SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - Air Force Staff Sgt. Katie McGuire, of the South Dakota National Guard's 114th Fighter Wing, was selected as the only National Guard member from a nationwide search to join Tops in Blue for their 2012 tour.
McGuire, a music teacher and a South Dakota Air National Guard Emergency Management specialist, will be joined by 34 active duty Airmen also selected for this year-long musical tour.
Tops in Blue are a touring performance ensemble consisting of vocalists, dancers, musicians and technicians and are considered the Air Force's premiere expeditionary entertainment unit.
After an extensive ten days of nerve racking tryouts in Jan. - competing against 89 other finalists at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas - McGuire learned she had been chosen to be a part of the traveling team.
"I never thought my Air National Guard career would ever take me anywhere like this," she said. "This will be a great experience. I'm looking forward to this trip around the world doing music."
Each year an entirely new group of 35 members are selected. The team will have four months of staging at Lackland Air Force Base before embarking on an Asian and European tour in June where they will visit over 32 countries in 9 months.
In addition to getting to know each other, they will build their show, learn the songs and construct the set. The set-up for each show is an exhausting four hours and all team members assist with it.
"I'm looking forward to getting to see the world and being in places I've never been before," McGuire said. "Playing in front of all the troops overseas in the desert will be a highlight."
McGuire said she was first introduced to Tops in Blue on her graduation day from basic training.
Her own musical career actually started in third grade when she learned to play an accordion and the piano. She credits her love of teaching and music to the time she spent substituting for her junior high pep band teacher while she was still in high school.
"I had no intentions of going into music. I just wanted to do it for fun but I had such a great time doing pep band with middle school kids, I thought that's my calling and changed my major to Music Education at South Dakota State University," McGuire said. "I have been teaching now for four years and I love it."
She is a nine year member of the South Dakota Air National Guard and has only six short weeks to get her affairs in order before she embarks on her adventure. She credits her parents for supporting and helping her in this transition. The school she teaches at will miss their kindergarten to 12th grade music teacher but know the experiences she'll come home with will last her a lifetime.