14 | AUGUST 4 • 2022 

ON THE COVER

shows. At 10 years old, I decided 
I wanted to become a detec-
tive. This desire later evolved 
to become a K-9 handler and 
then developed into wanting to 
become a police officer,
” Rachel 
said.
She did become a dog handler 
of sorts. “I didn’t do a party for 
my bat mitzvah because I’m not 
a party girl. I got a dog instead. 
I was like, I’
d much rather have 
a dog that lasts, you know 13-15 
years, than a party that lasts less 
than a day.
” 
Apparently just getting a dog 
wasn’t enough. One of Rachel’s 
mitzvah projects was volunteer-
ing with the Farmington Hills 
Police canine unit. “I helped 
clean up the area reserved for 
training,
” she said, showing a 
willingness early on to accept 
some of the not-so-glamorous 
roles in police work.
Rachel’s burgeoning desire to 
serve would grow during her 
high school years at the Frankel 
Jewish Academy. She was active 
in the Police Explorer program 
in the Sterling Heights Police 
Department until February of 
this year and, since 2020, con-
tinues to serve in the Oakland 
County Sheriff’s Cadet Unit.

YOU’RE IN THE ARMY NOW
Aside from a history of watch-
ing crime shows and devoting 
her spare time to working in 
local police departments, it was 
a trip to the mailbox at the end 
of Rachel’s junior year in high 
school in 2020 that would, at 
least for the near term, take her 
in a slightly different direction. 
“I got a promotional mail-
ing from the Michigan Army 
National Guard,
” she said, “I had 
never heard of them before, but 
after looking them up I thought 
it was the absolute perfect thing 
for me.
” 
There is no wait-and-see with 

Rachel. She was ready to enlist 
immediately, but there was one 
caveat — being just 17 years 
old at the time, she would need 
parental approval to begin the 
process.
“When Rachel said she wanted 
to join early and asked would I 
sign,
” said her father, Adam, “I 
said absolutely.
” And while his 
approval came with a natural 
fatherly reminder of the perils 
she might face, there was no 
hesitation in his approval. “I don’t 
pick out professions, and I don’t 
push, and I don’t nudge, and I 
don’t persuade,
” Adam said. “
All I 
care about is that’s she’s happy.
” 
Rachel’s mother, Leeat, was 
equally supportive, and her 
daughter’s decision was not 
totally unexpected. “She’s known 
what she’s wanted and is very dis-
ciplined in her morals and what 
she wants and sees as the right 
way of living,
” she said. “I have 
to say, this is her life, and this is 
what she wants to do, and I’m 
extremely proud. I always say, my 
peacock feathers are pluming.
”
Even Rachel’s grandmother, 
Beverly Baker, wife of the late 
Morris, wasn’t caught off guard 
by her granddaughter’s decision 
to enlist. “Rachel is so unique, 
so focused and so patriotic that 
I’m never surprised by anything,
” 
Beverly said.

WORTH THE WAIT
The enlistment approval process 
into the Michigan Army National 
Guard began for Rachel when 
she met with a recruiter in June 
2020. A rare, but frustrating 
number of bureaucratic hurdles 
and a couple of health-related 
blips over the next five months 
temporarily slowed her progress, 
but she remained steadfast in her 
desire to see the process through. 
Word finally came on Oct. 
29, 2020. Rachel was leaving the 
Frankel Jewish Academy for the 

continued from page 13

TOP: Pfc. Rachel Baker with her father, Adam, at her Aug. 12, 2021 
basic training graduation at Fort Leonard Wood U.S. Army Installation 
in Missouri. ABOVE: Pfc. Baker with her father, Adam, mother, Leeat, 
and brother Daniel at her basic training graduation.

