Comfortable Being Uncomfortable: Serving, Thriving in the National Guard

Laura Carroll’s eagerness to go beyond her comfort zone has served her well as she’s served her country. Consider, for example, her recent deployment for the Arizona Air National Guard.

Carroll, who works in the accounting department at Scottsdale, Ariz.-based WorldatWork, the world’s leading total rewards association, spent 11 weeks in the Middle East providing support to aircraft maintenance. The deployment’s challenges included no privacy, long hours, hot weather, electricity going out, water running out and constant training as people rotated in and out of deployments.

While some might focus on those challenges, Carroll’s most vivid memories are positive. They include friendships with other guardsmen and active- and reserve-duty personnel.

“You’re away from everything you know, and friendships have to develop,” she said.

Another positive memory: the swelling of pride when Carroll looked at the jets lined up on the flight line.

“There are not many places you get to step out on a flight line and say, “‘I was part of these,’” she said.

Carroll joined the National Guard nearly four years ago for two reasons. First, she likes to travel, as it allows her to learn things she wouldn’t learn at home and explore unfamiliar territory. Second, she wanted to serve her community and her country. She saw value in volunteering, and in how the guard could shape her.

“People in the guard seem to be more successful,” she said. “They know how to juggle things. They have a calmness about them.”

Each year, Carroll’s National Guard service includes training for two weeks and a minimum of one weekend a month. During that time, she handles planning, scheduling and maintenance duties. One of her main tasks is working with operations and maintenance personnel to build plane maintenance schedules that work for both parties.

When Carroll isn’t serving in the National Guard, working at WorldatWork or closing in on her bachelor’s degree in accounting, she enjoys hiking and camping. She said she’s outdoors every chance she gets, as it’s the one place she can relax and meditate.

Looking ahead, Carroll has two years left of her National Guard enlistment, which will require several weeks away from her position at WorldatWork. Carroll said she’s thankful for WorldatWork’s support during this time. In addition to meeting federal military leave requirements, for annual two-week training duty the association provides partial compensation to employees who would otherwise receive less pay than usual. (If military pay is less than the compensation WorldatWork typically offers, the employee is paid the difference between normal base compensation and the pay — excluding expense pay — received while on military duty, for up to two weeks.)

Carroll said not everyone in the National Guard has such a supportive employer.

“Over time, their careers suffer because their employers lay them off or don’t consider them for promotions since they might deploy,” she said. “I am so grateful to WorldatWork because I don’t need to worry about this.”

WorldatWork thanks Laura Carroll for her service in the National Guard, and thanks all veterans for serving their country.