EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of a weekly series on local veterans that runs Mondays through Veterans Day.

HOWLAND — When Gia Hart-Kokor graduated from Hickory High School in Hermitage, Pa., in 1992, she felt that she only had two choices: joining the military or working in a steel mill.

“I graduated from high school in 1992, so right after high school there was just no money for college, and I was looking to get my college degree, and that wasn’t something in my family that was highly favored, or highly valued, cause nobody went to college in my family,” she said.

She chose the military.

“I said I was going to do four years, get my college money and get out, and then I retired after 25 years,” Hart-Kokor said.

She said boot camp was the easiest part of her Army career. So how did she go from saying “four years and done” to a 25-year career in the military?

She said viewing her commitment to the Army as a job helped keep her focused.

“I had a really great ability to, in those 25 years, whatever situation I was in to be able to say, ‘Okay, well, this is my job today. It’s not my life.’ Then in a blink of an eye it becomes your career. And when you look back on it you’re kind of like ‘Wow, it kind of was my life,’ but I never really looked at it that way until I was out,” Hart-Kokor said.

Unlike many who retire from a career, she has not floundered, but stays busy with her family and the business she runs with her older daughter, Gillian.

“We could be here for months talking about all the (military) stories. I think the best way I could talk about my military career is how I had the ability to separate the military career — that it was my job and it wasn’t my life — and I think a lot of veterans have a real issue with when they separate from the military they have a hard time finding themselves,” Hart-Kokor said.

The secret to a career in the military is having strong foundations elsewhere, and for Hart it was her family, specifically her daughter.

“I think what shaped me a lot in my career is when I had to leave for Iraq. I had a daughter. I was a single parent. She was 3 years old at the time, and that was probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to experience, having to leave her behind to go do my job because that’s how I provided for her and never thought I would be in that kind of situation,” Hart-Kokor said. “My time away, it was heartbreaking to have to leave a child behind like that and rely on the people that you left her with to take good care of her, and I was lucky enough to have that. She stayed with her dad — we shared parenting — and it was my parents, and it was his parents, and it was a community that helped for that year that I was gone.

“I think what came of that was a stronger bond between my daughter and I because the business that I actually work at now, her and I started that together when she was 12. So it was a way for us to kind of reconnect and pay for her college.”

Hart-Kokor got married 13 years ago and two years later, the couple added to their family with another daughter, who is now 11.

She could not really talk about her specific military experiences, but talked in generalities.

“I think the most amazing thing I experienced in the military was serving with the people that I served with. I served with the best 1% of our population that I could ever have the honor to serve with,” Hart-Kokor said.

She also said she was fortunate to be able to travel with the Army.

“I’ve been to Germany, I’ve been all over the United States, I’ve been to Iraq, I’ve been to Kosovo, I’ve been….you name it I’ve been there. I’ve been to Africa. I’ve been all over the world,” she said.

Hart-Kokor’s first duty station was in Darnstadt. Germany, and from there she went to Macedonia and Kosovo.

“In Germany, my very first job was in the post office. We broke down the mail. We got about three to five semi-trucks of mail a day. We would disperse it through the rest of Germany, and that’s where I learned that I never want to work in a Post Office again,” she said.

After Germany, she went to Airborne school and then to the 5th Special Forces Airborne Group in Fort Campbell (Kentucky), where she learned all about the proper way to exit an airplane as a paratrooper.

“I just ran support for whatever was needed. That was probably my favorite group. We got to go to Kenya, Africa. We ran a jumpmaster school, we taught their Army Airborne operations, which was a lot of fun. From there, I came back, and I went from active duty to active reserve, and I was stationed at the 475th QuarterMaster Group, which was in Farrell, Pa. We ran logistical fuel. We actually ran one of the biggest Army fuel operations called QLLEX.” When soldiers are in the field, they can’t just pull the tank up to the gas station,” she said.

Hart-Kokor said people always ask her if she was scared of serving in the Army.

“Yeah. But you have to realize it’s 90% boredom and 10% excitement or fear. That 90% boredom is training for that 10% excitement,” she said.

After many years stateside, she was sent to Iraq, where she still handled logistics such as water and fuel.

“I spent a lot of time supporting the ones they make movies about,” Hart-Kokor said.