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Keeler retires after 26 years of showing others ‘purpose’
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · November 06, 2024
In December 2015, Megan Reaska got a job no woman had before: combat engineer.
Only days before, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced combat positions would open to women, and 1st Sgt. Brandon Keeler of West Branch recruited Reaska to the Iowa Army National Guard.
Keeler and she discussed options for her “Military Occupational Specialty” — job — and she settled on combat engineer.
“At the time, I didn’t completely understand exactly what it meant to history,” Reaska said in an email to the Times. “During the few days after I selected my MOS, I received multiple phone calls/emails from local news outlets, wanting to do an interview with me. Confused, I called (Keeler) and asked him why people were calling me and if it was normal.”
Nine years later and now working for the Special Olympics in Chicago, she remembers her recruiter’s response: “‘Well, kid, congratulations! You’re the first female combat engineer in the Iowa Army National Guard!’”
“It was a very surreal moment, and I was happy to share it with 1st Sgt. Keeler!” Reaska said.
Almost exactly eight years ago, on Oct. 21, 2016, Keeler and another sergeant “drove all the way down (to Fort Leonard Wood) just to watch me graduate and congratulate me on that accomplishment,” she said.
“(That) was pretty awesome,” Reaska said, noting that Keeler still checks in on her from time to time. “Not every recruiter is as personable and caring as (him) which can make a difference in someone’s experience. I feel lucky to have had him as my recruiter.”
Last week, West Branch High School hosted Keeler’s retirement from the Guard after 26 years of service, with 11 ½ years in recruiting.
One of the speakers, Sgt. Lauren Ludwig, talked about how she first met Keeler at the Iowa Army National Guard Readiness Center in Iowa City. Keeler worked the desk that day, shook her hand, and asked what job she took.
“I’m going to be a combat engineer,” she said. “And in true fashion, he pulled out his phone and pulled up this picture of Megan Reaska, the first female combat engineer to enlist in the state of Iowa. So, … this stranger I had just met had paved the way for my whole career long before.”
Keeler, a 1996 graduate of WBHS, almost missed that opportunity to help make history.
Like his father, Steve, and uncle, Jerry — also his recruiter — he joined the Guard after high school. Many other family members served in the military, too. However, after he fulfilled his obligatory eight years, he got out in 2004.
For 18 months on the civilian side, he struggled to find purpose.
“I was at a juncture in life and (wondered) where I needed to go from there,” Keeler said.
Then he got a phone call from a previous commander, offering him a job: Recruiting.
On June 23, 2006, he put on his ACUs — Army Combat Uniform — once again. This time, for another 18 ½ more years.
A member of the 234th Signal Company — the 31 Lima “Cable Dogs” — the wire systems installer said his first enlistment included flood duty along the Mississippi River in 2001; working security at the Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids following the terrorist strikes of Sept. 11, 2001; and later traveling to Italy, Iraq, and Afghanistan for the Global War on Terror. His unit set up communications in Tikrit, Iraq, the hometown of Saddam Hussein, and a comm unit in Afghanistan still in use today.
Ticket to ride
Soon after that June 2003 deployment, his wife, Jennifer, announced in a phone call to her excited husband that she was pregnant with their first child and was due to give birth in February.
The Army put soldiers on a rotation to fly home to visit family. Trying to time his trip to coincide with Jen’s due date, Keeler kept handing off his slot to other soldiers. However, when February got close, Gen. John Baker, who oversees troop movement, canceled leave time.
But Baker, learning of Keeler’s selflessness, called the sergeant into his office to inform him he found a single slot to transport him home.
“Have your stuff ready. A truck’s taking you out,” Keeler recalled, his frustration turning to gratitude.
Flown into Chicago with five other soldiers, Keeler encountered another roadblock: Weather canceled their flight to Cedar Rapids. It was Friday; the next flight out was Sunday.
Rather than waiting, they rented two cars.
“My mentality was, ‘If I get a ticket, what are they going to do? Tell me I can’t go back to Iraq?’” which got a chuckle from the roughly 200 in attendance at the school’s Performing Arts Center on Oct. 31.
Eager to get home, they made the three-hour-plus drive in 2 ½ hours. Keeler dropped off the last soldier and, instead of heading to West Branch, he drove to the First Avenue Hy-Vee to buy flowers.
“I charged in there to buy flowers and, oh my gosh, everybody stopped. The girl behind the counter’s eyes got about yay big,” he said. “And I walked up and put my arms around Jen, who was there buying me flowers. … It was a Hallmark moment.”
Days later, he saw his son, Logan, born — before heading back.
A few years later, Lauren came along. Now a junior at WBHS, she and the choir sang the National Anthem to open her father’s retirement ceremony. Logan is a junior at Iowa State University, and Jen now works as a civilian with the Guard.
“His family is No. 1 and always has been,” Jerry Keeler said, noting that Brandon and Jen both volunteer in the community. “I am honored to be here and see the number of people who came. (Your support) means a lot to him.”
Finding purpose
Once a stock boy at Jack & Jill Grocery Store, Keeler said he found his purpose working as a recruiter, saying he “always loved working with educators and the public.” From bringing obstacle courses to gym classes to face-to-face encounters, he got to know teachers, including the late Bears football coach Butch Pedersen, who introduced him to students.
“These students were seeing where I came from and where I was going and knowing that I was offering that opportunity,” Keeler said. “(The Guard) is like the best-hidden secret … We don’t have great commercials. We have our people.”
Keeler successfully recruited 235 people and shipped 751 Iowans to training. His first was Anthony Cortez, on Dec. 5, 2006; his first West Branch recruit was Hoover Elementary Principal Kevin Udhe’s daughter, Katilyn, on Dec. 7, 2006. His last recruit: Roger Chavez, was on April 27, 2018.
In between, Keeler recruited many West Branch students, including athletes like Jackson Hollingsworth, Jordan Thompson, Sid Thompson, Tanner Thompson, Curtis Walker, Cody Walker, Joe Seydel, and Dayne Ehlts.
“Giving back to the schools and community has been amazing,” he said. “In my next stage in life, I get to watch others carry on.”
The 47-year-old wants to try substitute teaching and applied to eight area schools in hopes of filling up his schedule.
“I’ve been in schools for the last 18 years and always loved trying to bring a purpose to students,” Keeler said.
The retirement ceremony included other Guardsmen teasing Keeler about his lengthy conversations; Keeler preemptively countered them: “Anything that comes out of me (today) is pure joy.”
Married in March 2003, he thanked his wife for 22 years of support and called his children his “drive, every day.” He joked about how he tied his father for years of service but beat him in rank, calling him “one of the hardest-working people I’ve ever met.”
Keeler thanked “The ‘Hood” — his neighbors around South Maple Street, and the community that encouraged him.
“I want to give you a big ol’ round hug,” he said. “I love every one of you.”
Staff Sgt. Chad Schilling said Keeler “touched lives,” like recruiting his brother.
“He’s a competitor and he will continue to win in everything in life,” Schilling said.
Tony Wolf was himself a former combat engineer, then an intelligence officer and training officer until retiring in 2012. In his overlapping years in the Guard, he said the young Keeler taught him how to be passionate about the military and how “everybody has a story” that explains how they joined the service.
“He recruited my daughter, and I’m grateful,” Wolf said.
Lt. Col Joel Sage likened Keeler’s 26 years in the service to the 26 miles in a marathon.
“Brandon, it is an accomplishment for anyone to get across the finish line, but as you look out across the crowd, you’ll see the tremendous job that you’ve done over those 26 years of bringing people with you,” he said. “It truly is unique to see members of the community — retirees, those who finished the race in front of you — who have come back to the finish line and are here to cheer you on.”
Sage referenced a quote Keeler liked to use, “Be in it for the ‘we,’ not the ‘me,’” and said the West Branch native “gave more than you received.”
“Well done. Well done,” he concluded.
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