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Master Sergeant at Arms Jeremy Keller
For Jeremy Keller, military service is a long-standing family tradition that he’s been proud to continue.
“Pretty much every generation in my family has served, whether it was 23 years in the Navy for one of my grandfathers or four years in the Navy for my dad,” he said. “We’ve been able to trace our family history using Ancestry.com and 23andMe and found out we had ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War. So I always knew I wanted to heed that call.”
Realizing early on that college wasn’t for him, Keller enlisted in the United States Army during his junior year of high school in New York, signing up for the Option 40 contract to join the Ranger regiment. His official departure date was June 28, 2001, just a few months before 9/11. After Keller completed basic training airborne school, he continued into the Ranger Indoctrination Program (now known as the Ranger Assessment and Selection Program) prior to assignment with the 3rd Ranger Battalion at Fort Benning, Georgia, where he spent 2002 to 2014.
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“I served in every position in a rifle platoon, from private machine gunner, team leader, squad leader, weapon squad leader and platoon sergeant,” he said. “I was also a K-9 handler and kennel master.”
Later transferring over to Hunter Army Airfield on Georgia’s east coast with the 1st Ranger Battalion, Keller did staff time as the operations NCO assistant and was selected to be the Bravo Company First Sergeant. Throughout the course of his 20-year military career, he deployed 18 times, spending a total of 6 ½ years in combat zones before officially retiring July 1, 2021, as a Master Sergeant at Arms.
“I’m very proud of the military service that I’ve been able to complete,” he said. “Being a veteran means a lot to me because you’re grouped with an unprecedented number of heroes. It helped shape who I am significantly.”
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After retirement, Keller brought the skills and discipline he’d gained from the Army into his new role as chief program officer at Big Sky Bravery, a nonprofit in Bozeman founded by his brother-in-law Josh McCain. The organization specializes in providing post-deployment decompression programs for active-duty Special Operations Forces.
“After one of my deployments, (Josh) saw how it was affecting my wife and I, and also my comrades,” Keller said. “He looked around to find out what nonprofits were available to support active-duty individuals, and there just weren’t any at the time. That’s where the genesis of Big Sky Bravery originated.”
In his last six months of service, Keller prepared himself to onboard with Big Sky Bravery the day he was officially discharged. Now, he oversees teambuilding and leadership activities designed to foster support and friendship among current SOF unit members.
To anyone who may be considering enlistment, Keller offers this sound advice.
“Just follow your heart,” he said. “If you feel the desire to serve, then do it. Signing up to be part of something that's greater than yourself is one of the best things anybody can do.”