Mastic Resident, Spc. Amy Klemm, Reflects on Inspirations

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Spc. Amy Klemm, a New York Army National Guard Soldier from Mastic, N.Y., aboard a helicopter in Afghanistan in 2006.

LATHAM, NY (03/31/2011)(readMedia)-- One of the women who keeps the New York Army National Guard flying found her inspiration in the skies and on the ground.

Spc. Amy Klemm, of Mastic, N.Y., is among the nearly 1,500 women in the New York Army National Guard, and she routinely takes to the skies, logging flying time as a crew chief aboard a Blackhawk helicopter. Klemm belongs to B Company, 142nd Aviation Battalion, which is based in Staten Island, N.Y.

Klemm's inspirations were both remote and close to home -- aviator Amelia Earhart and her Vietnam veteran father. While attending junior high, she did a research paper on Earhart, Klemm said.

"She was able to fly an aircraft, and she was the first woman to fly across the country," Klemm said of Earhart.

Klemm's father, who served in the infantry and received the Purple Heart, told her great things about the military and encouraged her to enlist, Klemm said. She joined the New York Army National Guard because she wanted to be close to her family and community, she added.

Three years later Klemm went to war herself, logging about 500 hours as a CH-47 Chinook helicopter door gunner with the 3rd Battalion, 126th Aviation Regiment, Massachusetts Army National Guard in Afghanistan in 2006. While there, she volunteered to go to Iraq with her own unit. She returned from Afghanistan, and after a month off, deployed with her unit to Iraq.

Klemm recently graduated from the Warrior Leadership Course at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania. The hard-hitting, intensive course teaches specialists and corporals the basic skills to lead small groups of Soldiers, and prepares them to advance to the rank of sergeant.

Klemm, who graduated in the top 20 percent of the class and was named to the commandant's list, said she found the course mentally challenging.

"They put a heavy work load on you," she said.

Woman's history month validates the role of women in the military and other professions, Klemm said. She also loves her job.

"I like to fly and see different things," said Klemm. "The people in aviation are great people."