Rachael Riley is the military reporter at The Fayetteville Observer. A native of Texas and an alumna of Texas Christian University, she started covering municipal and general assignment beats at papers around Texas, before moving to North Carolina in 2016. Spending more than a decade combing through city and county budgets, she decided to start looking at the Department of Defense and telling the stories of veterans, soldiers and military families. She’s been with The Fayetteville Observer since July 2018. In her spare time, she's either thrifting, planning her next road trip or trying to avoid bears in the Carolina mountains.