Military service is the Devens' family business. I Corps Operations Sgt. Maj. Ray Devens has served nearly 29 years. His father, retired Sgt. Maj. Raymond Devens, served 26 years. Big sisters Diane and Barbara are Army civilian employees, and daughters Sloane, 23, and Hailey, 20, are active-duty military, as is nephew Aaron Grubbs, 24.

So what was it that inspired members of the Devens family to serve? Growing up as Army brats? Wanting to follow in their father's footsteps?  A desire for direction or the camaraderie that serving the country can bring? For the Devens kids and grandkids, it's a combination of factors.

The family's connection to the military started with its patriarch, Raymond. The son of Italian immigrants, Raymond joined the Army in 1950 at age 17 "basically because the institution had three meals a day (and gave you) clothes on your back, most of the time a roof over your head and a walloping $60 a month paycheck," he said. In 1955, while stationed at Fort Knox, Ky. as a tanker for the school troops section, Raymond was mentored by NCOs who had served during World War II. It was there that he "found my destiny as a Soldier," he said.

Raymond's career took him to Friedberg, Germany in the late 1950s, where he served in ilitary service is the Devens' family business. I Corps Operations Sgt. Maj. Ray Devens has served nearly 29 years. His father, retired Sgt. Maj. Raymond Devens, served 26 years. Big sisters Diane and Barbara are Army civilian employees, and daughters Sloane, 23, and Hailey, 20, are active-duty military, as is nephew Aaron Grubbs, 24.

So what was it that inspired members of the Devens family to serve? Growing up as Army brats? Wanting to follow in their father's footsteps?  A desire for direction or the camaraderie that serving the country can bring? For the Devens kids and grandkids, it's a combination of factors.

The family's connection to the military started with its patriarch, Raymond. The son of Italian immigrants, Raymond joined the Army in 1950 at age 17 "basically because the institution had three meals a day (and gave you) clothes on your back, most of the time a roof over your head and a walloping $60 a month paycheck," he said. In 1955, while stationed at Fort Knox, Ky. as a tanker for the school troops section, Raymond was mentored by NCOs who had served during World War II. It was there that he "found my destiny as a Soldier," he said.

Raymond's career took him to Friedberg, Germany in the late 1950s, where he served in the 3rd Armor Division alongside American icon Elvis Presley, whom he "found to be a good Soldier and a nice person." From Germany, Raymond moved to Fort Lewis with the 4th Infantry Division. He also served in Vietnam, Fort Riley, Kan., Okinawa, Japan; and the Letterkenny Army Depot, near Chambersburg, Pa., where he would finish out his military career as the Depot Sergeant Major.

"As you follow this trail through my life," Raymond said, "remember that I dragged a very wonderful lady (Philanda) and eight great children all over the world." The couple has been married for 57 years and now lives in Lake Mary, Fla.

Some of those children - and now their children as well - have followed suit and are serving the country.  

Diane, the oldest, began working for the Army at age 18. Her first job, a GS-3, was as a Morale, Welfare and Recreation Specialist at the Letterkenny Arts and Crafts Center. In the 15 years she worked there, Diane was promoted through the GS system, leaving as a GS-13 in 1990. She's now a Senior Executive Service (SES, Tier 2) with 35 years of service and the director of Installation Management Command (IMCOM) Europe in Heidelberg, Germany.

Diane's decision to start working for the military was simple. "As the oldest of eight kids, my inspiration for employment was being able to get out on my own," she said. "My dad was able to point me in the direction of civilian employment with the Army, so he had a big role."  Growing up as an Army brat gave her "‘street cred' over other civilians my age, because I knew the Army in ways they could not know," she said. "That kind of experiential knowledge added up to an edge that my peers, who may have lived in a single community all of their lives, did not have." Later, having the experience of growing up in a military family "gave me good insights as I was working policy changes for family and community programs," she said.

But Raymond gives Diane the credit she's due.  "On her own, with little help from us, she started the trend up life's rope," he said. "I am very proud of that lady for what she has accomplished."

Like Diane, Barbara Devens Dunlap (the fourth of the Devens' eight children) stayed at Letterkenny when their father retired.  Initially, she wanted to join the Air Force, but instead married and started a family. "I always had the goal to work at Letterkenny," she said. "The Soldiers are Letterkenny's customers and I wanted to help my country." She finally started work there in 2004 as a production clerk and is now a GS-9 production controller.

Barbara said she was inspired by her parents to do something she would be proud of. Seeing the respect Soldiers gave her father "makes you work hard toward having people look at you with the same look. At least I've worked hard for it," she said. "Being around military people for some reason always made me stand up straighter."

Ray, the sixth of the Devens clan, joined the Army on a whim after finishing high school in 1982. He lived around the military all of his life, but nonetheless grew up not really knowing what his dad did for a living, primarily seeing the "fun" side of the Army such as organization days and parties.  He and his wife, Karen, a pediatric respiratory therapist at Mary Bridge Children's Hospital in Tacoma, PCSd to JBLM last summer and live in Puyallup.

Ray said as a child he went to Letterkenny nearly every day to take part in something the "military youth group" (today's Child, Youth and School Services) had to offer. "The youth group always brought us together as a family, but more importantly it allowed us all to develop many different friendships with other Army kids," he said. "(It) kept us crazy teenagers busy and out of trouble and it was my first model of ‘camaraderie' outside of sports."

That sense of camaraderie is, in part, what drew Ray to the Army, and he enlisted without telling his parents. "I never figured Ray for the military," his dad said, "and when he told me he enlisted Airborne Ranger I almost fell out of my chair. ... Now our family is blessed with a true warrior that we all love and admire."

Raymond's only advice to Ray when he found out that he was going to be a Ranger? "Start running." And 29 years later, Ray - who was recently selected as the Command Sergeant Major for the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii - is still heeding his father's advice. "My father and mother were great mentors and an inspiration to me and all of us kids in our youth and even to this day," he said.

Ray and Karen's daughters are following in their dad's military footsteps. Sloane, 23, joined the Air Force on her 20th birthday, she said, because  "I wasn't doing anything worthy and honorable with my life." She's currently stationed at Vogelweh, Germany, but deployed in Afghanistan as a military policeman with the Expeditionary Security Force Squadron. "My Dad's moral compass and the way he lived his life did have an influence (on my decision to enlist)," she said.

Her sister Hailey, 20, who left for basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., on Jan. 31, enlisted "because the Army has always been a part of my life and it's where I belong," she said. "My father absolutely inspired me to join the military," said Hailey, who plans to make a career out of the Army as her father and grandfather have. "Growing up, I always wanted to be a Ranger just like him and go get all the bad guys. He's such a good Soldier, he's made me want to go out there and do all the same great things he has."

Karen is pleased that her daughters have followed in their dad's footsteps. "There is no greater career," she said. "It's a fabulous opportunity (and) no college in the world can give them the experience they're going to get."