Julia Thompson carries a passion for service.
It was why she became a certified nurse’s aide fresh out of high school, and later why she decided to pursue a career in law enforcement.
It’s also why Thompson decided, at age 27, to enlist in the National Guard.
“I love what I do,” she said. “I love helping people, and I didn’t want the regret of not being able to serve my country.”
The passion remains, even after injuries disrupted her time both as a medic in the Guard and as a patrol officer for the Iola Police Department.
But those injuries, stemming from tearing muscles in her shoulder while in Iraq, also offer a fresh perspective.
“Everything in life is temporary,” Thompson said. “If you’re having a bad day, you remind yourself there’s gonna be sunshine tomorrow.”
A few flickers of that proverbial sunshine may be creeping through the clouds. Thompson is cautiously optimistic she’ll be cleared to return to duty, perhaps as early as this month.
In the interim, Thompson, 32, will deliver the keynote address at Saturday’s Veterans Day ceremony in front of the Veterans Wall at 11 a.m.
She was more than happy to volunteer for the task when approached by fellow Guardsman, Capt. Austin Sigg.
THOMPSON grew up in Sylvan Grove, a speck on the map between Hays and Salina, north of Wilson State Lake in north-central Kansas.
She and her family moved to Uniontown when she was a seventh-grader. Thompson graduated from Jayhawk-Linn High School in Mound City.
Intent on a career in nursing, a hankering for the military was never out of the picture, noting her interest likely also had been fostered by her grandfather’s and other relatives’ military service.
“I talked to my first recruiter at 16,” she chuckled. “I just waited a while to enlist.”
Thompson attended Barton Community College in Great Bend, and then, with her CNA career blooming, moved to Hays until 2014, when she returned to southeast Kansas to be nearer her family.
Shortly thereafter, Julia met Chad Thompson, an Allen County native. The pair were married in 2018. (It should be noted, Chad Thompson also is a National Guardsman and Chanute police officer.)
