LT. Kelly King
US Navy – Medical Surgical Nurse
Balboa Naval Hospital
2009-2012
US Navy – Medical Surgical Nurse
Balboa Naval Hospital
2009-2012
Kelly King was born Kelly Truax in 1986 in Waconia, MN. Kelly described her hometown as quite small, midwestern with one stop light. She has fond memories of growing up in the Midwest with her brother and two sisters and making trips to the library and the Dollar Store. Her parents both worked so her older sister was in charge. “We fended for ourselves for the most part.” There was plenty of family with 23 first cousins. Kelly had some military history in her family. Her grandfather and uncles served in WW2 and her brother attended West Point and went on to become an Apache helicopter pilot.
Kelly excelled in gymnastics. As a 7th grader Kelly made the varsity team and eventually went on to compete in the state championships five times. She competed in all the events, but the bars and the balance beam were her strengths. I asked if she ever missed gymnastics. “Every time I smell chalk and sweat it smells like home.”
The summer before Kelly’s freshman year in high school her grandfather passed away, her grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a double mastectomy the month after her grandfather passed away. Kelly’s parents sent her to live with her grandmother to help take care of her. This experience, along with working in a nursing home throughout high school helped Kelly realize nursing was the right career path for her to follow.
Kelly’s family did not have the financial resources to send the children to college, so Kelly and her siblings knew it was up to them to figure it out. That meant they would have to work hard in school to earn scholarship money if they wanted to attend college. They all did well in high school and received scholarships. Kelly was the valedictorian of her class and had her eyes set on the University of Virginia (UVA). Kelly also knew she wanted to serve her country and decided to apply for an ROTC scholarship. Kelly received the ROTC scholarship and was accepted at UVA.
Coming from the Midwest, Kelly found UVA and the east coast to be a big adjustment. She also found college very challenging. ROTC training was hard and the nursing program was very rigorous. In addition, Kelly was working as a CNA in a local hospital to earn pocket money for food and books. ROTC did have its benefits. While waiting for an ROTC training session to begin, Kelly caught the eye of a Marine ROTC candidate, James King. “I just followed him around. He looked like he knew what he was doing.” James didn’t know Kelly was an outstanding high school gymnast but quickly learned that he couldn’t keep up with her during pushups. The ROTC unit commanding officer also noticed and got up into James’s face and told him, “You’re going to have to get stronger!” James got stronger and so did the connection between them.
Each summer Kelly would fulfill her ROTC training requirements. One summer she spent a month aboard the USS Harry Truman learning the role of a Navy nurse on a ship at sea. The next summer she was sent to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD where she worked in the Wounded Warrior Unit, which was an ICU step-down unit. Kelly was at Walter Reed at the same time as the 2009 Afghanistan Surge. The volume of trauma patients and the chaotic environment helped prepare Kelly for what she would see as a nurse when she entered the Navy. “That experience was very humbling and sobering.”
James was one year ahead of Kelly at UVA, and he graduated in May of 2008. After a three year romance the couple were married on July 28th, 2008 and James immediately left for 6 months Basic Training in Quantico, VA. Kelly graduated from UVA in May of 2009, was commissioned as an Ensign and received orders to the Balboa Naval Medical Center in San Diego. James received orders to Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, CA 40 miles north of Balboa. They packed up their belongings and headed to California. The couple rented an apartment midway between the two bases and were often like ships passing in the night. Not long after settling in, James received orders to deploy as a truck platoon commander to Camp Al Taqaddum in the Al Anbar Province in Iraq. It was July ’08 and he was on a C-130 headed to Iraq.
Kelly’s formative years instilled in her a strong work ethic which made her a very driven person. Kelly wanted to push herself by pursuing the most challenging environments in nursing and did practicums in the burn ICU, PICU, NICU and adult ICU. With that in mind she began her military career in the 24+ bed med surg unit handling Combat Casualties. “Anything that was surgical is what we saw.” Combat casualties initially went to Landstuhl Germany until they were stabilized and able to handle that trip to San Diego. IED blasts, gunshot wounds, mangled limbs and burns were common injuries. The hospital campus has a rehabilitation facility and many of Kelly’s patients would be discharged to the Rehab facility to continue their long road to recovery.
When she began her tour at Balboa she really loved what she was doing. It was physically and emotionally demanding and as one of the newest nurses on staff she was working lots of night shifts, weekends, and holidays. It wasn’t long before Balboa started to receive Marines from Camp Al Taqaddum where James was stationed. Kelly drew on her prior training and experience at Walter Reed to help her treat her patients. The severity of the injuries and the related pain created challenges in managing that pain. “The hardest thing for me as a nurse was seeing a lot of those guys later who developed addiction issues.”
After 18 months it was time for Kelly to rotate to an assignment in the Adult ICU. The Med Surg Unit had become emotionally draining and Kelly thought she needed a break. Her manager assigned Kelly to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), an area she never had consider but she found she really loved it. The NICU was a nice switch. “It was so different, a whole new set of things to learn and master. It was fun.” The patient to nurse ratio was also considerably lower which helped reduce the stress level.
The effects of the injuries on service men and woman are not limited to the wound warriors. They also impact the nurses caring for them. One of Kelly’s colleagues graduated at the top of her nursing class, was an outstanding nurse and was surrounded with a good group of friends. No one thought she was struggling until she took her own life.
When the time came to decide if she wanted to extend her tour, Kelly elected to move to civilian life. She and James packed up their belongings and headed back to Virginia. Kelly served in various nursing capacities in her civilian life at Martha Jefferson Hospital and UVA University Hospital in Charlottesville, VA where she now serves as the Lower School Nurse at The Covenant School. She and James are the proud parents of two sons, one daughter and a dog. These days the demands of three young children, helping with the family business and being active in their church keep Kelly on her toes.
I asked Kelly the best part of being a nurse in the military. “I loved the people I worked with. Everyone in the military within the medical community has go-getter attitudes, positive attitudes and are ready and willing to help at all times. The job itself was hard but it was made easy by the people you work with.” Kelly contrasted this with what she found in the civilian world where people often did not have the same positive attitude and were unhappy in their job.
The worst part of her military career was the separation from James and being 3,000 miles away from the rest of her family.
Kelly, the average citizen of the US will never be able to fully understand the things that you have seen. Nor will we understand the demands and stresses of a nurse providing care and compassion for our wounded service members whose worlds have been turned upside down with pain and are facing a long road to an uncertain recovery.
You did this as a newlywed in your early 20’s with your husband half a world away in harm’s way. It is often said God only gives us what we can handle. Thank you for handling what God could not give to the rest of us.
Kelly excelled in gymnastics. As a 7th grader Kelly made the varsity team and eventually went on to compete in the state championships five times. She competed in all the events, but the bars and the balance beam were her strengths. I asked if she ever missed gymnastics. “Every time I smell chalk and sweat it smells like home.”
The summer before Kelly’s freshman year in high school her grandfather passed away, her grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a double mastectomy the month after her grandfather passed away. Kelly’s parents sent her to live with her grandmother to help take care of her. This experience, along with working in a nursing home throughout high school helped Kelly realize nursing was the right career path for her to follow.
Kelly’s family did not have the financial resources to send the children to college, so Kelly and her siblings knew it was up to them to figure it out. That meant they would have to work hard in school to earn scholarship money if they wanted to attend college. They all did well in high school and received scholarships. Kelly was the valedictorian of her class and had her eyes set on the University of Virginia (UVA). Kelly also knew she wanted to serve her country and decided to apply for an ROTC scholarship. Kelly received the ROTC scholarship and was accepted at UVA.
Coming from the Midwest, Kelly found UVA and the east coast to be a big adjustment. She also found college very challenging. ROTC training was hard and the nursing program was very rigorous. In addition, Kelly was working as a CNA in a local hospital to earn pocket money for food and books. ROTC did have its benefits. While waiting for an ROTC training session to begin, Kelly caught the eye of a Marine ROTC candidate, James King. “I just followed him around. He looked like he knew what he was doing.” James didn’t know Kelly was an outstanding high school gymnast but quickly learned that he couldn’t keep up with her during pushups. The ROTC unit commanding officer also noticed and got up into James’s face and told him, “You’re going to have to get stronger!” James got stronger and so did the connection between them.
Each summer Kelly would fulfill her ROTC training requirements. One summer she spent a month aboard the USS Harry Truman learning the role of a Navy nurse on a ship at sea. The next summer she was sent to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD where she worked in the Wounded Warrior Unit, which was an ICU step-down unit. Kelly was at Walter Reed at the same time as the 2009 Afghanistan Surge. The volume of trauma patients and the chaotic environment helped prepare Kelly for what she would see as a nurse when she entered the Navy. “That experience was very humbling and sobering.”
James was one year ahead of Kelly at UVA, and he graduated in May of 2008. After a three year romance the couple were married on July 28th, 2008 and James immediately left for 6 months Basic Training in Quantico, VA. Kelly graduated from UVA in May of 2009, was commissioned as an Ensign and received orders to the Balboa Naval Medical Center in San Diego. James received orders to Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, CA 40 miles north of Balboa. They packed up their belongings and headed to California. The couple rented an apartment midway between the two bases and were often like ships passing in the night. Not long after settling in, James received orders to deploy as a truck platoon commander to Camp Al Taqaddum in the Al Anbar Province in Iraq. It was July ’08 and he was on a C-130 headed to Iraq.
Kelly’s formative years instilled in her a strong work ethic which made her a very driven person. Kelly wanted to push herself by pursuing the most challenging environments in nursing and did practicums in the burn ICU, PICU, NICU and adult ICU. With that in mind she began her military career in the 24+ bed med surg unit handling Combat Casualties. “Anything that was surgical is what we saw.” Combat casualties initially went to Landstuhl Germany until they were stabilized and able to handle that trip to San Diego. IED blasts, gunshot wounds, mangled limbs and burns were common injuries. The hospital campus has a rehabilitation facility and many of Kelly’s patients would be discharged to the Rehab facility to continue their long road to recovery.
When she began her tour at Balboa she really loved what she was doing. It was physically and emotionally demanding and as one of the newest nurses on staff she was working lots of night shifts, weekends, and holidays. It wasn’t long before Balboa started to receive Marines from Camp Al Taqaddum where James was stationed. Kelly drew on her prior training and experience at Walter Reed to help her treat her patients. The severity of the injuries and the related pain created challenges in managing that pain. “The hardest thing for me as a nurse was seeing a lot of those guys later who developed addiction issues.”
After 18 months it was time for Kelly to rotate to an assignment in the Adult ICU. The Med Surg Unit had become emotionally draining and Kelly thought she needed a break. Her manager assigned Kelly to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), an area she never had consider but she found she really loved it. The NICU was a nice switch. “It was so different, a whole new set of things to learn and master. It was fun.” The patient to nurse ratio was also considerably lower which helped reduce the stress level.
The effects of the injuries on service men and woman are not limited to the wound warriors. They also impact the nurses caring for them. One of Kelly’s colleagues graduated at the top of her nursing class, was an outstanding nurse and was surrounded with a good group of friends. No one thought she was struggling until she took her own life.
When the time came to decide if she wanted to extend her tour, Kelly elected to move to civilian life. She and James packed up their belongings and headed back to Virginia. Kelly served in various nursing capacities in her civilian life at Martha Jefferson Hospital and UVA University Hospital in Charlottesville, VA where she now serves as the Lower School Nurse at The Covenant School. She and James are the proud parents of two sons, one daughter and a dog. These days the demands of three young children, helping with the family business and being active in their church keep Kelly on her toes.
I asked Kelly the best part of being a nurse in the military. “I loved the people I worked with. Everyone in the military within the medical community has go-getter attitudes, positive attitudes and are ready and willing to help at all times. The job itself was hard but it was made easy by the people you work with.” Kelly contrasted this with what she found in the civilian world where people often did not have the same positive attitude and were unhappy in their job.
The worst part of her military career was the separation from James and being 3,000 miles away from the rest of her family.
Kelly, the average citizen of the US will never be able to fully understand the things that you have seen. Nor will we understand the demands and stresses of a nurse providing care and compassion for our wounded service members whose worlds have been turned upside down with pain and are facing a long road to an uncertain recovery.
You did this as a newlywed in your early 20’s with your husband half a world away in harm’s way. It is often said God only gives us what we can handle. Thank you for handling what God could not give to the rest of us.