Stories of Honor: Jennifer Dalrymple
Author: Curt Synness - Lee Montana
Stories of Honor: Jennifer Dalrymple
Curt Synness for Lee Montana, September 23, 2023
Townsend’s Col. Jennifer Dalrymple(retired) served 30 years in the Air Force- eight years active, 22 years in the Reserves – including three stints in the Middle East.
“My career was under/on the ground as a missile launch officer for the Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) and civil engineer building/caretaking of our bases,” Dalrymple explained via text from her home in Broadwater County.
The daughter of Garry and Joan Dalrymple, Jeffifer graduated from Tucson’s Salpointe Catholic High in 1982, where she competed in track and field for the Lady Lancers.
A versatile trackster with heptathlon-like skills, she ran the 100-meter-high hurdles, long jumped and threw the discus and shot put, “or filled in wherever the team needed me,” she related. “I held the school record until my senior year, when my younger, freshman sister successfully exceeded my time.”
At the University of Arizona, Dalrymple continued the family’s military tradition and enlisted in the Air Force, with the AFROTC program.
“Three of my four uncles served in the Army – one in WWII in Europe, one as a paratrooper just before Korea and the youngest served two tours as Infantryman in Vietnam,” Dalrymple said. “Both parents served in Air Force, my father from 1952 to 1976 and my mother from 1958 to 1961. And from 1979 to 1985, my older brother served in the Navy as a nuclear specialist on the USS Bainbridge.”
Her officer basic training took place in July and August of 1984 at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio.
“The most fun during that 6 weeks was flying/piloting a T-37 trainer jet over south Texas and doing desert survival training for three days at Camp Bullis during one of the hottest summers in Texas,” she texted.
After obtaining a BS in civil engineering and being commissioned second lieutenant, from November 1987 to March 1988 she attended ICBM officer crew training at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
For the next six years, Jennifer served at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, as an ICBM launch officer for four years, and then transferred to civil engineers for two years. From December 1992 to June 1993, she deployed to the Middle East at the drawdown of Desert Storm.
Dalrymple closed out her final year of active duty service at Peterson Air Force Base (Colorado Springs), as a civil engineer, and an environmental officer. She then joined the Air Force Reserves in 1995 and moved to Tampa, Florida.
She spent the next 23 years – the first two in Florida before returning to the Treasure State – as a “fairly active” member of the Air Force Reserves, working for whatever unit or headquarters needed help. Most notably, Col. Dalrymple served six months (April-October 2010) in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom as a deputy group commander of operations, “for my 1,100 Airmen who were embedded with the Army.”
In her departure letter from their base in Balad (north of Baghdad) to friends and family, she described being “present at a Dignified transfer whereupon the battalion of soldiers, not more than twenty-somethings” shared tears of grief and cries of anguish when…five caskets were loaded, bound for eternal rest stateside.
“These were all Americans,” Dalrymple wrote, “not just soldiers but two civilians who left the safety and comfort of their homes in the US, embedded as Iraqi interpreters yet accepted as ‘brothers’ in this unit.”
“She also had the opportunity to do six months as the Air Force senior engineer for the entire Middle East area of operations. She was stationed at Shaw AFB, South Carolina, with trips to Qatar and back to Iraq, from January to July of 2014.
Col. Dalrymple retired from the armed forces in September 2017, and married her partner that same year, as well. Over the course of her service during four decades, she garnered the following medals/ribbons: Meritorious Service Medal with five oak leaves, Air Force Commendation Medal with three oak leaves, Air Force Achievement Medal with one oak leaf, Combat Readiness medal with bronze star, Southwest Asia Service Medal with bronze star, Iraq Campaign Medal with bronze star, and a Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.
She also earned the Nuclear Deterrence Operations Service Medal with four oak leaves, Air Force Expeditionary Service Ribbon with a gold border, Armed Forces Reserve Medal with two “Mobilization” devices and a silver hourglass.
She also furthered her post-University of Arizona education with an MS in aero operations at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical; MAs in military operations and international studies and military strategic planning at Air University; and at Carroll College with a BA in health and physical education.
“Pretty much 6-months a year I was away from my Florida/Montana home until my retirement after 30 years of service,” texted Dalrymple, who currently serves on the governor’s Montana Board of Veterans Affairs and also volunteers with the L&C Honor Guard for veterans’ funerals.
“What a ride,” she said.
Stories of Honor is a series produced by Lee Enterprises of Montana in partnership with AARP Montana and Town Pump
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PhotoCredit: Photo Credits: Jen Dalrymple
Image 1 Caption: Jen Dalrymple
Photo Credits: Jen Dalrymple
Image 2 Caption: A million dollars ain't that heavy
Photo Credits: Jen Dalrymple
Image 3 Caption: Jen with Iraqi Women
Photo Credits: Jen Dalrymple
Image 4 Caption: Jen Loves Army Toys
Photo Credits: Jen Dalrymple
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