Kelly Fisher spending the holidays in Lake Tahoe with her family
Colonel Fisher with daughters Ashley and Loren
Kelly and Bill Fisher enjoying one of their favorite pastimes
Kelly Rourke-Fisher
If you look at photos on Kelly Rourke Fisher's facebook page, you will immediately come to the conclusion that Kelly is one adventurous woman, and you would be right.
During the time that the curly haired kid left Mrs. Thellman's class at St. Ann's until now, a lot of things have changed. Kelly started high school at Regina, but her father had to relocate for work reasons and Kelly moved to Tennessee after her junior year. Uprooting isn't always easy, but Kelly had to make a new home in the Volunteer state where she completed her senior year of high school. Coincidentally, soon after high school she volunteered to join the United States Air Force and spent four years serving her country at Travis Air Force Base in California, before returning to civilian life.
Upon that return, Kelly enrolled at California Polytechnic State University where she received a Bachelor's Degree in Environmental Science and a Master's Degree in Architecture. Kelly also enrolled in the ROTC program at Cal Poly and received her commission as a US Army officer, and currently continues her service in the National Guard. Her 35 years of military service have taken Kelly on worldwide deployments of various military missions, including those in Ukraine, South Korea, and most recently, Afghanistan.
After earning the rank of Colonel, Kelly became the Brigade Commander for the 223rd Regiment (Regional Training Institute). Kelly was then selected to attend the US Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where she was awarded a second Master's Degree in Strategic Studies in 2013.
After her War College experience, Kelly then became the first female to command California's 49th Military Police Brigade. In all, Kelly has held two company commands, one camp command, two battalion commands and two brigade commands. Kelly openly admits that she "kinda enjoys leading soldiers and team building."
While the military has been a big part of Kelly's life, it's nowhere close to being her whole life, nor the most important part. That distinction belongs to her family. Her husband Bill Fisher, whom she met on a blind date shortly after college, and whom she describes without hesitation as her true soulmate, have made a home along California's Central Coast since their marriage in 1992. Bill, a wildland firefighter, is a retired Battalion Chief for CALFIRE, so it wouldn't be a stretch to figure that these two hit it off because they're both a tad venturesome.
That sense of adventure doesn't stop there. The couple's two daughters have been hitting the slopes, the hiking trails, the bikeÂpaths, steering kayaks, scaling mountainsides, and staking out campgrounds with mom and dad since birth. Loren 22, and bound for medical school, and Ashley 20, both Biology majors at Cal Poly are still on the run. Both have recently finished the LA Marathon in impressive fashion. What's impressive? Well Loren finished 13th (3:41:05) out of 724 entrants in her age bracket, and Ashley finished 3rd (3:32:33) out of 930 entrants in her age bracket. Both easily posted times that qualify them to participate in the Boston Marathon, and when that day comes, Kelly and Bill, the proud parents will again be enthusiastically cheering them on.
When Kelly wasn't low crawling in the sand or qualifying with some weapon on the firing range with the National Guard, she was busy working as a Facilities Manager for the state of California, a position she held for over 20 years. With these two occupations come a myriad of decisions, but the decision Kelly said she made that was the best of her life, was to retire early from the state and spend more time raising her two lovely daughters. Being able to be there for her girls, whom she calls the center of her universe, was a decision she clearly never regrets making.
As of November of 2014, Kelly and Bill have been living in Arlington Virginia while Kelly does a stint at the National Guard Bureau working as an analyst, advising on policy in support of officer professional development of future leaders of US Army and National Guard.
One of the biggest benefits to being in Virginia is that she is able to visit with her mother who is doing well in Atlanta, and her father, who is battling with Alzheimer's in Chattanooga. She makes trips to see them every chance she gets.
Kelly will weigh her military retirement options in 2017. The idea of spending more time trekking through the wilderness and backpacking with her husband and faithful retriever Buddy are mighty appealing to Kelly. In the mean time she will occupy her creative side by doing a little wireÂwrapping of jewelry and beading, while perhaps downing a few Maryland crab cakes for energy, and just maybe throw back a porter to wash it down.
To see more from and about Kelly, feel free to copy and paste the links below.
https://www.dvidshub.net/video/364694/interview-with-col-kelly-fisher#.VeM7ntNViko
