By MAGGIE MCMURRAY
Moapa Valley Progress
Have you ever wanted to travel the world and live in different places? Well that dream is coming true for one local Moapa Valley High School graduate.
MVHS alumnus Cody Tolbert is currently stationed at Kunsan Air Force Base in Korea where he serves as a security specialist for the United States Air Force. Tolbert holds the rank of Airman 2nd class and is a proud member of USAF Security Forces.
Kunsan is located in the town of Gunsan, South Korea, which is on the west coast of the peninsula and borders the Yellow Sea. It is one of two major Air Force bases that the United States operates in South Korea.
Airman Tolbert’s parents, Overton residents Paula and Lon White, moved to Moapa valley in 2010. Tolbert joined them a couple years later as a high school student. He attended MVHS, where he played football and threw the discus and shotput on the track team.
After graduation as a proud member of the class of 2013, Tolbert briefly worked at what was then Wally’s gas station before deciding to join the Air Force as a security specialist.
Tolbert has a thirst for adventure. He is an avid outdoorsman who loves to hunt and hike. He has always wanted to be doing or seeing something new.
Prior to moving to Korea, Airman Tolbert was stationed at Minot Air Force Base near the city of Minot, North Dakota, after attending boot camp at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. He served in Minot for a year and a half before deciding he was ready to see the world and was transferred to Kunsan Air Force base in South Korea in February of 2016.
So far, he has really enjoyed the area and has loved trying new food, visiting the place where the Olympics were held, and trying anything and everything new. Because he is actually stationed in Korea, instead of being deployed, he is able to keep in touch with his family fairly regularly and writes or texts them several times a week, which makes the distance seem less to both him and his family.
“Of course I miss him a lot, but I’m very proud of the decision he made to serve our country, said Paula White, Tolbert’s mother. “I feel everyone should serve their community in some way or another, and this is the way he’s chosen to go. He’s a good kid with his head on straight and I know he will be able to accomplish a lot of good things.”
Korea is not the last stop for Tolbert. He will finish his tour at Kunsan Air Force base in about a year and has already signed on to continue on in the Air Force. He will move to serve in Spain for the next year and half after that.
Editor’s Note: It is hoped that this is the first story in a series profiling Moapa Valley youth who have gone out into the world to serve their country, or their fellow men. Those with suggestions of young people who could be profiled in future stories like this, please contact the PROGRESS by email at editor@mvprogress.com.
