Why I serve: ‘I want to continue to be a part of something bigger’

By Sgt. 1st Class Mary KatzenbergerFebruary 15, 2022

Why I serve: ‘I want to continue to be a part of something bigger’
1 / 2 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Chief Warrant Officer 3 Benteal Y. Currie is headed to the White House. The human resources technician, deployed to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, with the Fort Bragg, North Carolina, based 3rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command, learned in the fall of 2021 that she was accepted to become part of the White House Communications Agency team. “This will be my first joint assignment," Currie said. "I love to learn and I want to see how we connect the dots in that particular organization.” (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Owen Thez) (Photo Credit: Courtesy) VIEW ORIGINAL
Why I serve: ‘I want to continue to be a part of something bigger’
2 / 2 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Chief Warrant Officer 3 Benteal Y. Currie poses in a family photo. The human resources technician, deployed to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, with the Fort Bragg, North Carolina, based 3rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command, has followed in the footsteps of her father, Breal, who retired from the Army as a sergeant major. “My dad was very militant growing up, so by the time I went to basic training I was like, ‘this is nothing,’ I just played the game,” Currie said, laughing. “Let me tell you … if we left our room for the day and the bed wasn’t made or there was unnecessary things underneath our bed, he was flipping it, he was going to flip the mattress.” (Photo courtesy of Chief Warrant Officer 3 Benteal Y. Currie) (Photo Credit: Courtesy) VIEW ORIGINAL

CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait — Chief Warrant Officer 3 Benteal Y. Currie is headed to the White House.

The human resources technician, deployed here with the Fort Bragg, North Carolina, based 3rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command, learned in the fall of 2021 that she was accepted to become part of the White House Communications Agency team.

The agency is responsible for providing global information services to the president, including enterprise services, customer services, and travel operations.

“I’m super excited,” Currie said. “This will be my first joint assignment; I love to learn and I want to see how we connect the dots in that particular organization.”

The assignment will be an extension of what the human resources technician said she has sought throughout her career: figuring out where she fits into the bigger picture.

The Army, the family business

Currie hails from Monroe, Louisiana, and lived there until she was 12. She spent the remainder of her formative years as a military dependent. Her father, Breal Madison, served as a human resources specialist—or 42A—in the Army, and ultimately retired as a sergeant major after 27 years of service.

Currie experienced life in Virginia, Washington, and Hawaii, and grew to love traveling.

“I just loved meeting different types of people and just getting the big picture, understanding that my foxhole is just a tad bit of what the world is about,” she said. “I learned so much from it.”

Inspired by seeing the things her father was able to experience in the military and curious to learn more, Currie enlisted in 2003 when her father was stationed at what was then known as Fort Lewis, Washington, and is today known as Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

She followed in her father’s footsteps and enlisted as a 42A. She also followed in the footsteps of her older twin sisters, Yvonne and Yvette, and older brother, Breal, each of whom served eight years in the Army. And, her baby brother, Breal III, followed in her footsteps and enlisted, and still serves today.

“I’m excited to this day that I made that decision,” Currie said. “I just hit 18 years and I’m like, ‘where did the time go.’”

The human resources technician said basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, was a piece of cake.

“My dad was very militant growing up, so by the time I went to basic training I was like, ‘this is nothing,’ I just played the game,” Currie said, laughing. “Let me tell you … if we left our room for the day and the bed wasn’t made or there was unnecessary things underneath our bed, he was flipping it, he was going to flip the mattress.”

After advanced individual training the human resources technician got her wish of continuing to travel as she received orders to South Korea.

“That was my first time being away from home, home,” she said. “But it was good, and I enjoyed it, because I do feel like my dad prepared me a lot mentally for everything; I just had an open mind and I was able to adjust to any type of environment growing up.”

The human resources technician progressed to the rank of sergeant first class before a warrant officer in her unit strongly encouraged her to submit a packet to become a technical expert in her field.

“I loved being an NCO and that was a great experience to lay a good foundation for my career, but I always aspired to be a warrant officer because I loved being technical and I loved getting to know the why of what we did and the how of what we did,” Currie said.

She said she is incredibly grateful to the warrant officer who pushed her to stop making excuses for herself, because she has loved realizing her goals.

Currie’s goal is to continue learning and to mentor young Soldiers wherever her career takes her. She has served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now in Kuwait. She said she is looking forward to reuniting with her husband, Vincent—who is also in the Army—and two sons, Brayden, 12, and Brycen, 9—in the Washington, D.C. area once she redeploys.

“As I continue to experience different assignments, I hope to positively contribute to the particular decision making process; I want to be part of the change in a good way,” Currie said. “I want to continue to be a part of something bigger.”