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In this morning’s installment in our Sense of Community series, we introduced you to Staff Sergeant Pam Hyer. Now, here’s the story of her husband, Private First Class James Hyer. He grew up in a family that knew all too well the cost of military service.
“My father was a 100% disabled Vietnam veteran. He was injured in Vietnam, so he served in that era, and I grew up with men of that era, many of them served, whether they were drafted or volunteered, that was engrained in the culture of the men I grew up around. So, from childhood, I knew that was an important thing, service to your country.”
After high school, Hyer tried to join the military…but there was one problem.
“I am severely color blind. And at the time, the only job I could do was be a typist. There are many valuable typists in the Army. I didn’t want to be one, though.”
Every few years, Hyer checked in with recruiters to see if the rules had changed so that color blind individuals could do something other than type. He recalls making an urgent plea as he watched the events of 9/11 unfold.
“On 9/11, I watched the first tower fall, I got in my car and drove to my recruiter’s office and I was there before the second tower fell. So, I watched that with other Army guys. I looked at my recruiter and said, ‘Look, I’m still color blind but our country’s under attack. Please let me do something other than type.’ But even at that point, there are regs, they take time to change."
Those regulations did change by 2006 and he was eligible to be a medic. At the age of 35, James Hyer became Private First Class Hyer. In the National Guard, he met the woman who would become his wife, Staff Sergeant Pam Hyer. She says she reached out to him because she remembers feeling left out when she first joined the guard.
“It was a little bit clique-ish, and I did not like that. So I thought I don’t ever want to treat the new soldiers like that. I want to hug them up and say we’re glad they’re here. So, we were already deploying to Iraq. We were at a pre-mobilization place where we’re starting our training. He was a late add on. He came in and was the new soldier. I introduced myself and tried to hang out with him.”
The rest, as they say, is history. They became good friends, and when they returned to the United States, they stayed connected and got married January 16, 2010. So, what’s been the impact of their private lives intersecting with their military careers?
“She outranks me by several grades.”
“I keep reminding him of that too, even at home.”
“She’s not directly in charge of me. I’m in a different platoon, but she is within my chain of command. There’s never any conflict. Before I married this woman, I served under her."
Hyer says he and most of the other soldiers he knows have tremendous respect for women in the military.
“You know, many of the best soldiers I know are female. Many of the toughest soldiers I know are females. Women in the United States military are impressive. The women I work with, if I was on the battlefield and was injured, they’d come out and risk their lives for me. I am so proud of the women I serve with. I’m so proud of my wife. I look up to her as a soldier, an NCO, as a human being. The other day at the VA, an older guy saw my wife in her uniform and kind of scowled and said, ‘I’ve never seen a woman in uniform.’ I can’t imagine what the military would be like without the great work women do there.”
Staff Sergeant Pam Hyer says discrimination against women is less of a problem now than it was even a decade ago.
“Earlier in my career when the guard maybe wasn’t so active duty-minded, I think there was some of that. But we are getting better. I have not personally had a whole lot of problems. I try to lead by example because that’s what I found that I most responded to and most respected. I do not have a problem if I ask one of my guys to go take care of a truck or mop a floor, nobody has ever been unkind or disrespectful in any way.”
As for what the future holds for the Hyers…they say another deployment could be on the horizon, but they’re hopeful they’ll get to serve overseas together, as they did previously in Iraq.
You can hear more stories in our Sense of Community series online at KSMU.org.
Missy Shelton has provided reports for National Public Radio programs like Morning Edition and All Things Considered. Her reporting has earned statewide and national recognition, including a national Edward R. Murrow Award.
She honed her journalism skills covering state government, a beat she's loved since she first set foot in the capitol in 1997 as a University of Missouri journalism student. She is host and producer for Jeff City Journal, a public affairs program that airs on all of Missouri's public TV stations.
