Every chance they get, military veterans Liza and Carl Struck display an American flag outside their Blanco home. Their family’s custom means even more when they raise the flag for Independence Day.

“The flag is very special and personal to me, as it is to many veterans,” said Liza, a retired

colonel who served in the U.S. Air Force. “We wore the American flag on the left shoulder of

our flight suits every day. It represents the real sacrifices that people made for generations

before me and even during my time to secure the freedoms I enjoy today.”

“That’s why it’s unsettling for me when people hijack our U.S. flag to use for their personal

causes,” she added. “For those who served under the flag, the stars and stripes represent an ideal for which many knowingly and willingly paid the ultimate sacrifice. Our system is not perfect. It’s run and inhabited by human beings who are inherently imperfect. But to see our flag dishonored by our own citizens is painful.”

Carl, a retired lieutenant colonel with the U.S. Air Force, echoed his wife’s thoughts.

“I did what I did for our country, but others gave way more – some with their lives – to protect

freedom of religion, press and the right to peaceably assemble,” he said. “I fear many in society don’t fully appreciate the sacrifices made to gain those privileges.”

For Liza, the flag also “reminds me of how, before I was born, my parents immigrated from the Philippines to pursue better opportunities here,” she said. “My dad petitioned for permanent U.S. residency and waited to move here in the late ’60s. He eventually moved to Seattle, got a job and once established, sent for my mom and brothers. My parents taught us to work hard and not expect handouts. They were and are proud of this country.”

Raised more than 2,000 miles apart, Liza, a Seattle native, and Carl, a 1985 Blanco High School graduate, both got their first taste of military service through college programs. Carl earned his commission through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program at Texas A&M University in 1989. Meanwhile, Liza was a 1990 distinguished grade of the University of Washington’s Air Force ROTC.

The couple met in 1991 through a mutual friend at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Liza was a student in undergraduate missile training, and Carl was there on temporary duty to compete in the Air Force’s annual missile competition. At the time, Carl was assigned to the 448th Strategic Missile Squadron at Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota, where Liza was slated for assignment (to the 446th Strategic Missile Squadron) following completion of her training. They became friends and married in 1994.

As their family grew, “we decided that as long we could keep our family together and enjoy our work, then we’d both stay in the Air Force,” Carl said.

For the majority of their marriage, they were assigned in the same general vicinity with only a few short exceptions of one year or less. With support from their parents, friends and a mutual agreement to prioritize assignment requests based on the ability to stay together, they spent most of their active duty service stateside. Liza and Carl respectively served 24 and 21 years before retiring to Blanco in 2014.

Liza’s many assignments include the Space Warfare Center, which provided national

space capabilities to tactical war-fighting units; the 23rd Information Operations Squadron,

where–as operations officer–she developed cyber and information warfare tactics for the Air

Force; and the 30th Operations Support Squadron, where as commander she provided airfield operations, training and support to missile and space launch operations.

Similarly, Carl’s lengthy vita includes the Air Force Space Command Inspector General Team, where he planned, supervised and conducted command inspections and assessments of space-lift, space surveillance, satellite command and control, and missile warning launch systems; the 17th Test Squadron, where–as tactics and concepts flight commander–he developed and evaluated space tactics and evaluated concepts and procedures for multi-billion-dollar space systems; and Headquarters Air Education and

Training Command, where as a bases and units program manager, he led the establishment of a C-130J (a military transport aircraft) Formal Training Unit at the Little Rock Air Force Base.

Along the way, they also raised two children. Katie, 22, is a recent Texas A&M University graduate who will start medical school this fall, and David, 20, is a junior at Texas A&M in the engineering program.

Juggling their family and military jobs wasn’t always easy. On multiple occasions when Carl

and Liza simultaneously had to travel for work, Carl’s mom drove out to care for the kids. Sometimes it was a 45-minute trip to pick up the kids. At other times, it was an 8-hour drive.

“One year, we were assigned separately in neighboring states,” Carl said. “Liza’s parents retired early and moved from Seattle to live with me in Nebraska and help out with the kids. Her parents lived with us for three years then moved with us to California for another two years to help with the kids until I retired.”

The couple also share a heritage of family military service. Liza’s grandfather and an uncle served in Philippines military forces under the command of General Douglas MacArthur during World War II. Both men suffered through the Bataan Death March, alongside American counterparts. Carl’s father followed a career path in the U.S. Air Force as a veterinary technician. In 1980, he retired and moved his family to Blanco when Carl was in the eighth grade. Carl’s younger brother, Paul, still actively serves in the U.S. Army.

Together, Carl and Liza are grateful for the years they spent serving in the military and the

many valuable lessons they learned.

“People come from all different walks of life, including other countries, to serve in or alongside our military,” Liza reflected. “In order to do the job and execute the mission effectively, we put aside or worked through our differences. For the most part, people were able to do that and work toward the greater purpose.”

Carl added, “As we celebrate our nation’s independence, I remain optimistic and pray that

we can peacefully work toward the ideal of ‘One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.’”