Air Force ![Jamie Fox]() *Air Force veteran Jamie Fox hails from the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Montana. (Screenshot from the Library of Congress' Veterans History Project video)* *A native of Montana, Jamie Fox is a Native American who served in the Air Force from 2007 to 2016. She was deployed to Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom and left the military at the rank of staff sergeant. In the lead-up to* [*Veterans Day*]() *on November 11, 2026, Fox spoke to the Library of Congress’ Veterans History Project about her military service. (Edits were made for brevity and clarity.)* “I grew up on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Montana. That’s north-central, just an hour from the border \[with Canada\]. There are two tribes there: the Aaniiih and the Nakoda. It was a great childhood. We grew up in the southern part of the reservation—very rural, very country, everyone knows everybody, small-town community. Playing in the creeks all day, outside all day; it was beautiful, no pollution. The only thing we had was noise pollution. That was because if you look at most tribes, a lot of the military practice space was over the tribal land. I got to see B-1s, K-10s, F-16s flying over very low. It was exciting. **Also Read:** [**Kamikaze pilots couldn’t stop this Marine veteran, 104, during World War II**]() “The thing about Fort Belknap, and also Native Americans in general, a lot of people join the military. We think of it as a warrior society. It’s one of the greatest honors to join the warrior side, even if it is the U.S. military. The U.S. government and cavalry, those were our enemies, but we’re U.S. citizens now. This is our home, and we still serve. “On my dad’s side, Henry Fox was in [World War II](). \[My grandfather\] actually was in the fourth wave of boats at Normandy. He made it all the way up to the Rhine River in Germany. He got injured and came back, and he survived. Then on my mom’s side, my Grandpa Dave was in the Pacific. He was in the [Army]() Air Corps, and he was in construction, building airstrips and roads. Those were my two big mentors of why I wanted to join. My Uncle Ed was in [Vietnam](); he was a combat controller, and he survived. “Growing up, I was always around military members, and I always saw airplanes. My dad got me interested in flying, because he was starting his pilot’s license. His life got busy with kids. He gave me the idea. I wanted it really badly, so I was thinking about something in aviation—not necessarily a pilot, not a mechanic, just something in aviation. That’s what I wanted to do.” ### Becoming an Aircraft Mechanic ![B-1B Lancer]() *7th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron B-1B Lancer aircraft mechanics prepare to load an engine at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, May 3, 2020. (U.S. Air Force/Senior Airman River Bruce)* “I knew I wanted to join the military, but I didn’t know when. During my senior year of high school, I applied for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and I got accepted. But it was expensive, and my parents were very supportive. Then I got word that my dad was going to sell his land, which is on the Fort Belknap reservation. He spent his whole life, piecing together from other family members, to keep the original tribal lands in his name. For him to sell it would be too much, but he was going to sell it. As soon as my mom told me that behind his back, I went straight to the recruiter and said, ‘I’ll just pay for college myself.’ I knew I was going to serve before or after college, so why not now? “I went in as enlisted, and I wanted to do something with aircraft. Obviously, I couldn’t be a pilot then so I wanted to be an aircraft mechanic. I signed up in March 2007, and then I had to wait until November to get the job slot. My parents were excited,... but then I could see, ‘Oh, she’s a 17-year-old girl. She’s going to go away to the military.’ I think it hit them when I was going away to basic training, but they were supportive. “When I came back from my first deployment—which was not a bad one, in Qatar for six months—the tribe and the tribal council and community members got together, so that’s good. It’s a good feeling. There’s no negativity toward any veteran. Everyone’s welcomed back, and everyone helps veterans. That’s different off the reservation, because some of the members I served with, they talk about their family… It’s just another thing. There’s no real support. “\[When I entered the Air Force,\] I went to San Antonio, Texas, for six weeks, so it wasn’t too bad. A lot of my family members are Army and [Marine Corps](), so they gave me some clues on what it’s going to be about. It was a learning curve of how to work with everybody. It was exciting, because growing up on the reservation, in Montana, you’re either a cowboy, a Native American, or we have Hutterites, which are the Amish. So there are these three things. We don’t really get too much, like in a city. “So when I went to boot camp, it was everybody of every culture and background. That was nice because in the military, you’re kind of treated like a number. No one cares what you look like, if you’re male or female… All they care about is your qualifications and if you can do the job. That’s what’s really great about the military. ‘She can’t do it because she comes from this background.’ They don’t care about that.” ### Close-Knit Military Community ![C-17 Globemaster III]() *A C-17 Globemaster III sits on the flight line at Stewart Air National Guard Base, New York, September 4, 2026. (U.S. Air National Guard/Airman Kamila Dul)* “Right after boot camp, I went to Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas. I was there for three months. You do a basic aircraft mechanics class. You do that for a month, and then you graduate to your specialty. I was selected to go into the B-1s. After Sheppard, you are selected to go to your next Air Force base, which is Dyess in Abilene, Texas. That’s when you do on-the-job training. “I liked it. Even though Abilene, Texas, wasn’t my dream place to live, the environment and the people at the base and working on the B-1s, it was one of the greatest experiences, the funnest job place, the most hard-working people I’ve ever been around. Just a big family. At that point in time, I wanted to switch to a different base, but I knew I wanted to stay in the Air Force, because I enjoyed it so much, even after a deployment. “I was a crew chief, but I worked AR—aero repair. They do flight controls and mix hydraulics, so we worked all the flaps and slats and horizontal stabilizer and rigged all the flight control systems. It was really a lot of hands-on, getting inside the jet, a lot of 12-hour shifts, working nights. The B-1s are really the machine that has a lot of maintenance to do, but that just keeps you busy. “I originally signed up for four years, and the four years were ending when I was deployed the first time. That gave me a chance to reenlist, with the chance of picking a base. I didn’t necessarily think about the jet; I just thought about a place to be. I chose \[Lewis-\]McChord Air Force Base in Washington, Tacoma, and those are the C-17 Globemasters. It’s a totally different aircraft, totally different experience. Different mission, different mentality, different people. “I loved the area, but I didn’t necessarily like the structure of the Air Force there, because I’m so used to Dyess being this close-knit community. I was in a shop of 30, and then I went into a different shop, which is now among the flight line, a group of 500 individuals. Thirty to 500, it’s just different.” ### Her First Deployment ![Qatar]() *A member of the Qatar military fires a Javelin shoulder-fired anti-tank missile during the exercise Ferocious Falcon live-fire demonstration within the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, November 20, 2025. (U.S. Air Force/Senior Master Sgt. Richard P. Ebensberger)* “It’s funny to say it’s a deployment. It’s an Air Force deployment in Qatar, near Saudi Arabia, in Doha. It was just working on B-1s, just like we did back home. You could even go off base in civilian clothes. Pretty relaxing. They have a pool there. A lot of people who are on ‘real’ deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan come to that place for a break. That first deployment was easy. “If you’re only there for six months, they put you on just one schedule. I was on day shift with a group of four individuals. Just getting to know them and being close, you really do become family, even if it’s fighting. The people make the military so great, because you really do get to know someone on a very personal and professional level. Usually, on a job, you get to know someone on a professional level and sometimes as a friend. In the military, you’re stuck with them. “I tried to \[reassure\] my family that Doha is relatively safe. The base is not getting bombed, or I’m not carrying a weapon. It’s fine, but the mother worries. When we come home on Fort Belknap, we have a warriors ceremony as I was telling you before, but we also honor mothers, because they worry the most. Everyone tries to make sure that if a tribal member who is in the service is deployed, she is taken care of. “I was at \[Lewis-\]McChord for six months, so it’s a whole new job. When I was at Dyess, I would go to the books and troubleshoot and really get to know the jet. I know I’m good at my job. I did that when I went to the C-17s at \[Lewis-\]McChord, and the deployment to Afghanistan came up. Even though I was only there for six months, one of my flight chiefs asked if I felt ready to go on a deployment as a team member for the C-17s at Kandahar. For me, it wasn’t a scary thing. If he asked me if I am ready, he has confidence in me that I am ready. I said yes right away. “So I went on it from November 2011 to June 2012. This is an actual base, a big NATO base, a lot of different militaries, a lot of people. Kandahar is really the Wild West. It’s a weird place…. Even when I joined the military, I didn’t feel lonesome. I never felt lonesome when I was in, which is maybe sad to say, but in a way, it’s kind of nice. You always feel like you have family in the military. Even when I was in Afghanistan, I didn’t feel lonely. “We’re mainly on the base, just working the flight line when C-17s come in and go out. We’re on 12-hour shifts. Basically you’re just in this little maze on the base. You go to work, sleep, eat, and go to the gym, and that’s just for as long as you’re there. At that time, Afghanistan was getting bombed almost every day, so it’s not like you could go run around. There were so many individuals from all over, it’s almost like a big city.” ### “Always on Edge” in Afghanistan ![Kandahar, Afghanistan]() *The night sky lluminates Forward Operating Base Masum Ghar in the Panjwai District of Kandahar province, Afghanistan, November 10, 2012. (U.S. Defense Department)* “It’s not really a safe feeling on the base. You’re always on edge. We had to carry our M4 \[assault rifles\] everywhere we went. \[There were\] a lot of shootings on base, high alert always. So to get into a rhythm of going to work, going to the gym, going to the chow hall, and sleeping, that was the only calming thing. For everyone who’s there, it just becomes normal. The Army and [Marines](), sometimes they’re there for two years. This is just what your real life is. “When you deploy, you don’t arrive there and get a day to just relax. We must have got in around midnight. It’s humid and hot, and you’re tired and disoriented, and you go straight into who you’re taking over for, going over the job, going over details of the base, going to get your weapon, finding out where you’re going to sleep. As soon as you step off the jet, that’s when it starts, this high-energy monotony. “The day I left \[Afghanistan\], it was June 6. It was the anniversary of [D-Day](); that’s when my Grandpa Henry was on D-Day, so it was this weird celebration in my head of, ‘My grandfather was going into war, and I’m leaving it.’ I remember I wasn’t really happy to leave, but then I was. There were a lot of mixed emotions, because you’re so used to it. You have this feeling of, ‘Well, how is it going to be when I go back?’ On the Kandahar air base, sometimes the showers wouldn’t work. The water wasn’t running, so you take water bottle showers. I remember the only thing I was excited to do was to take a 45-minute shower in my house back in Olympia\[, Washington\]. “Yeah, it’s a weird thing to describe. Everyone has a different way of feeling when they leave. Of course, you want to be happy, but, ‘I’m so used to doing this. It’s going to be a little weird to go back to whatever the other real life is.’ “The first day I was alone, I drove my car to downtown Olympia, had a slice of pizza, and went to the park. I sat there for a couple of hours. I was smoking cigarettes at the time. In Afghanistan, I would smoke a pack a day, because it’s just constant stress, high alert. I remember sitting there, breathing. ‘This is real life. I don’t have a radio or a weapon, and I don’t have to constantly be looking.’ There’s no bombs, but I’m so used to it that being in Olympia was almost a torn feeling. It was almost like I was missing being in Afghanistan. It’s a weird experience.” ### Finding Her Purpose in Teaching ![C-17 Globemaster]() *Airman 1st Class Nicholas McKinney, 437th Maintenance Squadron aircraft fuels systems apprentice, looks up from the inside of a C-17 Globemaster III fuel tank during a routine training exercise March 7, 2013, at Joint Base Charleston, S.C. (U.S. Air Force/Airman 1st Class Tom Brading)* “\[After returning from Afghanistan,\] I went back to \[Lewis-\]McChord and worked the flight line. I got into that rhythm, which was good, but I definitely was still transitioning from Afghanistan, even months after. I think my supervisor on the flight line could see that I was getting tired or something was definitely wrong. He wrote me a letter and put in for me to do instructor duty, where you’re at the schoolhouse, teaching all the new recruits from boot camp and tech school on C-17s. He said, ‘You should try that out for a few years.’ “So the last three years of my career, I was training new individuals on the basics of the C-17, and that was a good transition out. It made me enjoy the Air Force in a calm way. You can really influence 19-year-olds in a positive way. This is what the Air Force is really going to be about, and this is how to respect your supervisor and have them respect you. All the things that I was taught or not taught, that was my opportunity to give them clues on how to make their career enjoyable and how to take the next steppingstones and not mess up. “One of my last students was a girl from Montana, so we kind of had a mirrored experience. Having that class and that girl for my last days in the Air Force. It was nice to pass it on and knowing they were confident and I had a role in giving them advice on how to be in the military. \[I missed working on the aircraft,\] but I was mentally preparing to get out of the military then. “I got married and moved to Denmark, where my husband is from. We met at a music festival in Washington state, right after I came back from Afghanistan. I just got back, so that was turning my brain in a weird way. Then I met someone, fell in love, brains turning in a different way. I had to go to Airman Leadership School, which is when you become a sergeant, you have different responsibilities and roles. I had to do that, so it was just this huge turn in my life. Even if it was positive, it was a lot of stress. “I don’t think you ever fully transition out, because you’re always going to be a veteran. You’re always going to have these experiences. One of my best friends is still in the Air Force. When we talk, we talk about work. I’m so involved, but I’m not.” ### Seeing the Military Differently ![Operation Enduring Freedom]() *Soldiers assigned to Easy Company, 2-506 Infantry Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) board a CH-47 Chinook for a mission in Support of Operation Enduring Freedom, East Paktika Province, Afghanistan, May 22, 2011. (U.S. Army/Pfc. Brandon Rickert)* “Afghanistan definitely changed a lot of things. When you deploy, you see things that aren’t on the news, a lot of things you think deployments are, what the mission is actually doing. It changes a lot of military members, especially those who are in combat. Even though I wasn’t in combat, you see a lot of combat injuries come back, people getting bombed. That’s when you really question who is making the decision to do these things. Sometimes you think, ‘Why am I even here?’ “You question a lot of things. You definitely get a different perspective on the military. \[It's\] just the question of, ‘Why are we here, and is there a better definition and a better way to do this?’ Some people are fueled on it and want to go back and be deployed. They really enjoy the mission, whatever that is and whatever the military tells them it is. But for me, it was really a question of the individuals, the higher-ups who aren’t in the military and are making the decisions. ‘I wish they would be here and see this.’ “They should be there. Everyone who votes to go to war or votes in favor of being in Afghanistan, they should go there. It would give them a different perspective. Afghanistan is so complex \[in regard to\] what we’re doing to help, what’s being accomplished. “\[My last day of service\] was at \[Lewis-\]McChord Air Force Base. I just graduated my last class of teaching, and basically it’s just going out and signing papers to get out of the military. I went to the gym with one of my best friends, who was an instructor at the time and a crew chief, and he drove me off base. That was it. “Everything was packed up from my house in Olympia, Washington, and I was going to Montana for a couple of weeks before going to Denmark. It’s always been easy for me to pack up and move somewhere on the physical side. I guess it really didn’t hit me that I was out of the Air Force until a couple of weeks after. I still had this mentality of, ‘I need to go to work, or I need to call in, or something.’” ### Proud She Served “On the reservation, they don’t treat \[veterans\] as royalty. And for yourself, you have this respect as a veteran. I still feel like I want to be tall, confident, positive, and help, and most veterans are like that. Every powwow we have or every ceremony, veterans should be the ones who stand up and do some work. The role is not to stand on a pedestal and tell us our accomplishments. We’re still serving. “The majority of my time serving was positive, probably because of the people. It was the community, and the work was exciting and different, but there was some negativity on deployments that happened. Even with all those combined, I wouldn’t change it. A lot of what happened was out of my control anyway. I’m glad I had the experiences I had. “In the aircraft maintenance world, there’s not a lot of women. I was the only woman in my shop the first time, and then I was one of seven of the 400, 500, at the next base. When I was teaching, I would definitely try to—not just the women but of men who came in—to shape this mentality of how it was for me being a woman in a man’s career field in the military. “I went in there with a neutral mind. I grew up with three brothers and came from a military family. They gave me the details of, ‘This is what’s going to be expected.’ And the people at Dyess Air Force Base were the greatest combination of people. I never felt any differences in the way I was treated because I was a woman. If you had the knowledge and the drive and you did the work, that’s all that mattered. That was such a healthy feeling. I never even considered that, ‘Maybe this is going to be different, because I’m a woman.’ But when I went to a different base—and probably because it’s a bigger range of people—there’s definitely a feeling of me being one of the only women. That was a little challenging. “A lot of veterans loved their time in the service, or even if they didn’t, they’re still proud they did. I just wish more veterans would share their story. It would give them a sense of pride again of, ‘I was in the service,’ and it’s not just a part of your past life. They should always celebrate it.” **Don’t Miss the Best of We Are The Mighty** **•** [**Korean War veteran pinpoints the most important lesson of war**]() **•** [**A retired Navy SEAL’s call to action for veterans to save the American dream**]() **•** [**Why this military spouse says questioning our elections is an affront to veterans**]() ## Author Stephen Ruiz is an editor and writer at We Are The Mighty. His writing revolves mostly around military history and sports stories, but it can branch into other areas. Stephen has more than 35 years of journalism experience. His career began with stints at The Ledger newspaper in Lakeland, Florida, and The Kansas City Star in Missouri, but most of his time was spent on the copy desk at the Orlando Sentinel. After accepting a buyout from the Sentinel in 2020, Stephen worked at Military.com for 4½ years as a content editor and writer. He joined the We Are The Mighty staff in December 2025. ### Author social links [Facebook]() [Twitter]() [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]()