ROCHELLE — Kyle Arreguin of Rochelle served active duty in the United States Navy from 2008-2010 and has served in the Navy Reserves ever since. 

Arreguin entered his senior year at Rochelle Township High School weighing 285 pounds. In an effort to motivate himself to get healthier and find direction, he made a choice to enlist. He chose the Navy because nobody in his family had ever served in that branch before. 

“It gave me the push I needed,” Arreguin said. “By the time I left for boot camp I needed to weigh 170 pounds. I weighed in at 169.8. I'll never forget that number. I lost 125 pounds.”

Arreguin attended boot camp at Great Lakes and started on Oct. 1, 2008. His service contract called for two years of active service and two years of mandatory time in the reserves. Arreguin originally planned to be a hospital corpsman (Navy medic), but ended up as an undesignated airman and attended undesignated air school in Pensacola, Florida for 2-3 months and graduated from that. It was there that he learned air department work. 

Arreguin went to his first ship in early 2009, the USS Peleliu in San Diego, California. He spent time working on the flight deck and went on short trips out to sea. 

“I had some fun doing that,” Arreguin said. “I did some time on the flight deck, which was one of the most motivating jobs I've ever been a part of. The jets and helicopters are landing and you're chalking and chaining and telling them when to take off and land. That was amazing. After that I started working more in the hangar bay. I did that until August 2010 when my time in active duty was coming to an end. I tried my best to stay. I had a meeting with the commanding officer of the ship about it. There wasn't anything he could do to help me stay, but the fact that he tried meant a lot. I got out of active duty and drove from San Diego back to Illinois.”

The 14 years after that have seen Arreguin serving in a number of different Navy Reserve units and duties. He was first called into a unit called Expeditionary Maintenance for Guam, and went out to the USS Emory S. Land for two weeks for two years in a row and worked on that ship. He later made E-4 rank and later made E-5 and has been at that rank for four years.

Arreguin has worked on different ships and submarines. After three years with the Guam unit, we went to another unit that resulted in two deployments to Spain, where he would help to bring ships into pier or shuttle personnel to and from larger boats on smaller boats. 

“We'd have to meet the ship as it was moving and hook up a rope ladder,” Arreguin said. “That was insane at times. I helped with maintenance on those boats. I became my unit's sponsor, which made me responsible for bringing new people into the unit and teaching them what they need to know.”

After that, Arreguin joined a unit that deploys to Japan. After his first deployment was canceled due to COVID-19 in 2020, he did make the trip in 2022. The opportunity to go to Japan was one of the reasons Arreguin originally joined the Navy. 13 years later, he got his wish. 

At the end of 2022 and 2023, Arreguin was deployed to Germany for a month, where he worked with people coming back from deployments to transition back into civilian life. From September 2023 to March 2024 he was in Washington state and part of a group that escorted ships and submarines in and out of the harbor. 

“I'm currently back in the Guam unit and getting ready to go back at the end of February,” Arreguin said. “I'm at 16 years in the reserves now. I plan on hitting the 20-year mark. I'm hoping to get into another unit that goes to Japan. I've chosen to stay in because it's life experience that I never would have gotten otherwise. If I'd never joined the Navy, I never would have gone to Spain, Japan, Guam or Germany.”

Arreguin’s most memorable experiences in the military have included making friends and his deployment to Japan. When he got to his first ship, he quickly found people with similar interests when he thought he wouldn't. 

“Japan was another unique experience for me,” Arreguin said. “It’s a reason I joined the military. I was able to step foot in a place that I worked 13 years to get to. I had three weeks there and I made every second count when I wasn't working. I got through 70-80 percent of my bucket list out there. I loved walking around and experiencing the culture. I loved doing that in Spain and Germany too. For me, it's been all about the friends I've met and the culture I've experienced.”

Arreguin moved to Rochelle when he was very young and has lived in town ever since. His service taught him to appreciate different parts of the world and how far from home he was. He’s attended Veterans Day events in the community, including the Veterans Day Breakfast at RTHS. He’s been able to meet local veterans young and old. 

“Being a younger veteran and currently active in the reserves at events around town is humbling for me,” Arreguin said. “I've had some difficulties in the military, but in this community I've met veterans who actually fought in the service. I've had a positive roll of the dice for the most part. I've met people that got a more negative roll of the dice and have seen things a lot worse than I have. I've met people that were in the Vietnam War and Desert Storm and World War II. I recently joined the American Legion Post in Rochelle. They're struggling for numbers right now and I'm going to help them with some of their social media. When people think of veterans, they typically think of older people. But when you're around veterans old and young, there's a generational camaraderie there. We all have something in common.”

Arreguin’s service has helped him to pass that value on to his children, including his 16-year-old stepson that is looking at joining the military himself. 

“As a veteran, you can have an interesting influence on the next generation,” Arreguin said. “He's seen me go through so much with the Navy. He’s made the military part of his plan and is trying to navigate it and not make the same mistakes I did. He's learned values and discipline. I feel like what he's going to do will set a foundation for the rest of his life. And I get to help with that.”

Honoring Our American Hero is a series that will print twice a month in the News-Leader. If you know an American Hero you would like to have featured, contact Jeff Helfrich at jhelfrich@rochellenews-leader.com or call 815-561-2151.