You can also read it below. It was an amazing experience. I will blog soon about the other Award winners and amazing Women Veterans I met last week.
I was a U.S. Army
Nurse Corps officer and trauma nurse. I loved and valued the times I was able
to care for seriously wounded soldiers, and remember vividly the lives my team
and I saved in Afghanistan. I also conducted presence patrols in and around the
city of Ghazni, Afghanistan. Situated on a plateau in the central region of
Afghanistan, Ghazni has a population of about 140,000 people and a long history
of military invasions.
On one patrol, I was
the figure of intrigue. A small tribe of local school girls approached me and
giggled as I patrolled the area. Their eyes ranged in color from deep blue to
light green and seemed large, hidden behind their head scarfs. They were fascinated
by my appearance. I was female. My brown hair was tucked and braided under my
kevlar helmet. I wore boots and had two weapons. Although I was able to smile
at them briefly, I knew that my job was to help my fellow soldiers and scan for
potential threats while patrolling the province.
With the interpreter
at my side, the girls followed us for hours asking questions such as what my
patch meant, had I gone to school, for how long, was I married, did I have
children? I was probably an odd spectacle in their life. Yet I hoped with every
answer I gave, that they too would be encouraged to go to college, become women
leaders, and maybe even be nurses.
When I left the Army
and transitioned to my new life as a veteran, I took those experiences and
promised myself that I would continue to pursue my personal tradition of
service in my community. I became a board member, then vice chair, of Cuidando
los Ninos (CLNKids.org). CLNkids is a non-profit dedicated to address the needs
of homeless families and ending childhood homelessness in Albuquerque, New
Mexico. I work with legislators and local community members to educate them on
homelessness and its far reaching effects in the community to include health
and educational disparities, the rise of violence and PTSD, and how to work
together as a community to end homelessness.
In addition, I am
currently the vice executive director of the national organization American
Women Veterans. The core mission of American Women Veterans is advocacy on
behalf of military women, veterans and their families. Through speaking
engagements and interviews with various groups, I explain the role of military
women, as well as advocating for veteran issues such as PTSD and women in
combat on a national and state level.
I enjoy the
mentorship that comes with working with this organization. Through this
advocacy work, I am able to connect with other service women, including amazing
women like Genevieve Chase, our executive director. Genevieve is full of
thoughtful ideas, challenges, and goals, such as how to build our board of
directors or how to become more involved with advocacy at various leadership
conferences around the nation. These suggestions sometimes overwhelm me and at
other times inspire me to accomplish more, such as when I helped with the New
York City Veterans Day parade.
In November of 2012,
I helped coordinate American Women Veterans participation in the New York City
Veterans Day parade. I gathered over twenty women veterans from various cities
across the country. Throughout the day we marched, passed out fliers, stickers,
and mementos, and were greeted along the streets of New York by other women
veterans lost in the crowd of smiling faces, searching for a glimpse of
recognition that they too served in the military side-by-side with our brothers
at arms.
Often women veterans
go unrecognized in the general public. While male veterans often wear hats
proclaiming their service, women have no badge or insignia to signify their
service, but instead work to find a balance between career and home life, while
finding a new identity as a veteran and civilian. At times their transition can
be lonely.
Most women are not
recognized as serving in the military, let alone serving in combat. This can
also cause delays in treatment when going to the Veterans Administration. I
once experienced the frustration of overhearing an older male at the VA
hospital while waiting for a dental exam. He said, “look at this young girl,
probably here for her free teeth cleaning after doing her four years.” I was
angry initially: who was this man to judge me? I am a veteran just like him,
having served in multiple deployments. Why judge my book by my cover?
During the Veterans
Day Parade, I was able to chat with Vickie, a fellow American Women Veterans
member and United States Navy Veteran. Vickie is very involved in her community
and is one of the first women I ever met at American Women Veterans. Whenever I
see her, she calls me “little one,” like an older sister would. She continues
to volunteer in and around NYC and at the VA in Bay Bridge. She works in
counseling and understands, as I do, the challenges women veterans encounter.
She wears a US NAVY ball cap to events we attend together and I can tell that,
in her own way, she tells the world “I am a veteran.” She continues to remind
me why I work so hard to advocate for change.
If Genevieve,
Vickie, and I do not speak out for women veterans, I sometimes wonder who will.
They, as well as other mentors in my life, serve as my personal motivation to
keep working and striving, and to be that voice and advocate for change. All in
a day’s work for this veteran.
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