Rachel Harrington retires from military, plans to take on more VFW responsibilities
From the time she was in high school, Rachel Harrington has been involved in the U.S. military, first getting involved in the JROTC program at Ambridge Area Senior High School.
Really, she has been interested in military service for her entire life because her grandfather, James T. Harrington, served in the Army infantry during World War II, and he would take his granddaughter to VFW meetings when she was a child. Harrington said her grandfather’s impact on her life is immeasurable.
“We would go to meetings together at the VFW,” Harrington said. “He was in the Army infantry in World War II. He liked it so much he joined the Air Force.
“When I got commissioned he was my first salute.”
Harrington is retiring from the military in October, marking the end of a 22-year long career in the service. Although she will no longer be involved in military operations, Harrington will still be serving military personnel through her career in veteran health care and her involvement in VFW Post 879 in Cranberry Township.
Harrington is business development director at Primary Care Solutions, a service disabled veteran owned small business. She said her work in health care for veterans is fulfilling because it is in a field she enjoys with people she can relate to.
“I'm still working with veterans, so when I'm in my uniform or deployed or in drill, I'm in the active military, then when I go to my civilian job, I am still working with veterans,” Harrington said. “I'm still speaking the same language... You can understand them and relate to them, I think it means a lot to them.”
Her current job, she said, is a good carryover from her career in medical care with the military.
“We contract with the VA to build and operate community clinics,” Harrington said of her career. “I am an RN, but the way I function is I am for veteran outreach.”
In 2003, Harrington enlisted in the Pennsylvania Air National Guard as an airman first class, assigned to the 171st ARW as an aerospace medical technician. Throughout her enlisted career, she held a variety of clinical and operational roles.
She was deployed several times to missions overseas, including four missions to Guam; Operation Enduring Freedom in 2008, for which she earned the Air Force Commendation Medal; and Operation Unified Protector in 2011, for which she earned a second Air Force Commendation Medal.
In 2013, Harrington was commissioned as a clinical nurse, continuing her leadership within the medical group. She served as officer in charge and in the infection control program.
Harrington said she wanted to continue her work in health care through the military.
“I was an enlisted medic and attached to our pilots and I was their small medical element,” Harrington said. “I did that for 10 years, and made it up to E6 and, at my 10-year mark, I got my bachelor's in nursing and I was accepted into nursing.”
In her civilian life, Harrington also worked in health care, in a role at Valor Healthcare in Cranberry Township. Harrington said that even though she was in the ROTC program in high school, she still considered immediately pursuing a college degree in health care after graduating.
She ended up enlisting, where she was able to fulfill health care-related roles, but would eventually earn a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Waynesburg University.
Harrington said that she got opportunities to employ her medical knowledge when on deployments with the military.
“When deployed, handle any emergencies on base. I was responsible for also training CPR, so I made sure everyone deployed was at least trained in First Aid CPR,” Harrington said. “Make sure that everyone is able to function as best they can.”
Harrington said even though she liked her civilian career in the 2000s and 2010s, she was always ready to be deployed, with the turnaround for her 2011 deployment being pretty quick.
“For Operation Unified Protector I had two days,” Harrington said. “They called me at work and I was up to date on my training and asked if I could be ready within 48 hours.
“I definitely wanted to be deployed, I was ready to go.”
Harrington said, aside from just her grandfather, her family has always been supportive of her military service, even her being deployed for months at a time. She is married and now has three children, whom she involves in some of her work with the Cranberry Township VFW.
Rex Brown, Army and Air Force veteran and VFW Post 879 quartermaster, has known Harrington for years, having served with her in the 171st Air Refueling Wing Pennsylvania Air National Guard.
He said people in the Cranberry Township area may have already seen Harrington out and about with VFW programs, like its Poppy Days event which takes place twice a year.
“She is amazingly active with our Poppy Days, you can see her and her kids handing out poppy seeds,” Brown said.
Harrington is also service post officer at VFW Post 879 and said she hopes to be even more involved in veterans initiatives now that she is retiring.
Brown said Harrington is a good representative of the Air Force, and living civilian life outside of and after fulfilling military service.
“She is very outgoing, she is cheerful, more so than most people,” Brown said. “She lends a positive part of her personality. She is a good listener and, again, she's able to help where help is needed.”
