The American Legion is celebrating its 100th birthday in 2019. Profiles of St. Joseph-area veterans will be published in each Newsleader during 2019. The Newsleader is joining with Post 328 to recognize veterans and Legion members who served during World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and other theaters of conflict and Cold War tensions.
by Tom Klecker
Kamela Ann Mohs, 54
U.S. Air Force/U.S. Army
Kamela Mohs was born in St. Cloud Hospital and raised in St. Joseph. She grew up in a home her father helped build.
By temperament, Kamela describes herself as gregarious and outgoing.
Though active in a variety of childhood and adolescent adventures, she “never had a stitch or broken bone.”
Kamela, her younger sister and parents have many fond memories of summer trips. She describes her childhood/family life as idyllic, somewhat like “Leave it to Beaver.”
Kamela attended elementary school at the “old Kennedy,” junior high at North and high school at Apollo High School. She was involved in track as a sprinter and soccer. Kamela was also the manager of the basketball team.
Academically, Kamela did well, graduating in 1984 in the top 10 percent of her class.
Kamela attended St. Cloud State University with the intent of pursuing a degree in accounting. She quit after a year as she felt the profession would not be as rewarding as she would have hoped.
With no specific aspirations in life, Kamela impulsively heeded the suggestion of her cousin Todd. They both enlisted in the Air Force. On the day of departure from the St. Cloud bus terminal, her parents saw her off. It was a time of goodbyes and the promise of new adventures. She recalls it as the only time she saw her dad cry.
Kamela commenced her military career with basic training at Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio, Texas. After basic, she was ordered to Chanute Air Force Base, Illinois, where she attended school to become a missile systems maintenance specialist. She completed her training within six months.
From there, Kamela was assigned to Barksdale Air Force Base. Barksdale is located in a remote northwest corner of Louisiana. She was assigned to cruise missiles systems on the B-52 bombers.
Kamela spent the remainder of her enlistment at Barksdale. While stationed there, she hopped a flight to England, took up skydiving, got her pilot’s license, took up scuba diving, got a green belt in Taekwondo and visited the bright lights of Houston and New Orleans.
Kamela’s friends teased her about her skills. They said she could fly to a place of engagement, skydive/parachute and swim to a hostile location and kick ass when she got there.”
When Kamela came home on leave her parents readily noticed how polite and more confidently mature she had become.
Prior to being discharged in August 1989, Kamela applied for admission to the Air Force Academy, but had failed to apply before the cut-off date. To extend her enlistment in the off chance of possibly being accepted was too much of a gamble. Kamela resumed college at SCSU shortly after her discharge from the Air Force.
While in her junior year, Kamela joined an ROTC program. When she graduated from college she had earned a degree in aviation management and a minor in professional flight. On the day of graduation, she was also commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army. She was assigned to that branch of the Army designated Air Defense Artillery.
Kamela spent the next six months stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas, near El Paso. Her specific area of training involved the Patriot Missile Defense System. From there she was stationed at Fort Polk, Louisiana from 1993-1995. It was during this period that Kamela was deployed twice to Saudi Arabia in support of operation Desert Storm. Any time she was off the military base while in Saudi Arabia, she had to cover her hair and wear a black cloak known as an abaya. Although quite competent to fly aircraft, she was not allowed to drive a vehicle or be unescorted without a man accompanying her.
While assigned duties in that part of the world, Kamela became aware of the cultural differences in the limited basic rights that we take for granted in the United States, particularly regarding women.
In 1993, Kamela transferred from the Army Air Defense Artillery Branch to the Aviation Branch. She completed one year of flight training at Fort Rucker, Alabama. Her primary focus was on flying the Black Hawk, a very sophisticated, multi-mission combat helicopter. Kamela says she “just loved flying the Black Hawk.” She had more than 5,000 hours of total flight time.
It is worth noting that this sophisticated weapon system cost approximately $21 million. The Army currently has 2,100 Black Hawk helicopters. Ten percent of Black Hawk helicopters are piloted by women.
Kamela was assigned to Korea for two years, often skimming the tree tops on the DMZ. While stationed in Korea, she visited Japan and vacationed in Hawaii.
Returning to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, for six months, Kamela was given orders to Ansbach Air Field, Germany. As company commander, she spent four years there with two deployments to Kosovo, a partially recognized state in southeast Europe.
Kamela was also deployed to Turkey in 1998 for six months. Kamela had the opportunity to visit several European countries.
Kamela returned to the United States and was assigned to the Army’s Human Resource Command, in Alexandria, Virginia, from 2004-2006. While stationed there she was deployed once to Iraq.
Kamela’s final tour of duty was Fort Carson, Colorado, in 2006. She was there three years while assigned to the general operation section of the 4th Infantry Division.
With 22 years of military service and having traveled to 60 countries, Kamela retired from the Army on July 1, 2009. Well, sort of retired. The very next day Kamela put on her civilian clothes and resumed the identical job she did as an Army major. She continued to work for the Department of Defense for another 10 years. Kamela left that position in March 2019 and returned to St. Joseph.
Shortly after her return, Kamela took on another challenge and again as a government employee. She is a human resource specialist for the ROTC programs at St. John’s University, the College of St. Benedict and SCSU.
Kamela has purchased a home near St. John’s. She is looking forward to the next chapter in her life. For the time being she plans to organize her new home and find places for all the treasures she’s collected from around the world.