Former Tiger hockey player Eric Quehl has seen a a lot of the world since graduating from FHS in 1990. Shortly after graduation he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve and then after completing a Bachelor's Degree at the University of St. Thomas in 1994 was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the active duty Marines Corps.
Since then he has been stationed in California, Virginia, North Carolina and Japan and has served three combat tours in Iraq and another in Afghanistan for which he was awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Meritorious Service Medal and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with Distinguishing Device.
In between, he also managed to earn a Master's Degree in Military Studies from the Command and Staff College. Quehl is currently the commanding officer of the Second Combat Engineering Battalion at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
In an example of how small the world can be sometimes, Quehl will be attending training at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in Washington, D.C this summer with FHS classmate and fellow ex-Tiger Tim Sejba, a lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force currently stationed in New Mexico.
Lt. Col. Tim Sejba, US Air Force
"Tim and I used to talk about joining the military when we were in high school," Quehl said, "so it is pretty cool that we are both attending the same service college the same year."
Quehl reports that older brother Jon Quehl and younger brother Jason Quehl also served in the Marine Corps. His sister Becky Quehl, a multi-sport athlete for the Tigers in her high school days, is a police officer for the City of Minneapolis.
SSgt Kyle Malin, US Army
Kyle Malin of the FHS class of 2002 continues to rehabilitate at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. Malin lost parts of both legs after an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated near him while on patrol with the United States Army in Afghanistan in 2010.
Malin who served three combat tours in Iraq before being deployed to Afghanistan, has been fitted with prostheses for both legs and has recently started using what his father, Tiger assistant football and tennis coach Jon Malin, called "computerized knees."
Kyle, who has begun playing competitive sled hockey as part of his rehabilitation, will be discharged from the Army later this year and will take up residence in New Braunfels, Texas, a city located just north of San Antonio.
