Photo courtesy of KaLea Swenson Marshall resident KaLea Swenson and her son Holden Bassett saluted together, at Swenson’s Warrant Officer graduation earlier this year. As a member of the National Guard, Swenson has served in two deployments to the Middle East, while still balancing a career as a realtor back in Minnesota.

MARSHALL — KaLea Swenson’s service with the National Guard started when she was 17. It hasn’t been an easy path since then – she balanced two overseas deployments with studying to become a realtor, running a business and starting a family. But Swenson says she doesn’t regret it.

“I wouldn’t change it,” she said. Today, Swenson says she also uses her experiences to help support other military families. “I really want to be a good resource for military members,” she said.

Swenson grew up in the area around Ivanhoe and Canby, and was a 2013 graduate of Lincoln HI High School. Swenson said there were a few reasons why she decided to join the National Guard as a student.

“First and foremost, I’ve always been super patriotic,” she said. She liked the idea of being able to make a difference in the world. Joining the National Guard also gave Swenson assistance to pursue a college degree, she said.

In her 13 years with the National Guard, Swenson has been deployed to the Middle East twice. The first time was from 2018 to 2019. Around that time, she got interested in the field of real estate, which was a change from her original plan of going to law school.

Swenson said the interest partly came from her own experiences as a first-time home buyer. “I thought, ‘I have no idea what I’m doing,'” Swenson said. “I felt like, it’s such an important thing. I thought I should know more.”

Swenson started taking real estate classes in 2018, during her first deployment. “It was really difficult at the time,” she said, due to factors like issues with the distance learning technology for the classes. She also needed to get the help of a supervisor to proctor her exams, she said.

When she came home to Minnesota, Swenson “hit the ground running” as a realtor with Edina Realty in Marshall. But when she was deployed a second time, in 2024, things were more complicated. Swenson served as a Chief Paralegal, managing more than 20 personnel in the Division Office of the Staff Judge Advocate. The Judge Advocates provide legal services for the military, which can cover everything from national security law, to military operations and military justice, Swenson said. “It affects everyone around us,” she said.

However, Swenson’s second deployment also meant goodbye to her son Holden, and limited communication with family and clients back home.

Swenson said she shared videos with Holden, with the help of a program that let service members record themselves reading books to their children. She also continued to work with real estate clients in Minnesota.

“That was difficult,” she said. Swenson couldn’t do real estate work when she had military duties. Plus, there was an eight-hour time difference between the Middle East and Minnesota. That meant carefully scheduling calls for her free time – usually very early in the morning, she said. “It was wild.”

Coming back to Minnesota after deployment took some adjusting, Swenson said. “It’s coming back and trying to fit yourself back into a routine that has been happening for 11 months without you,” she said. It was amazing to see how much Holden had grown and developed, Swenson said.

Swenson said she was thankful to have a support network back home, including her family and her significant other Ryan Bassett. “I don’t know what I would have done without him,” she said. She also had support from all her coworkers at the Deutz Group of Edina Realty. “They were really amazing.”

In spite of the challenges of balancing her service with family and civilian life, Swenson said she still plans on continuing to serve in the National Guard. This year, she became a Warrant Officer within the JAG Corps.

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Swenson says she also likes to work with military families, whether it’s to help them navigate the process of buying a home, or to offer support in other ways. There are a lot of questions and challenges that come with military life, and Swenson said she can draw on her knowledge and experiences to talk about things like VA loans, or the importance of filing for disability benefits.

“For veterans and military families, there’s comfort in knowing your realtor speaks your language,” she said. “I understand the structure, the process, and the personality that comes with a military life.”

In spite of the challenges, Swenson said being in the National Guard had important positives for her. There was the camaraderie with other Guard members. “It’s hard to want to leave that culture and environment,” she said. The National Guard had also opened up new knowledge and experiences for her.

“The military provided me with more experience, culture and diversity than I had ever experienced in my life,” she said.