A daughter’s decision to enlist creates a beautiful, full circle moment for one Black Hills Family.
Emma Darlow has been here before — waiting at the airport for a homecoming celebration.
Her memories of those airport trips were simple: Dad’s coming home.
Her father, Army Lt. Col. Greg Darlow, 53, has served in the South Dakota National Guard (SDNG) for 36 years. Since 2005, he has worked as a Title 32 Technician and now serves as the Division Chief and Supply Management Officer for the Joint Force Headquarters within the United States Property and Fiscal Office (USPFO) in Rapid City.
The Darlows have gotten used to deployments and returns. But the Darlow homecomings look different now — like a return flight from South Carolina last year, for example. Instead of Greg stepping off the plane, it was 21-year-old Emma, who made the bold decision to follow in her father’s footsteps. Emma, now Army Pvt. 1st Class Darlow, joined the SDNG in December of 2023
and is currently assigned as a 42A (HR
Specialist) at the 109th Regional Support Group (RSG) in Rapid City. “We ambushed her at the airport,” recalled her mother, Jenni. “It was such a full circle moment because she grew up doing that for her dad.”
Time To Serve
Greg and Jenni have been married for 25 years and have Emma, Kayne, 18, and Sophie, 16. They both can easily point out the hardest season of his service time — that first deployment to Iraq in 2004. “I was six months pregnant and we had
three weeks’ notice he was deploying,” said Jenni, now 46. “I had the baby and raised her that first year with the help of my mom. He didn’t get to see her until she was over one year old.”
It was a time before FaceTime. Yet the family was afforded a moment of divine timing. “Communication wasn’t great from there,”
recalled Greg. “You could only do a phone call for 15 minutes at a time.” He received word his wife was in labor and got through on the phone — just in time. “I got to hear her first cry,” he said.
It’s one of Emma’s favorite stories. “I’m sure it wasn’t a pleasant time for them when he was gone,” she said. “But every time I heard that story, it made me so proud. My dad was doing such an honorable thing when I was born.”
The SDNG is a family affair for the Darlows. Jenni has worked as a Title 5 federal employee for 25 years, including the past 14 with the South Dakota National Guard. She’s currently a Staffing Specialist in the Human Resource Office.
Emma’s decision to join the service brought mixed emotions. “From a wife’s perspective, it’s an entirely different feeling when your child enters the military,” she said. “I was always
proud of my husband serving, but it is hard to wrap your mind around your child serving too because I know the dangers.”
She weighs that against what she sees in her grown daughter. “Because I see her passions and I understand the reasons behind why she wanted to join, I could get behind her and support her,” she said.
For Greg, it was unexpected. “I was pleasantly surprised,” he said. “I didn’t know it was on her radar.” Emma set up an appointment with a recruiter before telling her parents — a nod to her independence.
“I do want to be in this for the long haul,” Emma said. “Now that I’ve experienced a few months with the Guard, it’s solidified that it’s a career for me.”
A Family Bond
Greg chose the Guard because of the local missions in addition to the national service. “We support the federal mission when we’re deployed,” he said. “But then we do work in the state — the floods, fires and domestic needs. That’s what drew me to the Guard. I felt pride
in the fact that we were directly helping our local community.”
Early in his career, a severe storm caused a flood and ravaged his hometown of Madison, S.D. The SDNG deployed to the region to help with emergency needs and clean-up efforts. “We moved nursing home residents to a safe place and we really took care of people,” he said.
His service time in the SDNG has shaped his life because it allowed him to put down roots.“I have known some of the people in the guard for more than 30 years,” he said. “I know their families and their kids. There’s relationship and a family bond.”
That mix of personal relationships and professional opportunities kick-started something in Greg. “I
was just a dumb kid from Madison without a lot of
ambition,” he said. “The National Guard has pushed me. I’ve been to eight different countries and earned a master’s degree; I wouldn’t have done that on my own.”
He sees the same drive in Emma. He’s a proud dad, but balances his support with discretion. “I don’t want her to live in my shadow, even though it’s not a big one,” he said. “I’ve been there so long, people will
recognize the last name. I’ll give her suggestions, but I want her to achieve things on her own.”
Emma has fixed her gaze on the future. She’s a full- time student at Black Hills State University, majoring in Human Resource Management and taking ROTC classes at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. “In five years, I want to be an officer,” she said.
Shared Vision
The Darlows understand deeply the sacrifices made and the strain of time apart. Greg said it would have been impossible to maintain his career without the support of Jenni and his kids. “They’ve put up with a lot to help me foster my career,” he said.
Jenni sees the silver lining — particularly in the three independent, capable children they now have. “You learn to rely on yourself and it gave the kids an opportunity to become responsible,” she said. “They’ve proven themselves over and over. His service gave us an opportunity to grow as a family. We united. We’re a very close family because of those experiences.”
Greg said the backbone of keeping their family together during the trials was making sure they were all on the same page. “Communication is huge,” he said. “If Jenni had said 20 years ago that this wasn’t working, I would have quit,” he said. “But she always supported me, even when she didn’t love it and it was hard.”
One of those seasons was during graduate school. “We had three little kids and three dogs,” he said, and he often had to stay at work after hours to complete school work. “She’s doing baths and feeding the kids, but she still always supported me,” he recalled.
Greg intentionally talked to his wife and kids about the “why” behind his work. “If I’m going to be gone, OK, why?” he said. “I have to go to a training school for several months, and it’s for these reasons. Otherwise, they think I’m just gone.”
This intentionality might well be one of the reasons Emma wears a uniform now too. “I always knew Dad was coming back,” she said. “Him being away made our time with him so much more valuable; even just sitting at the dinner table, I’d think, ‘Wow, this is so great.’”
It wasn’t just his duty that shaped her — it was his presence. And now, she’s carrying that legacy forward in her own way.