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Defending her country and its citizens

Melissa Bradley served 15 years in the Navy before working at the Public Defender Office

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Melissa Bradley was in the Navy for 15 years. The experience continued to shape her life long afterward by giving her another chance to serve in the Public Defender Office in Lebanon.
Thanks to her Navy veteran and later military contractor father, Dale Hallett, who served on aircraft carriers like the Kitty Hawk as an Aviation Fire Control Technician during Vietnam, Bradley formed an opinion of the Navy early in life.
Born in Ohio, she and the family were living in upstate New York when she too joined the Navy at age 17 with the consent of her parents.
It was a good match.
"I loved the Navy," Bradley said.
She served from 1993 to 2008. She began on active duty, went to Reserve duty and then returned to active duty because she missed serving full time in the Navy so much.
Bradley was an E-6 as an aviation electrician's mate first class.
"Any system that has a wire to it, we pretty much had to know, anything that makes them fly," Bradley said.

For more on this story see Saturday's LCR.