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The children of two field-grade officers — one Army, one Air — are the 2026 recipients of the AFBA NGAUS Active Life Member Scholarships.
Derek McKinney, the son of Kentucky Army National Guard Lt. Col. Jacob McKinney, and Leigh Rath, the daughter of New Mexico Air National Guard Col. Stephen Wrath, will each receive $5,000 scholarship payable to the college of their choice.
McKinney plans to attend the University of Louisville, while Rath is a rising sophomore at Texas Tech University.
The annual scholarship program is open to NGAUS active- and digital-life members and their family members who are enrolled as full-time college students. This year, there were nearly 190 applicants.
Winners are selected based on the required submission of an up to 300-word essay on a Guard event or experience that helped shape their lives. The association staff assists with the judging.
McKinney wrote about attending a Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America conference in Washington, D.C., with the Kentucky Army National Guard Teen Council.
He said the event allowed him to connect with youth groups from across the country to advocate for military kids.
“We focused on a huge issue that often goes unnoticed,” McKinney wrote. “Specifically, we looked at how military teens face a much higher risk of substance abuse when a parent is deployed.
“When I got back to Kentucky, I decided to take action,” he explained. “I went before the Bardstown City Council and presented our findings. I wanted our local leaders to truly understand the pressure that National Guard families deal with every day.
“I have grown from a student who saw a problem into a leader who can actually get things done,” McKinney concluded.
Rath said her experience with the Guard’s response to wildfires in New Mexico shaped her character and deeply affected her worldview and her views on leadership.
“Their disciplined presence brought immediate order, safety, and reassurance to a frightened town,” she wrote. “Watching them operate on the frontlines of local crises gave me a profound respect for their mission.
“As the daughter of a National Guard member, I grew up with a front-row seat to this standard of selfless service,” Rath added. “My father’s dedication, combined with the Guard’s visible impact on my hometown, fundamentally shaped my character and defined my worldview: leadership is about showing up for people in their darkest hours.”
“This upbringing directly inspired my ambition to attend medical school and become an Emergency Room physician,” she concluded. “In the ER, just like on the frontlines of a disaster, quick decisive action and steady leadership save lives.”
The Armed Forces Benefit Association was established in 1947 in the Pentagon’s basement with the support of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, then-general of the Army, to ease the strain of service on military members and their families.
At the time, life insurance that would pay a death benefit for service members killed in action wasn’t available.
Today, AFBA continues to provide a valuable safety net to those who serve and their families.
It also gives back through organizations like NGAUS. It supports multiple association activities and events. This includes serving as the sole sponsor of the event app for many years at the association’s general conference.
AFBA has also donated more than $50,000 in the form of several large contributions to the National Guard Educational Foundation through its Legion de Lafayette program.
—By John Goheen
