McPhail deployed to Iraq in 2006
- Staff Sergeant Laura McPhail works as Director of Public Relations for Huntsville-Madison County Public Library. CONTRIBUTED
MADISON – Staff Sergeant Laura McPhail worked as an air traffic controller, both radar and tower qualified, and as radar watch supervisor in the U.S. Air Force.
McPhail entered active duty in the Air Force in March 2003 and left the military in 2010.
She completed Basic Military Training (BMT) at Lackland Air Force Base (AFB) in San Antonio, Texas. In 2004, McPhail reported to Air Traffic Control tech school at Keesler AFB in Biloxi, Miss. and to Altus AFB in Altus, Okla.
McPhail deployed to Balad Air Base in Iraq in 2006. She then served at Columbus AFB in Columbus, Miss.
“I moved to Madison when I was nine years old when my dad left the Air Force,” she said. “We moved from League City, Texas into a rental house on Rainbow Mountain before buying a house in Fieldcrest off Sullivan Street. I graduated from Bob Jones High School in 1997 and consider Madison my hometown.”
McPhail earned a bachelor’s degree in communication at Mississippi State University and a master’s degree in public relations from Immaculata University. She works as Director of Public Relations for Huntsville-Madison County Public Library.
Her parents are Rick and Susan McPhail. “Dad, who was a Captain in the Air Force, is Atlanta Right-of-Way Market Lead for Bechtel Corporation. Mom is a published author of sci-fi/fantasy fiction,” Laura said.
Her brother Tim McPhail, also a Bob Jones graduate, is a veteran of Army National Guard as Assistant Operations Sergeant in Headquarters 1/67th Infantry. Now in Pelham, Tim works as a field operations technician with American Tower. Tim and his wife have three sons.
Laura is a member of Public Relations Society of America and North Alabama chapter of Public Relations Council of Alabama.
“I love to read and write and enjoy music and photography. I’m very interested in our natural world, learning more about the creatures that also call our planet home and how to protect the environment we all depend upon,” Laura said.
“I also have a love for languages and cultures … it’s interesting to see the small things that make us different but the basic things that make us so much alike across the globe,” she said.
