Miriam Byron enlisted in the Navy in 1990, just after she graduated high school six months early. From 1990 through 1998 Byron was on active duty, until deciding to limit her service to reserve duty.
After the Sept. 11 attacks Byron was recalled to active duty twice and would eventually be part of a task force in charge of detainee operations in Guantamo Bay where she managed the program for the detainee camps, ensuring the safety of the detainees.
On this Veterans Day, Byron, 42, wasn’t wearing her Navy blues. Instead she was outfitted in her blue uniform from the Chula Vista Police Department.
“Being a veteran myself, Veterans Day reminds me to thank and think of those veterans who have given the ultimate sacrifice who aren’t or weren’t able to retire or weren’t able to be home with their families,” she said. “And I take that time to reflect on all those who went before me and all those who are currently serving and will serve,” she said.
After serving 22 years in the Navy, including time in the reserves, Byron retired from the military altogether in 2012.
For the past 18 years she has protected the streets of Chula Vista as a patrol officer and recently was promoted to lieutenant.
Byron, who at one time in her military career was assigned to the military police, didn’t have any trouble adapting to the civilian police world.
“It was basically a natural progression from doing military law enforcement to doing civilian law enforcement,’’ she said.
Hailing from Queens, New York, Byron decided to follow in her father’s footsteps and joined the U.S. Navy at age 17.
She said she joined the military because she “wanted to see the world.” Her Navy stops have taken her to Hawaii, Guam, Singapore, Japan, the Middle East and Hong Kong.
When she entered the Navy she was a signalman in charge of visual communications and detecting Morse Code.
Shortly after, she was stationed at the Pt. Loma Naval Submarine Base which brought her to San Diego.
Then she was assigned to shore duty where she joined the military police for nearly three years at Naval Base San Diego; she eventually decided to apply to multiple agencies in the county including the California Highway Patrol and Harbor Police.
“I kind of left it up to whoever hires me first is where I’m going to go,” she said.
“When I got hired at the police department, I continued my career in the Navy because I really enjoyed being in the Navy (and) my service to my country,” she said.
Byron admits that she never thought she would have a career in law enforcement.
“It wasn’t always my career goal to be a cop or anything like that,” she said.
