By Army 1st Lt. Avery P. Schneider
12th Public Affairs Detachment
CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait, Dec. 5, 2012 – New York Army National Guardsman Spc. Erin Colburn has been selected for admission to the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.
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Colburn, a member of the 27th Brigade Special Troops Battalion, is currently deployed to Kuwait in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. She began her military career in September 2009, when she was just 17 years old. Her parents, Bonnie and Darrell Colburn, signed a waiver for her to enlist in the National Guard.
\”We knew it was what she truly wanted to do, so we stood behind what she wanted. She’s always had a very mature attitude towards her decision-making,\” Colburn’s mother said.
Colburn said part of her decision to join the military came from a desire to help and serve others.
\”I needed to find a way to give back to my community after Girl Scouts,\” she said. \”I couldn’t be a Girl Scout forever, so I joined the Army.\”
Colburn had considered a career in journalism, but changed her focus towards the military because she wanted to experience what was going on first hand. As her father puts it, \”She didn’t want to report on it, but wanted to help do it.\”
Colburn chose to become an intelligence analyst, and completed training in January 2011, quickly followed by her first drill with the 27th BSTB in Buffalo, N.Y., in April 2011.
She was assigned to the intelligence section, where she began working under the battalion’s intelligence officer, Capt. Jessica Jurj.
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