Act of kindness sets child on a path to military leadership and community service
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The girl was 9 years old and had to be placed in a different home, away from her family, on Christmas Eve. Without presents or family, she cried herself to sleep.
Christmas morning, she heard a knock on the door. The officer who had escorted her the night before stood smiling, and out from behind his back, revealed a stuffed toy Scottish Terrier. She felt cared for and safe.
"I said you know what, I am gonna be that man," said Tammy Sue Sgro, 55, a recently retired chief petty officer in the Navy. "I wanted to be a protector."
Sgro, of Indianapolis, spent decades fulfilling that promise to herself ― even as obstacle after obstacle seemed to hinder her path ― through a career at the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, the FBI and the Navy, which included two deployments to combat zones.
As of Friday, she's one of 15 new inductees into the Indiana Military Veterans' Hall of Fame, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary. Her fellow inductees, living and dead, represent multiple branches of the military. They include the likes of the late Sen. Richard Lugar, who served in the Navy; Jimmy O'Donnell, the last Indianapolis-native survivor of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis during World War II; and Lisa Wilken, a tireless advocate at the Indiana Statehouse.
There's not one particular accolade or act of valor that gets someone like Sgro nominated and then selected, said Jeanne Lugo, secretary of the hall of fame and a retired army colonel. It should be thought of more as a lifetime of achievement award.
The 2023 Indiana Military Veterans' Hall of Fame inductees are:
Daniel A. Cunningham of Indianapolis
Randall Lloyd Davis of Redkey, Indiana
Charles Ray Eckart of Corydon, Indiana
Virgil Ivan “Gus” Grissom, deceased, originally from Mitchell, Indiana
Timothy Louis Hilton of Lafayette
Richard Green Lugar, deceased, from Indianapolis
Jackie Norman Morrison of Rockport, Indiana
Stanley Otis Nelson, deceased, originally from Indianapolis
James E. “Jimmy” O’Donnell, deceased, originally from Indianapolis
Frederick Harlow Panhorst of Peachtree City, Georgia
Robert Edward Pedigo of Indianapolis
Tammy Sue Sgro of Indianapolis
Harry Bruce Sutton of Brownsburg, Indiana
Robert Philip Whitis Sr, deceased, originally from Indianapolis
Lisa Ann Wilken of Westfield
Tammy's story
Over and over again, Sgro decided not to listen when she was told "no."
On an academic scholarship to community college in Illinois, she knew she wanted her path to include law enforcement or the military. She talked to recruiters from every active-duty branch, and she was told that they weren't taking women who only had GEDs. This was the late 1980s.
So she tried the police route. During this time, many departments had a hiring freeze. While holding down a day job in finance, she was on, by her estimate, up to 17 different departments' hiring lists in the Midwest.
In 1998, a Navy recruiter came to her house to recruit her then-husband. Instead, Sgro was the one who got hooked ― she enlisted in the Reserves in 1999. In 2004, she finally got placed with a police department: IMPD.
She rose to top leadership ranks in the Navy, including a senior enlisted leader post in the Korean Peninsula.
She deployed to Iraq's combat zone during Operation Enduring Freedom and hopped around bases to train personnel.
She went to Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape training at the age of 44 and even became a rescue swimmer.
At one time, she oversaw as many as 20,000 sailors, Mary Aurtrey, chaplain of the Indianapolis American Legion Women's Post 438, wrote in her nomination letter.
"In the military, I know I went in for mushy reasons, but I got to do so many things and I felt I love a challenge … and I wanted to show by example, put myself out there and make true sacrifices, and set a good example after I’m gone," Sgro said.
Sgro also spent a decade on the Indiana state Navy funeral detail, the Navy Color Guard, and numerous mentorship roles for rising leaders in the Navy. She's the founder and director of Alliance of Fierce Military Women, which supports women from the armed forces, past and present.
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Hall of Fame celebrates a decade
This year's 15 inductees will bring the total to 143 who have been inducted since the Hall of Fame was created in 2013. They've been chosen not just for their accomplishments in combat zones, but for their contributions to their communities.
"It’s those veterans that are heroes in our state that have just made a difference, in a lot of different ways, not just combat," Chair Kevin Ryan said.
The Hall of Fame started as simply a website. After raising $360,000, primarily from credit unions in Indiana, the nonprofit opened a memorial building in 2018 next to the Indiana American Legion office, by Fort Harrison State Park. The small building has an interactive kiosk listing all the inductees.
What the nonprofit needs now, Ryan said, is for more people to submit nominations each year. It's free to nominate a veteran; the veteran need only be a Hoosier and have been honorably discharged with no felony convictions. To submit a nomination, go to imvhof.com/nominate and download the instructions.
"We've come a long way from where we started," Ryan said.
Contact IndyStar state government and politics reporter Kayla Dwyer at kdwyer@indystar.com or follow her on Twitter@kayla_dwyer17.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana Military Veterans Hall of Fame lauds community contributions
