Women of the Military

A Military Leader Gives Back Carol initially enlisted into the Army so she could earn the GI Bill as a way to pay for college. She joined the Women's Army Corps band. She served enlisted for 12 years and then switched to the officer corps. While she was a recruiter for her last assignment as an enlisted member, she wanted to be able to give back in another way. So she became an officer. She began...

Geospatial Intelligence in the Air Force She served four years on active duty in the Air Force as a Geospatial Intelligence Imagery Analyst. She didn’t really know what job she wanted to do when she joined the Air Force, but her ASVAB score allowed her to work in Intel and her recruiter recommended that option. Even though she didn’t particularly enjoy the career field, but she did excel and felt...

She first went to North Dakota and next was transferred to Italy. She got married had her daughter and was divorced while in Italy. As a single mom, she knew that her daughter was depending on her and so she planned to stay in until retirement. At two her daughter was diagnosed with delayed development. This force Ann to make sure they were financially stable and make the right choices to take car...

Crystal served in the Navy from 2002 to 2005. She needed to escape her hometown of Pittsburg and saw the military as her way out. She signed up to serve in the Navy in July 2001 and began preparing for boot camp when she graduated high school a year later. Even with September 11th changing the landscape of the military she continued on her path to serve in the military. Joining the military After...

Phyllis Wilson an Army Unicorn Phyllis Wilson was struggling to pay for college in between two jobs and realized that at the rate she was going she would have her Associate's Degree by the age of twenty-four. This was not the pace she was looking for so she stopped into the recruiter's office and looked into joining the Army. Initially, she had planned to be a military police officer, but her dad...

Resources mentioned in the episode Sarah Maples Coaching: https://www.afterthedd214.com/services/ Linsey Swoboda: Uplifiting Anchor: http://www.upliftinganchor.com The Choosing Brave Podcast: http://www.upliftinganchor.com/2020/05/the-choosing-brave-podcast-from-active-duty-to-diaper-duty-with-amanda-huffman/ InDependent Wellness Summit: https://in-dependent.org/wellness-summit Natalie Gross:  The...

Tiffany served in the Army for 24 years, the first nine years she served on active duty and then transferred to the Reserves. She was mobilized three times in the Reserves. She served as Active Guard Reserves for 2 years as a recruiter. And then for the last six years, she was an Advanced Individual Training Instructor for Reserve and National Guard soldiers re-classifying from their previous Mili...

Andi joined the National Guard, in high school and began going to college after high school, but she became a mom and was struggling to make ends meet working at McDonalds. She and her boyfriend at the time saw the military as an opportunity for a stable paycheck. Because she had completed boot camp and Advanced Individual Training the Army happily took her on active duty. But because she was a si...

Graciela was lucky enough to connect with a few women who had served in the military and helped her transition and find a new career after leaving the military behind. They told her she needed to stop instead of driving forward and building a resume. Learn about what is available and then build a resume around what career you want. The military Transition Assistance Program pushes military members...

Science and Technology in the Military She completed ROTC and gained her degree in Physics. Next, she was assigned to Albuquerque, New Mexico to work in a lab. After that, she went to the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and got to go to the launch sites and learn about rockets. She loved that job and had so much fun. That job was followed by five years at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. She...

Elaine graduated from college and couldn’t find a job, and was living at home and working part-time. The bus stop was by a recruiter’s office and she decided to join the Army. The recruiter dangled a bonus and an early start day for her career and she took it instead of waiting to be a 46B Public Army Broadcast. Instead, she enlisted as a Morse Code Interceptor. Shift work Her first assignment was...

Because she had her degree she was an E-3 and the highest ranking enlisted member. This gave her additional responsibilities during boot camp and she worked hard to get through it. Even facing injuries (mainly shin splints) she would march on crutches at the back of the pack. After graduating from AIT she headed off to jump school. While at jump school she was offered the opportunity to be a Black...

* post contains affiliate links Allie literally made a U-turn as she drove past a recruiting station and walked into the Navy recruiter’s office. She signed up that day and headed out to boot camp 3-months later. No one knew what to expect, but she found boot camp and A-school gave her structure and she was ready for her first day of military life. A First Impression She reported in wearing wedges...

Laura Colbert - Sirens: How to Pee Standing Up What was it like to deploy to Iraq as the war kicked off? Laura was the first wave of the invasion after the Marines. She talked about the whole experience in her book Sirens: How to Pee Standing Up which is based on the journal she kept while deployed overseas. In today's interview, we talked about writing her book and what she learned along the way....

Joining the Military Band Charlan served in the US Air Force as a clarinetist. In her role, she organized, performed, and supported community outreach events as well as internal military events. Her military career began after she completed a Bachelor's and Masters of Music degree. She won a national audition as a civilian and after being selected went to Basic Training. After graduating from Basi...

Jasmin was considering the Naval Academy when she un-expertly found out she was accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to attend. She considered doing ROTC, but her parents encouraged her to keep her options open and helped pay for college since the ROTC scholarship was a desirable reason to sign up. From MIT to the Marine Corps But her des...

Her first assignment was out at sea tour. She was on a smaller vessel so she would be out at sea for one to four weeks depending on the work they were doing. She was the only female on the ship she was assigned to and she found time at sea to be very lonely because she couldn’t spend time with anyone on her ship. She was thankful the rotations were short. After that tour, she was selected to becom...

At her first assignment, September 11th happened. She said the changes to the military were noticeable and she went from the work she was doing to help stand up the Combat Support for the F-16s patrolling the American skies. Next, she helped prepare for the Iraq War and deployed to Saudi Arabia for the initial invasion. She was far enough away to not be in danger but worked long hours seven days a...

Who is Mission First Capital? Mission First Capital is a real estate investment opportunity with a 100% veteran-owned company. In today's interview with Alex Breshears, investor relations, shares a little about why Mission First Capital was created and who it is for. The owners Phil Capron and Anthony Pinto both started investing in real estate and were able to see great returns. They wanted to ma...

September 11th was a life-changing day for Danique, she went from a life without purpose to want to be a police officer. Through this decision, she ended up becoming a police officer (Master of Arms) in the Navy. She enlisted into the Navy in 2002 and went to Basic Training followed by her technical school. Her first unit was very toxic. In both leadership and the culture toward women. Suffering a...

This episode is sponsored by Freedom Sister Magazine ! Kerri found herself as a mom of three about to be a single mom with an opportunity to join the military. She decided to take the opportunity to join and began her military career. She served on active duty within the Missouri National Guard. Within six years of being in the National Guard she went from Enlisted to Officer. When her unit was de...

Because of the demand for the podcast, I have decided to switch from a weekly episode to two episodes a week. This will give me the ability to share more stories along with doing specialized episodes to help highlight military women's issues and history. I'm excited about what is to come. Number 10: Episode 105: Deputy Director of the Air National Guard From planning to serve four years to Deputy...

This episode is made possible by Freedom Sisters Magazine .  Freedom Sister Magazine is a premier digital magazine app designed to share the stories of women veterans. It launches in January of 2021. Learn more here. Rachael Jackson is a graduate of the United States Military Academy, a former Army Captain, and an Apache helicopter pilot. She holds a degree in Engineering Physics with a minor in N...

Maj Gen Dawne Deskins was planning to be a broadcast journalist as she prepared for college, but her parents didn’t have a way to pay for college. Her dad decided to fix the problem of getting college paid for by signing her up for the Reserve Officer Training Corps Program (ROTC). So, she was quite surprised when a Captain called her and told her about reporting to ROTC. She then called her dad a...

This episode is made possible by Freedom Sisters Magazine .  Freedom Sister Magazine is a premier digital magazine app designed to share the stories of women veterans. It launched in January of 2021. Learn more here. She joined the Defense Information School faculty in 2019 as a government civilian after four years as bureau chief for the Defense Media Activity in Guam, supervising day-to-day oper...