Colebrook woman veteran honored [Rep-Am]
August 4, 2015COLEBROOK — State Sen. Kevin Witkos, R-8th District, named Leah Ward veteran of the month for August.
Ward, a Colebrook resident, has served more than 22 years in the Air Force, Army Reserves and Connecticut Air National Guard as a medic and registered nurse.
Ward was born in York, Pa., in May 1975. At 18, she joined the Army Reserves, serving from 1993-2000. She has since served in the Air Force Reserves from 2000-2013 and in the Connecticut Air National Guard from 2013 to the present.
From 1993-2000, she worked as a medic and since 2000 as a registered nurse. She was commissioned in 2001 as a second lieutenant and promoted to major before leaving for service in Germany in 2010.
Ward was deployed to Kuwait in 2004-05 to process patients being aeromedically evacuated for treatment. In 2010 she worked in Germany receiving patients from Iraq and Afghanistan for further care before their return to a home station for treatment. Ward received many decorations, including the Air Force Achievement medal, Global War on Terror, and Global War on Terror-Expeditionary honors.
Since 2006, she has been junior vice commander of VFW Post 296 in Winsted. She volunteers as a bagpiper for Police Pipes and Drums of Waterbury, arranges cemetery cleanups for Revolutionary War-era cemeteries that are in poor condition, and provides law enforcement support for funerals, celebrations, fundraisers, and other ceremonies. After military service, Ward worked as a visiting nurse and is studying to become a nurse practitioner.
She is married to Marine Reserve Master Sgt Daniel Ward and has two sons, Walter, 7, and Henry, 3.