Jasper, Ala –
Nearly two decades after walking into the Jasper Recruiting Station as a young man from a small Alabama town, First Sergeant Jeffrey Kirkland returned to that same station — this time to enlist his oldest son into the United States Army. For Kirkland, the First Sergeant of the Birmingham, Alabama Recruiting Company covering the Jasper station, the moment was something he had quietly anticipated for years. "It's like the greatest day of my life," Kirkland said, "for my son not only being able to join the Army but also joining out of the exact same station that I joined out of."
A Homecoming, Twice Over
Kirkland enlisted out of Jasper in late 2007, growing up in Carbon Hill and Jasper, attending Carbon Hill High School before transferring to Walker and Curry schools as his family moved around Walker County. After nearly 20 years of service — including almost a decade in Army recruiting — he found himself stationed back home as the First Sergeant of the very company he once walked into as a fresh recruit. He now lives in Jasper, though his company headquarters is in Birmingham. He says hardly a trip to Walmart goes by without running into a childhood friend or a distant relative. b"They're like, dude, what are you doing back?" Kirkland laughed. "And I'm like, man, I live here now." But the homecoming took on an entirely new dimension when his oldest son, Kaiden, made it official — enlisting in the Army right there in Jasper, at his father's station, in his father's company.
Following Footsteps
Kaiden Kirkland, who recently graduated high school and lives with his mother in Massachusetts, said the idea of joining had been with him for years. "It's always been there, at least for as long as I've been thinking about working," the younger Kirkland said. "I've been seriously ready to join since I was 15." He originally planned to enlist out of Massachusetts, but when his father took over the company that runs Jasper station, the plans changed. "I just know when I found out I was coming here, I was like, hey man, if you're really serious about joining the Army, you should do it with me," the elder Kirkland recalled telling his son. "I'm your dad. I'm a subject matter expert in recruiting. You're going to get the absolute best opportunity." Kaiden signed on as a 68M, a Nutrition Care Specialist, with an eye toward becoming a dietitian or personal trainer after his service. He had initially hoped for a UAV operator position, but with that slot unavailable, nutrition care was a natural fit for a young man who wakes up at 5:30 every morning to hit the gym alongside his father. "He loves to eat right, he loves to work out every day," Jeffrey Kirkland said. "I was like, dude, this is right up your alley."
A Rare Moment, Even in a Rare Career
In nearly a decade of recruiting, Jeffrey Kirkland has witnessed thousands of enlistments. He could recall only one vaguely similar situation — a fellow First Sergeant who once enlisted his son at a station, though not the one where he himself had served. Nothing, he said, quite matched what unfolded in Jasper. "This is the only time that I've ever seen or heard of this particular instance," he said, "where a father is putting his son in the Army, signing this contract with him, but is also the First Sergeant of that company and also enlisted out of that station. Very, very rare within a rare opportunity." The emotion of the day caught even the seasoned recruiter off guard. "That was the toughest enlistment I've ever watched," he admitted. "You kind of see him as a baby, you know."
A Family Affair
The Kirklands made sure the milestone belonged to the whole family. Because Kaiden lives in Massachusetts, the family arranged for him to ship to basic training from there in August, ensuring his mother could be present for his departure — a detail Jeffrey Kirkland said was important to him. "I didn't want to be stingy and be like, no, he'll just stay with me and leave from here," he said. "To make it fair and cool for everybody — he's going to join with me, and then when he actually ships to basic training, he's going to ship out of Massachusetts." Back in Jasper, the family legacy may only be getting started. Kirkland's younger son Xander, 13, has already declared his own intentions, inspired by watching his older brother take the oath. "He's like, 'Oh yeah, I'm gonna do this, get out of school, join the Army,'" Kirkland said with a grin. "I was the exact same way. My older brother was in the Army, I watched that transition, who he became, and I was like — yeah, that's what I want to be." His daughter Rosanée, who turns 7 next week, has made her own position equally clear. "She has let me know on every occasion," Kirkland said, laughing, "that she will never join the Army." As for Kaiden, he acknowledged that the uniqueness of the moment wasn't lost on him — enlisting from a town his father grew up in, at a station his father once sat in as a nervous teenager, processed by the very man who raised him. "Never would have expected to come out of where he was from," Kaiden said. "I've never heard of that within his 10 years of being in recruiting." Jeffrey Kirkland, for his part, sees in his son everything a soldier needs — and then some. "He's going to be better than me," he said. "Just the way he was raised, the way he's brought himself up. I just know."