PEMBROKE, N.C., May 9 -- The University of North Carolina at Pembroke issued the following news release:
Nearly three decades after beginning her college journey, Melanie Locklear Duckstein
returned to UNC Pembroke on Saturday to finish what she started.
Duckstein, who has family roots in Robeson County, first enrolled at then-Pembroke
State University in 1995 before leaving to serve in the U.S. Army. Over a 24-year
career, she deployed around the world before a military-related accident in 2019 at
Fort Drum, New York, resulted in a traumatic brain injury that ended her military
path.
"Everything I loved and everything that defined who I was -- was taken away in a moment's
notice," Duckstein said, holding back tears.
Returning to UNCP a...