She was only 5 years old when military lingo became a way of speaking in Michelle Schwieterman’s home.

Her oldest brother enrolled in the U.S. Military Academy at West Point when she was young. Several of her older sisters went into the Air Force, another into the Navy, and another older brother and a younger brother joined the Army.

Seven of her eight siblings ended up in the armed forces. So even though she didn’t grow up consciously thinking of following the same career path, it was no surprise when Schwieterman joined the Army before graduating from high school in Celina, Ohio.

The Roanoke resident served her country as an intelligence analyst based in Germany during the first Persian Gulf war, and tonight she’ll be one of two veterans saluted at the Roanoke Patriotic Pops Concert on Main Street. Gates open for general admission at 6 p.m. with music and food, and the concert starts at 8 p.m.

“It’s all I ever knew,” Schwieterman said of military talk and life. “When people said things like ID (Infantry Division) or MI (Military Intelligence), I knew what they meant. I grew up with that.”

Her oldest brother may have been the first of the family to join the military and lead the other siblings down that road, but Schwieterman said it was the ideals her father instilled in all of his children that attracted them to the armed forces.

“My father raised us so that community, country and family were the three cornerstones of our lives,” Schwieterman said of her deceased father, Thomas Schwartz, who served two terms on the Fremont, Ohio, City Council and was Celina’s director of service and public safety for more than 19 years.

The opportunity to see the world was also a reason for her enlistment, Schwieterman said. She saw what her siblings were doing, where they were going and whom they were meeting, coming home with stories to share, and she wanted a part of that.

Seeing the world was on her mind when graduation from Military Intelligence school loomed, but then the gulf war broke out. She briefed commanders on various documents that came through her department throughout the war.

After her military career, she worked at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Fayetteville, N.C. Later, she married a doctor, moved to Roanoke and followed in her father’s footsteps by serving on the Roanoke Town Council.

Two of her brothers are not done with their military careers, with one overseas helping the Army in Afghanistan and another set to deploy soon.

Her youngest, 1st Sgt. Jim Schwartz of the 75th Ranger Regiment, has served four of the last seven years in war zones and is preparing to go to Afghanistan within the next six months. He’s received the Bronze Star twice.

Thomas Schwartz, her oldest brother – who is named after their father – left for Afghanistan June 29. A retired lieutenant colonel, Schwartz is going overseas as a civilian to assist searching for improvised explosive devices.

Schwieterman was in Dallas when her brother left, leaving behind his wife and children.

She said the experience brought back memories of how hard deployment can be for families. She talked of how difficult it is for loved ones to go days, weeks or months without a telephone call or letter, and how taxing it can be to not know what their soldier is doing in hostile territory.

And it’s those family members, along with 101-year-old veteran Ralph Hines, who served in World War II, who will also be honored at the concert Friday night.

“He feels he needs to do this because so few can do the job, so there is a feeling of honor and pride in him going,” Schwieterman said of her oldest brother’s departure. “But when you look at his wife and kids, it’s hard. For a lot of families of soldiers, there’s a constant getting ready for deployment, and it’s very difficult.”

jeffwiehe@jg.net