Kelley Griswold during his election campaign.
Serving ... A
uburn, Opelika and Smiths Station all three have city council members who are also veterans. Here are some of their stories.
Kelley Griswold:
“Being in the army is kind of my family business so to speak,” said Ward 2 Auburn Council Member Kelley Griswold. A retired veteran himself, Griswold’s grandfather served, his father served, his brother served, his brother-in-law currently serves, a sister works on base at Fort Benning and his nephew serves. Griswold was born at Fort Bragg and said growing up he experienced things other children wouldn’t have — like dropping off of jump towers on base at five years old. “There was never any doubt that that would be one of the things I pursued,” he said. Griswold pursued ROTC in both high school and at Auburn University. The same day that Griswold graduated from Auburn, he was also commissioned in 1977. “I was an artilleryman, so we had troop tours with soldiers in Hawaii with the 25th division and Fort Stewart, Georgia
with the 24th division,” he said. After seven years, Griswold was assigned a second specialty — research and development. “Did that for a while at Redstone [Arsenal] and got sent down to Maxwell Airforce base to work with the school for a year, went to an airfare school,” he said. “And so my next assignment should have been rotating back and forth between secondary and troops. So I was supposed to go to Germany and then Congress got involved and mandated that the research and development people be solvated into something called the Army Acquisition Court.” So, Griswold did not head out for Germany and did not have the opportunity for more troop time throughout his 26year career. Instead, Griswold and his wife spent the majority of his career at Redstone. “I went back to Redstone,” he said. “It was funny because we were stationed at Redstone five times and we kept thinking every time we’d left, we’d sell the house, sell the boat, whatever and then next thing we know, two or three years later we’ve got orders back to Redstone … it was good because I stayed in the same rocket and missile business and progressed in that. “It was kind of cool returning to Huntsville every time because our civilian friends were still there.”
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