Getting to know: Ken and Marcia Eggers

 

For the first time, we are featuring a joint interview with a dual-veteran couple!

VFW Connections

Ken and Marcia first started coming to the VFW in 2004 after reading about the Saturday night wings. Eventually, they worked their way up from customers to wing-night volunteers. They also got involved with helping during Bingo nights. Both Ken and Marcia have served as Post 1503 officers. They are active members and officers of the Military Order of the Cootie, now in the Grand Chairs (State) of the MOC.

 

Born in Indiana to a farmer and a homemaker, Marcia was the youngest of seven children. The family cultivated crops like corn, soybeans, and wheat. They also tended to milk cows, fat cattle, hogs, and chickens. With such a large family to feed, their land also supported two gardens to harvest for fresh produce and canning. Marcia did fairly well in school and also played basketball during her high school years.

With few opportunities for growth in her small town, Marcia welcomed a cold call from an Army recruiter in April of 1984. Although her parents were against her joining initially, a relative eventually encouraged the family to allow what they thought would be a four-year enlistment. A few months later, Marcia was on her way to basic training.

Like Marcia, Ken also hails from the Midwest. He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was the youngest of four siblings raised by a single mom. Although his mother was blind, she ran a successful phone answering service for over 500 clients by memorizing all the phone numbers and messages.

Ken was rebellious while enrolled in Catholic school and was eventually asked to leave midway through high school after violating some of the rules. The local public school in Milwaukee also didn’t work out, so Ken took a break before completing some college credits and eventually returning after his junior year to graduate in 1982.

After completing high school, Ken and a friend decided to head West to California, where they worked with Ken’s sister. They provided assistive home services to disabled individuals and had jobs at a local nursing home. Six months later, the two of them returned to Wisconsin. Back at home, Ken tried his hand at a few different jobs, like driving cabs and running a restaurant. Eventually, he found an Army recruiter station and was off to basic training within a month.

 

 

In January of 1984, Ken completed a single-station unit training for both basic training and advanced individual training (AIT) at Fort McClellan in Alabama. This 16-week MP program was rigorous, teaching him everything he needed to know to be part of the military police.

Just a few months later, in September of 1984, Marcia enlisted as a 71L administrative specialist. She completed basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey, where she received a promotion for stepping up to take on a leadership role in her squad. Afterward, she headed to Fort Jackson, South Carolina, for AIT and focused instruction in administrative skills.

Although they didn’t know each other during their first few months in the military, both Ken and Marcia were stationed at Fort Knox, Kentucky, as their first duty station. Ken started his time there "working the road” where the tanker, armor, and CAV schools trained. Marcia was tasked with several different positions, including roles at the passport office and ID card facility.

The two first met while on a blind date—but not with each other! Ken had been set up with Marcia’s friend, and the group all gathered in the day room at the barracks before an evening out at the enlisted club. Two months later, they met again, and Ken decided to call Marcia to ask if she wanted to go out with him. Although Marcia already had plans to go to a concert that afternoon, Ken was able to come along with the group. The two of them officially started dating in June of 1985. They married in April of 1986 in Marcia’s hometown of Brookville, Indiana, with 250 of their friends and family members in attendance. Their large church wedding and reception filled the tiny town with excitement.

After the festivities, they returned to Fort Knox to continue with their respective enlistments. Ken eventually transitioned to the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) for about a year and a half before spending an equal amount of time as an MP Investigator. He was promoted to a sergeant (E-5) position during this time. Marcia had also been promoted to the rank of corporal (E-4) and later became the administrative specialist for the command sergeant major of the ROTC battalion, CSM Dewey Walker. They remained stationed at Fort Knox until February of 1990.

From there, the two headed to the German state of Hessen for three years. Ken worked in a very busy CID office running the drug team. As the heroin trade was a growing issue in the region, this unit also supported the local German police. He completed Warrant Officer Candidate School in 1991 and was transferred to two other local CID offices during his time there. Marcia was assigned to several Army post offices, an especially busy place during the holidays. As they wanted to ensure that all families received their holiday gifts, she was required to be on the job from 15 Nov to 15 January without leave or passes.

In February of 1993, Ken and Marcia secured orders for the DC area. Ken was stationed at Fort Belvoir and Marcia worked at the Headquarters in Falls Church. It was a busy time for both, as Ken went to Somalia for four months at the end of 1993. In October of 1994, Marcia headed to Airborne School. They also welcomed their son, Lukas, in July of 1996 at DeWitt Hospital. In 1997, Marcia traveled to Fort Huachuca in Arizona to reclassify her military specialty, becoming an imagery analyst. In 1998, Ken and Marcia were stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Marcia was deployed to Bosnia in June of 1999 until the end of that year.

They left Fort Bragg in February of 2001. Marcia took a job at the Pentagon with the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (now the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency). Marcia was off work when the plane hit the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, but she returned a few days later, as their offices were thankfully unaffected. During this time, Ken worked at the Headquarters for the Chief of Policy. Ken and Marcia retired from the Army in 2004.