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Protecting the Home of the Free, Brave BHS Grads Share U.S. Military Experiences

By Julie Perine on July 07, 2018 via Connect-Bridgeport.com

Editor's Note: It’s been a week to celebrate patriotism and independence. Many from our Bridgeport community have played a role in protecting those liberties. This story is part one in a series featuring Bridgeport High School graduates who went on to serve their country. 
 
Member of the Bridgeport High School class of 1976, Dan “Pete” Lynch is a former U.S. Army paratrooper, serving the 82nd Airborne Division during Desert Shield/Desert Storm and the Gulf War.
 
“I was in the army for about eight years,” said Lynch, who now lives in Pinehurst, NC with his family. “It was one of the best things I ever did.”
 
After enlisting in the Army in 1983, Lynch attended Infantry Basic & AIT in Ft. Benning, Ga.
 
“After graduating, I was picked to go to OCS/Officer Candidate School. I made it through that and was moved to Armor, graduating from Airborne School and Ranger School,” he said. “I was a tank platoon leader and XO in Fr. Knox, NY and was then sent to Ft. Bragg and served in the 82nd Airborne Division.”
 
Lynch said he is most proud of graduating Ranger School and serving the 82nd Airborne Division during the Gulf War.
 
“We were the first unit deployed to Saudi Arabia,” said Lynch, remembering the heat of the 120-degree day his unit arrived. “We had about 15,000 paratroopers versus the fourth largest army in the world that not only had chemical weapons, they had used them.”
 
He said war is nothing like we see in the movies.
 
“You are tired and filthy. I went about a month and a half without a shower or anything like one,” said Lynch of the 1990-91 deployment to the Iraqi border.
 
Lynch was in is early-30s during his active duty, but said there were also plenty of 18- and 19-year-olds and their performance was magnificent, he said.
 
From the BHS Class of 1995, Major Kevin Scott Diamond has served the U.S. Air Force 21 years and counting.
 
“I have traveled all over the world: Saudi Arabia, Spain, Kuwait, Germany, Turkey, Ireland, France and have been fortunate to see so much of the United States from my various assignments,” he said. “I’ve supported Homeland Security operations and responses to natural and man-made disasters from flooding to wild fires, as well as supporting the War on Terror at home and abroad.”
 
Just two years after graduating from BHS, Diamond enlisted in the West Virginia Air National Guard and attended basic military training in Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.
 
“I enlisted in the National Guard as a way to serve while attending college at WVU. Enlisting was also a way to help me pay for college. However, I soon realized serving in uniform was my calling and was the best decision I ever made,” he said.
 
Diamond became an air transportation apprentice and graduated from WVU in 2000 with a degree in sociology and anthropology. He went on to attend the Academy of Military Science in Tennessee and Mountain State University, from where he earned a master’s in strategic leadership.
 
From 2014 through 2017, Major Diamond served as the Deputy Chief of Plans and Integration for the Continental U.S. NORAD Region-1st Air Force. He is currently Branch Chief for NGB/A4MM, his responsibilities including readiness and mobilization for over 37,000 maintenance airmen.
 
Among memories forever instilled in Diamond’s mind is Sept. 11, 2001.
 
“I was working as an aerial delivery rigger – packing parachutes and rig loads to drop out of airplanes,” he said. “The towers were attacked and three weeks later - on Oct. 4 - I was in the dessert on my first deployment.”
 
Diamond comes from a military family; his dad and both grandfathers serving. He said for as long as he can remember, he wanted to be in the military. It is indeed the best decision he has made in his life.
 
Editor's Note: If you would like to nominate someone to be featured in this series, please email julie@connect-bridgeport.com. 
 
 



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