LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Working out of the Army Louisville East Recruiting Office off Taylorsville Road, Sgt. First Class Kiera Lowe is on a mission. 

"I manage a team of eight recruiters to our Army Reserve and the other six are active duty," Lowe said. 

She's currently the only female who works at the office and oversees a team of recruiters.

Recently, her leadership has gained national attention. 

"Recruiting Command has about 1,400 stations across the United States Army and our overseas stations and I was among the top 13 and the number one in the Midwest area for third brigade," she explained. 

It's the second year in a row Lowe has traveled to the Pentagon to receive the honor. Compared to the first, Lowe said this second win felt "even more special."

"Just because I have an amazing team and to watch them work, especially after COVID where it's been really really hard, you know across the U.S. you hear about recruiting and just to see all of our efforts have not been unseen and that they really worked hard for it," she said. 

Earlier this year, Lowe was also awarded the Glenn E. Morrell award, which is the highest honor a person can receive for recruitment. 

"It's heart-warming just getting an honor, especially being a woman and against all our male entities and what not, because those are my competition," she said.

As part of her honors, Lowe was given multiple coins, medals and a certificate which she now keeps at her office. The items serve both as symbols of Lowe's many achievements and of her journey. 

The soldier, now 31, first enlisted at 17 after she graduated from high school. She said one of the main things that drew her to a career in the military was the ability to travel.

Lowe first attending basic training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri before going to Fort Jackson for job training. Next, she was stationed in Fort Bliss for four years. 

While in Texas, Lowe was deployed to Iraq for about four months before making a stop in Ireland. 

Once back home, Lowe was stationed in Fort Benning, Georgia, before becoming a recruiter in Palatka, Florida, and eventually taking a recruiting job in Louisville. 

"I've seen so much and I've been so many places," said Lowe. "I don't think not being in the Army would've provided me that."

Throughout her 13 years in service, Lowe said it wasn't unusual to be the only one in a room who looked like her.

"I've always only been in all-male units for the most part. I was in cavalry units my whole career," she said. "When I joined the Army, I was the only Black girl out of my pool of future soldiers."

She continued, "I got to my unit and there was another Black girl and then I had a Black female NCO and that was it. It was only three of us out of like 300 white males."

While Lowe may have noticed differences physically, she said she was never treated differently.  

"We've always been like one big brother and sisterhood," she explained. 

Over the past few years, Lowe said she's started to notice a real change among the branch's diversity. 

"I think now the Army is shifting and we're starting to see more people of color join, whether it's Black, Brown, Asian. We're all coming in and the Army is welcoming and they want a bigger demographic," she said. "Now you go in formations and you're seeing six females and of those six females, three of them are women of color. The formation is of 12 soldiers so about 1/4 of your formation now is women and women of color."

Lowe said "every day" she runs into people who are surprised to learn she is in the military. She said she has noticed first-hand how her story and an overall increase in diversity within the Army has helped with recruiting efforts. 

"I say all the time representation, it does matter, it truly matters," she said. "Especially when we're going into schools, when we're around these neighborhoods; and that's anybody, they want to see someone that looks like them that knows their upbringing or can relate to what they've done. I think that has definitely played a huge part in our success."

Moving forward, Lowe said she hopes her story can encourage even more people of color to join the military, including her own seven kids. 

"I hope that everybody strives to want to serve at some point. Not just so they could go to college for free, but so they could say 'Hey, I served my country and I got to see the world,' or 'I got to help in a humanitarian way through the Army Reserve,'" she said. "I just hope we get rid of the stigma of 'Oh the Army is scary' or 'Oh the military is scary' because I've had the best time of my life in the military."

Lowe encourages anyone who is interested in a career in the Army to stop by the Army Louisville East Recruiting Office at 9144 Taylorsville Rd, Louisville, KY 40299. 

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