Texas Veteran Dezzy Guevara Attempting To Serve In Every Branch Of U.S. Military

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - A North Texas veteran is striving to achieve something not many people attempt to do: serve in every branch of the U.S. military.

For Dezzy Guevara, it began with a search for belonging.

"I didn't have a family so I needed somewhere to go," she says.

Guevara grew up an orphan. She says she didn't have a parental figure pushing her to the next step after high school graduation, but then she found the Marines.

"I saw someone in a uniform. Asked my friend about it, and she told me it was the Marines. I didn't know what the Marines were at the time," Guevara recalls.

She ended up joining at 19 years old.

It would be the start of a lifelong career in military service.

Guevara joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1993, and served in that branch for eight years.

Life took her to Atlanta, where she then joined the U.S. Army Reserves. A job relocation took her to Washington D.C., where she found her next calling with the U.S. Air Force Reserves. She then moved to Fort Worth and finished her Air Force contract here in North Texas.

At this point, Guevara says, she began to realize she was close to serving in all branches of the military. She decided to enlist in the U.S. Navy Reserves, where she remains in service today as a Petty Officer First Class. She does it all while working a job and working on her doctorate degree.

"It's a family everywhere and you won't find one like that in the private sector," she says of her military career. "I promote it not only for its education but for what it can do for you as far as mentally mature you," Guevara explains.

Her 25 years of service to country include four tours in Iraq and three in Afghanistan.

In her home office in Fort Worth, Guevara keeps mementos from each branch of service, all with special meaning. She has coins, a Navy bible, a Marine Corps yearbook, and pictures from her first days to her deployments.

"The mindset is really different in all the branches. How they do things, how they think, how fast they move in certain areas," she explains.

She says it has been a lifelong education, and hopes to complete her journey by serving in the Coast Guard, checking off all five branches of the U.S. military.

"For all those young girls out there: if they have goals and they believe they want to do something, then maybe I can be an example for them. I hope I could anyway," Guevara says.

Officer Guevara has a couple of years left on her Navy Reserves contract, and then plans to join the Coast Guard.

Because they were her first family, she hopes to one day receive special permission to retire out of the Marines.