LANSING, Mich. –
Army 2nd Lt. Anvar Akhmedov, a platoon leader with the Michigan National Guard’s 1463rd Transportation Company, briefs a Soldier after the company’s convoy returned to Fort Custer, Augusta, Michigan, from driving across the Midwest transporting ammunition as part of Operation Patriot Press, May 18, 2021.
Akhmedov, a Meskhetian Turk who was allowed to seek refuge in the U.S. when he was young, is now the president of a small trucking company and is married to another Meskhetian Turk who is in her third year of dental school. Throughout his time in high school, he wanted to join the military, but the time was not right. Three years ago that changed.
On joining the Michigan National Guard, he said, “I felt a sense of duty to pay back to and defend this nation and to do my part, because none of what I have would have been possible if the U.S. hadn’t accepted us.”