Growing up, Col. (ret.) Alvin Bolton saw the “prestige” associated with wearing a military uniform in his community. He wanted to hold that responsibility of “serving [his] country.”
“There’s a lot of reasons I wanted to join the military but just being a young kid and having that understanding of my responsibility, I knew what I wanted some of my adult life to look like,” said Bolton, who was recently named the chief diversity officer of the Nevada Army Guard. “I wanted to be able to have that background so that my kids could say ‘my dad served in the military.’”
Bolton joined the military in 1986 with the intention of only completing one term and then moving to a different career path.
However, his military career spanned over 30 years.
Bolton served as the Nevada Army Guard’s deputy chief of staff of logistics and director of family programs. He was also the battalion commander for the 1/421st Regimental Training Institute in Las Vegas and was deployed internationally in Kuwait as a logistics officer.
“What I bring to the table is an individual that has values and morals,” he said. “My character represents what the right thing looks like. You know, it’s not hard for me as an individual to treat people with respect and have compassion and empathy to individuals. And as a result of that, I think I’ve been very successful in my career.”
Though he reached the level of colonel, Bolton admits it was challenging due to the lack of diversity.
