‘Integrity, education’ key values for Petty

Becoming a Drill Sergeant and attaining the rank of Command Sergeant Major (CSM) were two goals that Kenneth Petty set for himself. The Ozark native who has served as a JROTC Instructor at Daleville High School since 2019 has attained both.

Retiring in 2018 after 28 years on active duty in the Army, Petty was retired for about a year before being encouraged to use his experiences and skill set as instructor in some capacity. “My pastor wife said I had a purpose and that purpose was education,” Petty recalled. “It just came out of the blue.”

A friend suggested that Petty consider putting his experience as a military Drill Instructor, a job Petty calls “the best job I ever had,” to use benefiting high school students in JROTC programs. Petty put in his application for a teaching job and “trusted God,” he said.

Receiving a call from Daleville City Schools Senior JROTC Instructor retired Col. Teresa Townsend, Petty was interviewed, hired and returned to duty, this time it was as an educator. “I honestly believe there is a purpose for me being here,” he said. “I really believe the kids are our future. If we don’t take time to educate our kids about how to be future leaders, they won’t be future leaders.”

Petty is passionate about education. “I am an advocate for education. I always tell the kids never say college isn’t for them until they try it. Go to college first,” Petty said. “If they want to go active duty, I will call people, go with them to meet people and help them make the contacts they need, as long as they make a continuous effort. I will always tell them try education first. We have a lot of students thinking about joining the National Guard to attend college.”

Petty said he learned the value of education through real-life lessons. After graduating from Carroll High School in Ozark, he attended Troy University. “But college wasn’t for me at that time,” he said, explaining that he had been serving in the National Guard at the Ozark unit as a tanker since he was a junior in high school. “After a year at Troy, I went to my National Guard Commander and told him I was interested in going active duty.”

Petty went on active duty in May 1992 as an Operating Room Technician (68D). “I thought I wanted to work indoors,” he remembered with a smile. After initial training at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, Petty was assigned to the Lyster Army Health Clinic at Fort Rucker for Phase 2.

Petty married his wife, Kenyatta, before leaving for active duty. The couple have three children. Their daughter is an Air Force medic, their eldest son graduated from the University of Alabama and is attending Mercer University in Atlanta, Ga. with the goal of being a Physician Assistant and the youngest son is a sophomore at Russell County High School. “Yes, he is in JROTC. I tell him like I tell all the cadets, ‘If you’re going to wear the uniform, you wear it right.’”

Petty’s first active duty assignment was 28th Combat Support Hospital (CSH) at Fort Bragg, N.C. “That was totally the opposite of what I was trained to do and after that duty station, I contemplated getting out of the service,” he said.

Presented with the opportunity to participate in and graduate from the Basic Airborne Course at Fort Benning, Ga., Petty also completed Air Assault Training when he was stationed in Hawaii. As a medic Petty became a Master Fitness Trainer and earned his Expert Field Medical Badge.

Petty was inducted into the prestigious Sergeant Audie Murphy Club (SAMC) and he is a member of O2M3 the Order of Military Medical Merit-AMEDD regiment, a private organization founded by the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Health Services Command in 1982 with the goal of recognizing excellence and promoting fellowship and esprit de corps among Army Medical Department personnel.

“What first made me appreciate all the training that I went through was when we went on the first deployment for Uphold Democracy in Haiti,” Petty said. “That’s when all that training got put to the test and I could actually see the benefits of the training that we went through. I was grateful for that. That’s when it hit me that everything happens for a reason.”

Returning from Haiti in late 1994, Petty was then assigned to Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii. “But by then I realized that I was always that soldier who preferred the outside to being in the inside of the building,” he said about his decision at that time to attend—and successfully complete —Air Assault School in Hawaii. “I was one of the first medical soldiers at Tripler Army Medical Center to make it through Air Assault and I credit the training that I received at Fort Bragg.”

Petty was next assigned to Fort Benning, Ga. It was there that he seriously began his effort to attend Drill Sergeant School but first, he was assigned the 47th CSH at Fort Lewis, Wash. “Fort Lewis was an awesome experience,” Petty said describing the scenery, the wildlife—and eating salmon. “I grew up on catfish or mullets so eating salmon was a great experience.

“When I was still trying to get my Drill Sergeant School application packet submitted, I made E-7 Sergeant First Class (SFC) and the Army sent me to Korea as a Detachment Sergeant for the 37th Forward Surgical Team (FST)” he added.

Petty said that senior NCO’s were not usually selected for Drill Sergeant School but that he appealed to his commander, who did help him get into the course. “I told him that the only two goals that I had were that I wanted to be a Drill Sergeant and I wanted to be a Command Sergeant Major,” he said.

Petty graduated from Drill Sergeant School at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. “That was the best job I had in Army,” he said. “I can recall every day of it. It’s like being an instructor here at school. It was awesome.”

In 2004 Petty was selected for promotion to Master Sergeant (E-8) list and in November 2005 he was promoted. “Once you are an E-8 you are taken off Drill Sergeant duty,” Petty explained. “On my last day as the Senior Drill Sergeant, with my whole company, C-187th Battalion in formation, I recited the Drill Sergeant Creed and then I switched my Drill Sergeant hat to my Army black beret and then I recited the Soldier’s Creed.

“The post commander said that in his more than 30 years in the military, he had never seen a Change of Responsibility ceremony and presented me with a General’s Coin in front of all my Soldiers,” he added. “I tell anybody without a doubt the best time I had in the Army was when I was a Senior Drill Sergeant.

“The best job I ever had,” is how Petty describes his years as a Drill Sergeant from 2002 until 2005. “It was something I loved doing.”

After being promoted to E-8, Petty returned to Tripler Army Medical Center, Hawaii from 2005 until 2008 in charge of the medical center S-3, Medical Operation/ Planner. In 2012, Petty was then selected to attend the year-long United States Sergeant Major Academy (USASMA), class 63 at Fort Bliss, Texas. “My biggest takeaway from the academy was the importance of the Seven Army Values—Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity and Personal Courage,” Petty said. “Say what you mean and mean what you say, don’t let your integrity ever be questioned.”

“My last deployment was in Africa in support of the Ebola outbreak in Monrovia, Liberia in 2015. I supervised five Army Medical Labs and two Navy Labs that were testing for Ebola,” Petty said. Seeing the living conditions of the local nationals there was disheartening. “A lot of places didn’t have running water. Their culture was very different and that was our biggest hurdle.

“You have to respect their culture but on the other hand we had a job to do,” he recalled. “I tell my cadets that I learn a lot on deployments.”

Making the decision to retire in 2018 was hard, Petty said. “I wasn’t ready to retire, but after multiple surgeries on my back and left hip. My body couldn’t take it anymore. I guess you can say I got older and father time caught up with me,” Petty said. “I loved the Army so much, I thought they would have had to kick me out.

“I came in the Army not liking it and I came to love it. I loved what I did in the military,” he said. “I would do it all over again in a heart beat.

“What I try to instill in the kids is that high school is an opportunity develop tomorrow leaders. The JROTC motto is “To Motivate Young People to be Better Citizens,” Petty said. “I tell them that education plays a vital part in their future, that they will never get this time back and that they should enjoy being a senior in high school…they become adults in June and that’s when life starts to knock you around.

“What drives me is knowing that our students are our future,” Petty said. “I tell them, ‘You guys are our future and to treat people with dignity and respect.’

“Being a JROTC Instructor is a dream job,” said Petty about working with DHS JROTC. “This is an opportunity where I get to play a small part in shaping our leaders of tomorrow.

“I never thought I’d be a teacher but here I am today,” Petty said with a smile. “And that’s my story to tell.”