Military experience provides opportunity, good discipline for Nygaard couple

Dr. David and Vicki Nygaard at Nygaard Chiropractic Office met and married while in the U.S. Air Force at Ellsworth AFB in Rapid City, South Dakota.

“The military gave me an opportunity,” said Vicki. “And it gave me discipline,” added Dave.

Reflecting on the life lessons that were instilled or reinforced during their four-year stints of military service, the Nygaards cited the lesson of responsibility and much more.

Not only have those lessons been incorporated in their work lives but also in Dave’s service on Holyoke City Council.

Both were only 17 years old when they entered the service — Vicki in August of 1977 and Dave in May of 1978.

Vicki said she was raised by a very strict family in the South, in a town of about 500 in Tennessee, and the military provided an opportunity, as she didn’t have finances for college at that time.

Due to her strict upbringing, she said the transition to the military was easy for her in that regard. She also had a good work ethic growing up, and that was reinforced.

Her time in the military taught her about the chain of command and responsibility. Job performance reviews were conducted, and she strived to do her best.

“You started at the bottom and worked your way up,” Vicki explained.

Humble about her successful progression, Dave pointed out that they both started as airman basic, then advanced to airman, airman first class, senior airman and sergeant.

Dave was born in Minnesota and raised in Iowa in a town very close to the same size as Holyoke. When he was a junior in high school, his older brother was murdered in Lakewood, and his decision to enter the military was more or less an escape from the chaos at home.

He realized early in his four-year commitment that he really wanted to go to college. Acknowledging the discipline that he learned, he saved all his leave in order to get out three months early. He worked 12-hour night shifts so he could take college classes while in the service, accumulating two years’ worth of college credit.

Through discipline given while in the military, Dave said he learned early on that there wasn’t room for “I don’t feel good today.”

Taking responsibility involves learning that it’s not all about you, said Dave. “The world doesn’t revolve around you.”

“We were both sheltered,” said Dave about their upbringing. Vicki admits she didn’t even know where South Dakota was when she was looking to start her military service.

“I hadn’t even seen a black person,” Dave added. “A big black guy from Queens took me under his wing. I think he saw how naive I was.”

One of the big takeaways from their service stint — leading to owning a business — was the introduction to diversity among people. “We were taught to get along with people of different backgrounds, different ethnicities,” Vicki said. They learned that people may not see things the same way, but they still deserve respect for their opinion.

“In the military, we didn’t feel any racism. We looked at the person — not the color of skin,” Dave added.

Vicki’s family owned a sawmill in Tennessee, and she and her siblings handled regular Friday cleanup at the sawmill and worked big fields of food crops by hand. Black people were employed in the business, as well.

She vividly recalls paydays when black people could come up to her family’s yard but couldn’t step foot on the porch to collect the wages they had earned.

That bothered Vicki at the time, and she was appreciative that she didn’t feel that racism in the military.

Starting while in the military and continuing today, the Nygaards were and are friends with blacks, Hispanics, Filipinos — it matters not. In a time well before gays were accepted and when they could get thrown out of the service, a couple came out to the Nygaards — in secrecy — knowing that they would be accepted by Dave and Vicki.

That genuine care for all people definitely makes a difference in their business.

As both were in the hospital military squadron, the Nygaards said it was much more lax in the hospital setting as those in charge were nurses and doctors first — not military officers.

Vicki administered the personnel reliability program, which monitored narcotic usage and determined when staff had to be pulled off duty until they were emotionally stable enough to be around nuclear weapons.

Her administrative abilities and experience gained in the personnel office led to job opportunities in civilian life and made a difference in owning a business.

Dave quickly proved himself and worked his way up from clerk on ward 2B to emergency room medic. At the age of 18, he said he was sewing people up.

The Nygaards recall an incident shortly after they left the military when that training paid off. They were unloading their van in a move to Iowa, and Vicki rose up and cut her head open. Dave tied strands of her hair together to stitch the wound. “It saved us an ER visit,” he said with a laugh.

But clearly Dave recognized his abilities in the medical field. It was while he was studying pre-med that his medical direction routed to chiropractic care.

Dave admits he doesn’t like taking orders (except from Vicki!), and that was hard to do in the military. “It’s tough to take orders from difficult people,” he said. But it was a lesson learned.

“I still outrank him in the office today,” said Vicki with a wink, adding that the patients know the truth.

Dave cited his military training as helpful when he served on Holyoke City Council and as mayor. He recognized that training while planning a goal and trying to see it through.

Getting a better overall picture and then honing in on details is his approach. “I got that from the military,” he said.

Military service is a good experience. “It teaches you to grow up and not be coddled,” Dave said.

Because of opportunities provided, responsibility taught and life lessons promoted, military service for the Nygaards offered a great lead-in to their professional lives as business owners and members of the community workforce.

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