Karl Vander Lugt joined the South Dakota Air National Guard (SDANG) in January of 2007, while he was still a student at Southwest Christian High School. He graduated that May and left for basic training shortly thereafter.

Karl said his parents were supportive of his decision but were a little bit apprehensive. Their family has had some exposure to the military. His uncle, Les, served in Vietnam, and his grandfather, the late Peter Walhof, served in Korea. He has some close family friends who also served.

Karl’s basic training took place at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, in June and July of 2007, shortly after high school graduation. While his basic training was no doubt less strict than that of Peter and Les, it was also different than it is now. No communication was allowed with the outside world other than exchanging letters. He was allowed one phone call. Now, airmen have cell phones, and while they are not able to use them all the time, they are able to be in more contact with their families than in the past.

“My basic training was very isolated and old school,” Karl said. His parents came down for graduation along with his sister, Becky, and her thenbaby, Cathryn.

After basic training, he was assigned to Shepherd AFB in Wichita Falls, Texas, for his technical training. Technical training was less restricted than basic training, slowly gaining more freedoms through each passing week until eventually it started to feel more like he was at college than training on a military base.

At Shepherd AFB, Karl learned to be an aircraft electrical and environmental systems technician. He works solely on F-16 Fighter Jets. “Basically, my job is about maintaining and repairing electrical power generation and distribution and environmental control systems. The environmental systemincludes the components that provide air conditioning and pressurization to the pilot,” Karl explained.

His favorite part of the job is troubleshooting, investigating a problem and finding a solution.

“I enjoy having a problem, understanding it, and then getting to the root of the problem so I can fix it,” Karl said.

After his technical training, Karl came back to SDANG where he had on-the-job training for the next 30 days. At that point, he had planned to go to college, but the class schedule did not work out, so he rolled right into full time work at SDANG.

In June 2008, he received his first deployment – he went to Iraq for three months where he was stationed at Joint Base Balad. He was deployed with the New York Air National Guard out of Syracuse. They were leaving earlier than the South Dakota unit and he wanted to get back in time to start college that fall.

In 2008, with active conflict raging in Iraq, Karl’s mom was understandably anxious about his deployment. Karl reassured her by explaining that the base where he was stationed was heavily fortified, and he never ventured beyond its secure perimeter.

“There were scattered rocket attacks, but nothing that felt threatening,” Karl recalls. “We worked 12-hour shifts, 7 days a week. After your shift was over, you might go to the gym and play a little poker and then go to bed.”

“I really didn’t have any worries. My bills were taken care of and my food. I didn’t have a wife or kids, so I put my head down and did my job three months. Yeah, you’re in a war zone, but there was a strange simpleness to life.”

Back then in 2008, communication with home was still a challenge.

“We had internet, but there was not Wi-Fi. To call you had to go to a specific building to make a phone call and you still had to stand in line a while to get that done,” Karl said.

He called home weekly to update his family, but the reception at their house was not great, so he would call the farm’s home line and hope to catch someone. He was also able to email them regularly.

After returning from Iraq, Karl started his freshman year at South Dakota State University in the electrical engineering program. He would spend the next four years there, graduating with his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 2012.

While growing up he had a knack for taking things apart and putting them back together. He would take apart a radio just to see how it worked. His work at the air guard solidified his decision for what to study in college.

During college, he continued part time work with the SDANG and completed his obligatory weekend of training each month and two weeks of training each year. Some of those yearly trainings took place at Cold Lake, Canada in Northern Alberta, Barksdale Air Force Base near Shreveport, Louisiana, San Diego, Calif., and Savannah, Georgia.

Karl enjoyed all the trainings. “They are always fun,” he said. “The trip is what you make of there to work hard and play hard, it can be memorable and enjoyable.”

In 2013, Karl was sent to the Midde East for a rotation in Jordan. He was stationed there for two months. While there, he had the opportunity to do some sightseeing. He visited the Jordan River and swam in the Dead Sea. He visited Mount Nebo and several other Biblical historical sites. He explained that there were many tourists on the Jordan side of the Jordan River because it was much cheaper to visit Jordan than it was to visit Israel.

On one sightseeing trip, Karl and a group of airmen ventured out of Amman in a rental car, aiming to return to their base several hours away. The road signs in Jordan were obscured by political propaganda, making them hard to read, and with no cell phone signal and spotty GPS, navigation was challenging. There were only two major routes from Amman into the desert: one leading back to base and the other towards Iraq, which was not particularly welcoming to American military personnel. About an hour into their drive, the propaganda on the signs began to diminish, and they realized with alarm that they were heading into hostile territory. They quickly reversed course, found the correct route, but ended up arriving at the base well past curfew.

In 2014, Karl went to Poland for a month to maintain aircraft so U.S. pilots could train with Polish pilots on different combat maneuvers. Karl said that the whole training was about bolstering a good relationship with the Polish military, but they were also able to see Warsaw and some historic World War II sites, including the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps.

In 2017, Karl met Caitlyn Engebretson, a native of the Black Hills, who had graduated from Sturgis High School in 2007. Despite both attending South Dakota State University during the same years, their paths never crossed on campus. Caitlyn, motivated by encouragement from her aunt—who had served in the South Dakota Air National Guard for over 15 years— joined the SDANG in 2008. Remarkably, even with their shared college experience and membership in the same guard unit, it took nearly a decade for them to finally meet. Caitlyn accepted a full-time position with the SDANG in mid-2017 and is now the Fabrication Superintendent managing Non Destructive Inspections, Metals Technology, and Structural Repair.

In 2018, Karl and Caitlyn were deployed to Afghanistan for four months. They were at Bagram Air Base in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel, the war on the Taliban. Karl said that it was “gut wrenching” to see the U.S. pull out during the summer of 2021. “Everything we fought for slipped away so quickly,” he said.

This mission was different than the others – the pace was very fast, and they were actively flying missions and dropping bombs.

“There was a high need for ‘up time’ for the aircraft,” Karl said. “There was a different mentality – this was a war zone. There are soldiers on the ground that need our support. It was not just turning wrenches at that point.”

In January 2020, Caitlyn and Karl were married. In June 2021, they had a daughter, Kelbie, who brings joy, excitement and sass to their lives and keeps them on their toes.

Karl feels profoundly blessed to have a wife who deeply understands and embraces the military way of life. As a dual military family, both Karl and Caitlyn have made significant sacrifices, each contributing to the demands of their service in unique ways.

Karl’s career in the military involves short trips, longer deployments, and some unpredictable schedules. Each challenge means he must leave behind not only his job but also his home and his loved ones.

As a member of the South Dakota Air National Guard, Caitlyn fully understands the demands of military life. Balancing her own service commitments with her role as a spouse in a dual-military household, she navigates the complexities of both military and civilian responsibilities. The mutual understanding and adaptability between Karl and Caitlyn are essential as they manage the challenges that come with their combined military and personal lives.

Karl, now a Master Sergeant, works as a service manager for Malloy Electric in Sioux Falls while continuing his part-time role with SDANG. With four years remaining to complete a 20-year military career, he remains dedicated to his service and family.