ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – A New Mexico woman who has served more than a decade in the Navy, recently re-enlisted in the Army National Guard to serve with two people who mean the world to her: her son and her husband.

“I am a staff sergeant in the Army Guard,” Tanya Saavedra says. She joined the Navy when she was 22 years old. “It’s always something that’s been valued in our family,” she says.

“My father served in Vietnam, I’ve had [an] uncle in Iraq, my brother was in desert storm,” Saavedra says. Following in her family’s footsteps, she always knew serving her country is what she wanted to do. And after 14 years in the Navy, “[I] finished that and then continued to serve through the reserves.”

Now, five years after getting out of the Navy, she’s re-enlisting in the Army National Guard. “I’m going to be working as a supply specialist,” says Saavedra. She’s going to serve alongside her husband and her son, who also just enlisted.

“My son just joined the Army Guard. He’s literally been in for six months maybe,” Saavedra says. According to her, the family affair has become somewhat of a joke in her household. “..Like, ‘oh are you going to work with your mom?'”

Saavedra says even if they do go to work together, she tries not to embarrass him too much. “I told him we didn’t have to drive in together, he could drive in on his own,” she says. Saavedra says, even though she can retire in three years, she’ll probably serve for longer.