18-year-old first female infantry soldier in Kansas

Tristan Guzman never liked to be told she couldn’t do something.

Her mother, Viki Row, said she has had this can-do attitude since she was a toddler.

“I’d tell her when she was little, or her dad would tell her, ‘You can’t do that!’ And she’d go and do it, just to show us that she could,” Row said.

The yes-I-can mindset stuck with Guzman and now the 18-year-old Northern Heights graduate from Allen is the first female in Kansas to enlist as a U.S. Army infantry solider.

An infantry soldier, a position that wasn’t open to females until Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s decision to lift gender-based restrictions from all military positions became effective in January of 2016, is a land combat soldier trained in face-to-face combat and bears the brunt of warfare on the front lines.

Guzman, who signed her name and swore in on May 24 in Olathe, said she knew she wanted to go into the military from a young age.

“I’ve wanted to do this since I was 11 years old,” she said. “It’s just something I wanted to do.”

A three-sport athlete in high school, Guzman said there was a period of time where she thought she would continue her athletic career with the volleyball team at Allen County Community College instead of enlisting.

Guzman said she reached out to her high school counselor for advice on what to do.

“I told her I really wanted to travel the world and get out of this area and she was like, ‘Well, what about the military?’ And I had always wanted to do that,” she said.

Guzman first talked with the Air Force, but ultimately decided on the Army and after taking her Armed Service Vocation Aptitude Battery exam, declared a Military Occupational Specialty in the infantry.

Guzman will also be receiving an airborne classification alongside her MOS in infantry.

This means after completing 10 weeks of basic training, which starts Jan. 30, 2017, in Ft. Benning, Ga., Guzman will attend another brief training session to receive her airborne status.

Transitioning from a graduating class of about 30 kids to an infantry class in the U.S. Army is rather intimidating, Guzman said, but also thrilling.

“There’s going to be a lot more people and I’m not going to be used to it,” she said. “I’ve always gone to a small school. So I’m excited for basic.”

Guzman, who was born in Nampa, Idaho, has lived in Kansas for 10 years, spending the last seven in Allen, a 173-acre town with a population of 177 people.

To Guzman, the decision to join the infantry didn’t have anything to do with being the first female in Kansas to do it or even with being a female at all.

“I’ve always been interested in Special Ops and infantry would get me close to that,” she said. “I didn’t even know I was the first one to do it. They didn’t tell me until after I picked my MOS and stuff that I was the first female and all that.”

When she heard a colonel was coming to swear her in and that photographers would be there, Guzman said she realized she signed up for more than a position in the Army.

“I didn’t want to be in the public eye, I just wanted to be on the down low. That’s how I’ve always been and now I’m out in the public in front of everyone,” she said.

Though Guzman prefers to stay out of the limelight, she said it is worth if it she can become a role model to other little girls.

“I want them to realize, if you have a dream, chase it. It can be a big dream and no one’s going to think that it could actually happen, but in the end it can. I mean look at me, it actually happened for me,” she said. “And I hope little girls can see that and know that they can do anything that they want to, they just have to work for it.”

For Row, the mother of Guzman as well as three other children and a step-son, her little girl is already doing just that.

“We always told our kids, if there’s something you want, you set your mind to it and you do it. Never give up. Do it until you can accomplish what you want,” Row said. “And she is.”

Guzman said she knows people may doubt her, but that she thrives off of that doubt.

“There’s plenty of people that tell me I can’t and I just, I don’t like being told what to do very much by people that aren’t in charge of me,” she said. “So, when they tell me I can’t do something, I do it just to prove to them I can do it. If I have someone telling me I can’t, that makes me want to do it even more.”

Aside from her own determination, Guzman said she has her family, which includes members of the Navy, Army and Marines, backing her as well.

“They’re all really proud of me,” she said. “And my dad, he’s always supported me in anything and everything I wanted to do, good choices and bad. He’s been the one to support me.”

Guzman said her father, Korey Neighbors, has been extremely encouraging and has helped her to prepare for the gravity of her decision.

“I don’t get scared, really, anymore. My dad always said if it’s your time to die, you’re going to go. There’s nothing you can do to stop it. If I’m going to die, at least I’ll be a hero to some people,” she said.

Guzman, who plans to make a career out of the military, said the hardest part is knowing she’ll have to leave her friends and family behind.

Row said when the day came for Guzman to swear in, it seemed surreal.

“It was just, it was a shock. We went up there and watched her swear in and it was a very emotional moment. She’s not only my daughter — don’t get me wrong, I love all my kids and my step-son the same — but her and I have always got along, shared secrets between us. She’s my best friend,” Row said. “And I’m very honored and proud of my daughter.”

Guzman said, though she will be apart from her family, she’s extremely excited for what is to come.

“Her grandpa says he knows she’ll do great things,” Row said.

“And that’s what I hope to do,” Guzman said. “Great things.”