Women of the Military

This episode is sponsored by Insure the Heroes Inc. Retired Air Force Brigadier General Wilma L. Vaught served in the United States Air Force for over 28 years, retiring in 1985 as one of the most highly decorated women in U.S. history.  Throughout her career, General Vaught forged new paths and pioneered opportunities for the servicewomen who would follow. A Vietnam veteran, she was one of the few military women in that war who were not nurses.  And, when she was promoted to brigadier general in 1980, she was one of a handful of women in the world who had ever achieved that distinction. While her military accomplishments are extraordinary, General Vaught's most lasting contribution will be her successful efforts related to the Women In Military Service For America Memorial where she was the driving force that built and now operates the $22.5 million memorial. For her official military bio, click here. Mentioned in this episode 1948 Integration Act 1967 Women’s service act 2016 Women in Combat change Women In Military Service for America Memorial Registration Gen Wilma Vaught Ceremony at WIMSA Read the full transcript here. Thank you to my Patreon Sponsor Col Level and above Kevin Barba

This episode is sponsored by Insure the Heroes Inc. 10 years ago, this month, I stepped out of a C-130 and onto the flight line at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. I was about to begin my nine-month deployment to Afghanistan, but the truth was my journey to Afghanistan had actually begun four months earlier when I began my combat skills training in Indiana. The training and deployment ended up lasting 361 days. For this episode, I wanted to talk about what I learned during my training, deployment, coming home and by coming home, I don't usually mean immediately coming home, but years. Going to Afghanistan for me had a huge impact on my life. Before I had kids, I could say there was the Amanda before Afghanistan and the Amanda after Afghanistan. Now there is this window between when I got home from Afghanistan. After being home and how those experiences still affected my life, even though I had been home for years and when I had kids, and then my life kind of changed all over again. But definitely my deployment has played a huge role in who I am today and where I am right now. See the full transcript on the blog here. Mentioned in this Episode: Episode 2, Amanda Huffman, AF Civil Engineer – Women of the Military Podcast Letters Home from my Deployment Compassion International Food for the Hungry Help One Now Kiva Changing the Conversation About Mental Health Thank you to my Patreon Sponsor Col Level and above Kevin Barba

This episode is sponsored by Insure the Heroes Inc. Angela served in the United States Air Force from 1998 – 2014. She worked in Satellite Communications for most of her career. During her time in the military, she deployed to Iraq and various other deployments. She also was married to a Marine and they found the struggles of being dual military within different services a challenge. After getting divorced year later she married a fellow Air Force member. They both left with early retirement with the growing stresses of having a family and both serving active duty. After retiring from active duty, she became an attorney in Florida. Read the whole transcript here.  Mentioned in the is episode: Going through MEPS in the Air Force - Episode 34 Thank you to my Patreon Sponsor Col Level and above Kevin Barba

This episode is sponsored by Insure the Heroes Samantha Gassman served eight years in the Air Force as a Special Operations Instructor Navigator (1,600 flight hours, 305 combat). During her time in the Air Force, she deployed to Afghanistan and Africa in support of OPERATION Enduring Freedom. She is the recipient of the Air Force Meritorious Service Medal, AF Special Operations Command Company Grade Officer of the Year Award, Institute of Navigation Superior Achievement Award and the Brigadier General Ross G. Hoyt Award. Currently, she is a Human Resources Operations Manager at a major defense company. Samantha is also a children's book writer and is seeking literary representation. She lives with her active-duty husband, toddler son, and two naughty cats in Wichita Falls, Texas. Samantha learned about the Reserve Officer Training Corps Program when she was flipping through a college magazine. She thought it was interesting and wanted to learn more. When she did she found out she could try out the military for a few years while in college with no commitment and if she liked the ROTC training she could continue and become an officer in the Air Force. It felt like a win-win. She ended up loving the program and ran into one problem. Even though she had spent a good portion of her life in America she wasn’t actually an American citizen. To be an American military officer you must be an American citizen. She became a naturalized citizen while attending college and ROTC and was able to get her citizenship before the end of her sophomore year so she could attend Field Training, which is the summer boot camp for officers who are working to be officers in the US Air Force. While you are attending ROTC you have the option to apply to be a part of the flying community (rated officers). She was interested in flying and decided to apply to be a pilot or navigator. So when she graduated from college she became an officer in the Air Force and headed to San Antonio to learn to be a navigator on a heavy aircraft. It took about two years to complete her training as a navigator before she went off to be a navigator in the operational Air Force. Her next base was in Japan. She was there for three years. She got to travel a lot around Japan on her own personal travel and for what the military calls work trips or Temporary Duty (TDYs). She also deployed to Afghanistan. While deployed there are two navigators. One for navigating the plane to the destination and the second working on the electronic warfare aspect. When she was in Afghanistan it was a pretty dangerous time to be there and they had multiple threats while flying various missions. She also deployed to Africa.  Mentioned in this episode: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/22/world/africa/south-sudan.html You can read the whole interview here. Thank you to my Patreon Supporters! And thanks to Kevin Barba for sponsoring at the Colonel Level! Do you want to support Women of the Military Podcast? Check out how you can here.

This episode is sponsored by Insure the Heroes Jenny served in the Air Force for six years as an Aerospace Propulsion specialist (Maintenance). She decided not to reenlist in early 2019. She is currently working toward her degree and is married to someone still serving in the military and they have one child. She wishes she could say she joined for patriotic reasons. But the truth is she didn’t have money for college and learned that if she served one commitment on active duty, she would qualify for the Post 9/11 GI Bill and would be able to go to school. She was excited about the opportunity to learn a new career field and if it didn’t work out having the option to leave the military behind and pursue her degree. She first worked on B-1 engines at Ellsworth Air Force Base and then was transferred to Nellis Air Force Base where she worked on F-16 engines. She preferred the F-16, mainly because it was a newer aircraft and it was easier to get the parts they needed to maintain the aircraft. She deployed twice in support of the B-1 aircraft. She went to Qatar and Guam. The Maintenance teams deploy with the aircraft they maintain just like the pilots. So, when her team deployed with the aircraft she went too. Her job was fairly similar to home station as it was overseas. Maintaining the engines and making sure to make the flying requirements for her aircraft. But she did face sexual harassment when a Staff Sargent (E-5) made up rumors that she was sleeping with various people. She was deployed with her boyfriend and now husband. When her cross-training window opened she applied to switch out of the Maintenance career field, but faced an unfair evaluation and ended up filing an Inspector General (IG) complaint on bias and racism. She was unable to get support from her leadership and nothing came of her complaint. She was pregnant when all of this happened and she decided to drop her case instead of pursuing alternate methods and she is happy she walked away and let it be. When she wasn’t able to cross-train, she decided to separate when her commitment was up, about six months after her daughter was born. She is currently using her Post 9/11 GI Bill to go to school to be a veterinarian and stays at home with her daughter. Thanks to Kevin Barba for his Patreon Sponsorship

Natalie and I thought it would be fun to do an interview back and forth asking questions from listeners. I enjoyed the mix of questions ranging from personal life, military experience, and podcasting. And if you haven't had a chance to check out The Spouse Angle go check it out now. Mentioned in this episode: Women of the Military Patreon Site Are you thinking of starting a podcast? Get your free 1 week trial with Squadcast to start recording episodes today Squadcast Thank you to my Patreon Supporter: Kevin Barba

Sara McMurrough is a veteran of the Army National Guard and a military spouse. She began her service as an enlisted soldier in the delayed entry program in 1998, while finishing her senior year of high school. While attending Penn State, Sara deployed to Bosnia from 2002 to 2003. She later worked as a Gold Bar Recruiter for Penn State’s Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program, before moving to Arizona for Military Intelligence training, where she met her husband. With 20 years of military service, both as a service member and then as a military spouse, and over 10 years of cleared recruiting experience, Sara enjoys helping veteran job seekers advance their careers, in her current role as an Account Manager at ClearedJobs.Net. A recruiter called Sara at home and she decided to join the National Guard while still attending high school. Two weeks after graduating from high school and with about a year of drilling one weekend a month she headed off to basic training. She was a supply troop but didn’t like it and when given the opportunity to switch to be a signal troop for her deployment to Bosnia she took it and reclassed into her new career field and completed the training needed before leaving. It was interesting to be in Bosnia and have her daily life as being part of the Army and completing her job for the mission. She mentioned being one of few females and not having any major issues, but using opportunities like runs and ruck marches to prove herself. She always did her job and worked hard and that helped her through the deployment. After returning home she looked into ROTC at Penn State and began participating in the program while still drilling on weekends in the National Guard. She commissioned into the Signal Branch because she had been doing that as an enlisted member and quickly discovered it wasn’t a good fit. She was able to get transferred to Military Intelligence and in the nine months between when she commissioned and her training took place she was able to work at Penn State recruiting students into the ROTC program. After ROTC recruitment she went to her Advanced Training for Military Intelligence. Someone joked she might meet her future husband there, but Sara had no plan of that. But she met her husband through a group of friends that started hanging out during training. He noticed her because of her leadership and how smart she was. Thank you to my Patreon Sponsor: Kevin Barba

Ruthie served in the US Army for 8.5 years. She was stationed in California, Kentucky, Georgia, and Texas. She also did a 12-month tour in Afghanistan. she separated from the Army as a Staff Sergeant (E-6) in 2015. After staying at home for several months, she went back to work as a federal contractor in Maryland. When she became pregnant with her fourth child, she decided to start freelance writing on the side. Closer to her delivery date, she decided she wanted to quit my job and grow her business full time. Now, she runs a boutique content marketing agency called Defy The Status Quo. Ruthie was planning to go to college and focus on language, but during her senior year of high school, she decided to take the Armed Service Vocational Aptitude and Battery (ASVAB) test because her school was offering it and she thought why not. She did so well that all the recruiters for all the branches came to her house to try and recruit her. She quickly decided not to join the Navy or Marines because they chop off your hair. She didn’t want to do Air Force because her older brother was already serving in the Air Force and even though she wasn’t serious about joining she consistently talked to the Army recruiter. He told her about a program to learn a language in California. This piqued her interest and brought her to the Army. She went to Army Basic Training and then followed that by going to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. She was there for just over a year followed by six months of technical training in Texas. Then she headed to Arizona for four months before arriving at her first duty station in Kentucky. Six months later she deployed to Afghanistan. She faced a number of struggles while deployed. But she survived and made it back home. Transitioning back to normal life was hard, but she was able to adjust. And although things from her deployment still linger she is doing well today. Next, we talked about the struggle she faced while serving in the military. She was raped twice. The first time it was her boyfriend who didn’t stop when she said no. She got him to confess when she reported it, but the case file was destroyed and he ended up only receiving a Letter of Reprimand in his file. The second time it was after her deployment, the night she got home. She partied with those who had come home and she forgot to lock her door and he came in and raped her. She decided not to report the incident because of how the first case had gone. Years later when a young lady was being sexually harassed, she initially was going to tell her the system didn’t work but realized she could be her champion and was willing to support her with every means she could. Everything worked as it was supposed to and he lost his job and it was nice to see the system actually work. If you have been raped or assaulted or are looking for support in a current situation please email me at airmantomom at gmail dot com so that I can help you find support. I have a huge network of military veterans and service members willing to help women who need support in their military journey. And if you haven’t had a chance to listen to Ruthie’s story on the podcast you can check it out here. Connect with Ruthie: https://defythestatuquo.com Thank you to my patreon sponsor: Kevin Barba

Angela joined the National Guard as a cook and then headed off to basic training the summer between her junior and senior year of high school. She realized after basic training that being a cook wasn’t what she wanted to do. She couldn’t get out of that career field because she had received a bonus on her enlistment. She looked into going active duty, joining the Marines, but nothing panned out. She did get to switch from being a cook to water purification. The National Guard was in charge of primarily all the water purification for the Army so they were required to head to Camp Pendleton in California each year for training. She had been working in that job in the National Guard for about two years when Sadam Husain invaded Kuwait. They were immediately set on high alert with the expectation they would be deploying soon. The North Dakota National Guard had not been called up for a deployment for over 30 years so everyone was surprised, but also ready to meet the needs of the Army. They were mobilized and sent to Fort McCoy in Wisconsin for training and soon after arriving they were sent to Kuwait. One of the first to be deployed to Kuwait for Operation Desert Storm. It was pretty shocking to deploy and to be one of the first to leave was even more unexpected. She said there was a lot of learning as you went and making due with what you had. Luckily, they deployed with their vehicles and were very fortunate to have their trucks. So many other people did not deploy with vehicles. Her unit was small and made up of people who grew up together so she described it like the Brady Bunch going to war. She said there were sibling rivalry and other squabbles, but they were also a tight-knit group. But the six girls were often given the hard jobs that no one wanted to do and none of the guys were willing to help them put up their tent so it caused animosity between the group. While they were acclimating to their new environment their Sargent found them a job to do. They were training people on how to use a Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Unit (ROWPU) which turns salt water or dirty water to drinking water. They left the nasty camp they were at and headed to the Persian Gulf for training. She said it was beautiful. Her job overseas was to distribute out the water. They had to use so much chlorine to treat the water that they found their water sources somewhere else. They were lucky because they were at a base and had another supply point. They were pretty far North and the Iraqis that were near them had been cut off from supplies so they surrendered and they didn’t have to worry about that threat. But they did have to worry about chemical attacks and were constantly in their chemical gear. And one time a chemical plant was attached and after 3 days they told them they could take off their chemical protection gear because it wasn’t too bad. But it doesn’t mean there were no health issues caused by deploying for Operation Desert Storm. Coming home was a difficult transition. Honking horns had meant to get into MOPP gear and that was a daily part of life at home. And it was also so quiet. After being deployed and having constant noise ranging from generators, and other random noises to complete quiet was difficult. She also talked about the lack of reintegration and not having anyone to talk to about her experience. She was one of the first to come home from her deployment. The unit had been picked to be part of a parade to celebrate the end of the war, but their plane got a fuel leak and they had to stop in Maine for repairs and missed the parade. Mentioned in this Episode: Nice Girls Don’t Join the Military Thank you to my Patreon Supporters: Kevin Barba (Colonel)

Nicole Terwey is a Lieutenant and an Intelligence Officer in the Navy Reserves in Nashville, TN. She completed eight and a half years of active duty service in the Electronic Warfare community and earned her master’s degree in Organizational Leadership before building the next chapter of her life as a certified Life Coach, Weight Coach, and Fitness Coach. She decided to join the military because her mom suggests she attend a military academy. She applied and got accepted to the prep school for the Army, Navy and Air Force. She picked the Navy and was happy with her choice. We talked about what prep school was like and how it was different from the four years she spent at the Naval Academy as a cadet. She was going to be a pilot, but when she was in the process of taking the introductory course to be a pilot. She realized it was not a good fit for her. She looked into cross-training into the Intelligence community and was able to switch. Her first two tours were at Whidbey Island and then she was sent to Pearl Harbor. She and her husband met at the Naval Academy and dated long distance for years before getting married and then being stationed together at Pearl Harbor. They enjoyed being together and when it was time for the next assignment, they knew they would end up being separated. Even if one person stayed in there would still be deployments and training causing separation. They decided to leave the Navy behind together so they could start the next phase of their life. The transition out of military life was hard. They missed the community they had while serving. They rediscovered that community and purpose through serving in various veteran organizations in their new hometown of Nashville. This was an important step in the healing process after leaving the military behind. We talked a lot about the importance of mindset and she shared her goal of creating a program that starts in Bootcamp to help to make good choices while in and preparing you when you transition out. She ended the interview by asking women to think about how serving makes you feel. This can be directed to young women looking to join or those who have left the military behind. Use that feeling to drive you in your journey and help it to guide you with each step you take. Want to Support Women of the Military Podcast? Check out my Patreon site where you can directly support me in my mission to share the stories of military women. Thank you to all my Patreons, especially Kevin Barba (Colonel)

What are the top most popular episodes from 2019? Check out my latest episode where I share the five most downloaded episodes of 2019. The stories range from Air Force to Coast Guard and Marines, including a few of my solo episodes. You have to listen to the whole episode to hear what episodes were the most popular in 2019. Thanks to my sponsor Insure the Heroes. Do you need life insurance? Head over to Melissa's website or call her at 1-844-514-LIFE to get a free quote today!  Thank you to my patron Col and General Sponsors: Kevin Barba Want to support Women of the Military? Check out my patron site where you can start supporting Women of the Military Podcast! When I get 100 patron sponsors I will start producing two shows a week.

Here are the five goals for the Women of the Military Podcast I set for 2019: #1 Launch Women of the Military Podcast #2 Share 52 Stories of Military Women #3 Having a wide variety of stories and branches #4 Have a General Officer and a World War II Veteran on the Podcast - Episode 41: 23rd Secretary of the Air Force - Episode 50: Erin Miller, granddaughter of WWII WASP #5 10,000 downloads for Women of the Military Podcast Goals for 2020: #1 52 Episodes (plus a minimum of 4 bonus episodes for Patreon Members) #2 Launch Patreon Sponsorship and have a regular income of $500, click here to become a Women of the Military Patreon sponsor - First two sign ups:  Ginger Miller Women Veteran Interactive Kevin Barba The Unwavering #3 Continue to interview a variety of guest #4 Hit 25,000 downloads before the end of 2020 #5 Bring in $10K in sponsorship for the Podcast Patron supporter shout out: Kevin Barba

This episode was sponsored by Insure the Heroes call Melissa at 1-844-514-LIFE to get a free quote. Maureen Elias served in the US Army from 2001-2006 as a counterintelligence agent. She met and married the love of her life while in advanced individual training and they just celebrated their 18-year anniversary. They have three children. Maureen didn’t have a military influence growing up, her grandfather and step-grandfather both served in the military, but were out before she was ever born. She did have a chance to visit the officer club or shop on base with her grandfathers, that was the extent of military exposure. She graduated high school at seventeen and thought about joining the Navy, but her mom wouldn’t sign the paperwork to allow her to join as a minor. She decided to try out college. It wasn’t the right fit for her. She tried a litany of jobs before deciding to check out the military again. She went back to the military after looking into joining the FBI and finding out that if she served as a counterintelligence agent for 5 years in the military, she could waive her college requirement. She did well enough on the ASVAB so she went to the recruiter and signed up and was gone ten days later. She met and married her husband while at Advanced Individual Training (AIT). They had to convince the Chaplin to marry them and required them to go through premarital counseling before they could get married. They were able to get a join spouse assignment and their first base was in Germany. Being in Germany was hard because she was so close to her family and now was so far away. But she loved her job and had so many great opportunities that she was able to make the most of. And being so far away from family ended up being a good thing because she and her husband had to rely on each other to get through it and it was able to build a strong foundation for their marriage. They also had their two children while living in Germany. They had discussed if she should get out or stay in and they decided that they would be able to balance their career with a baby. Six months of their son’s birth she was pregnant with her second child. It was a lot harder to manage two kids especially being so close together and being stationed overseas. The military was also not as friendly toward mothers as they are today. She was required to pump in the bathroom and once got called into an unannounced meeting and wasn’t allowed to pump for five minutes and ended up dripping out milk on to the floor during the meeting. After Germany, they went to the Defense Language Institute (DLI) in Monterey, CA to learn Korean. The first person they met had just gone through a divorce and told them her goal was that their marriage wouldn’t survive DLI. When it was time to re-enlist Maureen decided to leave the military while her husband continued to serve. They noticed that something wasn’t quite right with their kids and they felt someone needed to get out to stay at home with the kids. They ended up discovering their older two kids had autism and leaving the military made it possible for her to get them they help they needed. We also talked about the importance of speaking up as both a military spouse and a veteran. I recently took a survey focusing on trying to end suicide in the Air Force and felt I needed to speak out on how the survey made me feel. I was published on Military.com, check out the article here. We ended the episode talking about how important finding a mentor is. If you are considering joining the military pick up my free Girls Guide to the Military here and reach out to me if you need someone to help answer your questions about military life.

Rachael and I served on active duty together as Civil Engineers at Wright-Patterson AFB. And I am excited to share her experience. I had a chance to interview her for my deployment series in 2017 which is where the podcast idea started. So, if you want to learn more about her deployments to Manas Transit Center and Honduras. You can check out both of those stories here: http://www.airmantomom.com/2017/10/manas-transit-center/ http://www.airmantomom.com/2017/10/engineering-in-honduras/ She served in the Air Force as a Civil Engineer for 5 years and currently is a professional engineer, floodplain manager, consultant at Cross Timbers Consulting, rancher, beekeeper, racquetball player, wife, hopefully, future mother, born again Christian. She got an opportunity to attend the Air Force Academy when she was noticed for her talent playing soccer. She was able to get a nomination and accepted to attend the Academy and couldn’t pass up the opportunity. She wished she would have taken advantage of more of the opportunities given to cadets who attend the Academy, but she was young and didn’t realize their value until years later. But she did have a number of great opportunities while at the Academy including visiting Guam and Africa. Her first year she struggled academically, with barely at 2.0, but she was able to figure out how to balance her class load, cadet responsibilities, and soccer and graduated with above a 3.0. Her first assignment was at Moody Air Force Base. It had a great mission and there was a lot of work to do. She deployed to Kyrgyzstan to Transit Center Manas which was the gateway to Afghanistan and many troops would beddown there before and after a deployment to Afghanistan. You can learn more about her deployment here. When she got home from her deployment she was already slated to deploy again, this time to Afghanistan. But the opportunity arose for her to go to Honduras on a short tour (more than 179 days, but typically a year) and she took that deployment instead. You can read about that deployment here. When she got home from her deployment she moved to Ohio to work at Air Force Materiel Command Headquarters. It was the first time in her career where she wasn’t moving and actually got to spend time with her husband. He was not serving in the military and moved up to Ohio so they could live together. She didn’t get a deployment tasking for two years and then when she got her deployment tasking to Afghanistan all the feelings of being gone and not having stability came back and that was why she decided to leave the military. She not only left the military but also left her career as a Civil Engineer and decided to go back to what originally drew her into the military, soccer. She became a coach at a college level. She was surprised by how unorganized everything was and came off as abrasive with her get the mission done attitude and it was an adjustment to civilian life. After a few years of coaching, she went back to her Civil Engineering degree and got a job in her field. The pay for coaching wasn’t a lot and it was a lot of hours. And having a Civil Engineering degree to fall back on especially as she hopes to transition to being a mom was the right step for her and her family. Are you considering joining the military? Check out my free guide: A Girl's Guide to Military Life

Katie served in the United States Marine Corps for six years as a Logistics Officer from 2006-2012. She got out as a Captain. Two deployments: Iraq and a MEU (marine expeditionary unit). She left the military in 2012, moved to NYC to attend Columbia Business School. She has worked at a series of early-stage startups since getting her MBA. She started her own consulting company (KMH consulting) in 2018 and she enjoys working for herself. she provides operations, logistics, and supply chain support to early-stage companies. She is also working to build the Veteran Owned Collective, which is a platform and community to connect and empower veteran business owners. She lives in NYC. She found out about ROTC during college and decided to look into the Navy. She had a love for military history and loved that the military would pay for her schooling while she was working to become an officer so it was a great fit. She saw the Marine section of Navy ROTC as an elite group and she wanted to be a part of it so she switched the Marine Corps program at the end of her time at school. When she deployed to Iraq it was her first time leaving the United States. One of the hardest parts of her deployment was that she was very lonely. Being a female and an officer she felt she needed to keep a professional front at all times and it made the deployment experience difficult. She was able to meet up with people throughout the deployment to get through it and have a break, but it was still hard. Her second deployment was with a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) which is a crisis response task force on a Navy ship. So, she was on a Navy ship and was working logistics and was part of the team ready to respond to various crises around the globe. She got to see a lot of the world and her favorite port she visited was Thailand. Before she left for her MEU deployment, she knew she was going to be getting out of the military when she returned home. So, she had applied to graduate school and found out two weeks before she shipped out that she would be attending Columbia in the fall. She was prepared for the transition out of the military, but it was hard to go from an extreme environment of go go go and being on to being a college student. That made the transition really hard. Two great resources we talked about available for veterans and military spouses for free are American Corporate Partners and Veterati. Both companies have mentorships available and connect people with someone who can help push you in the right direction or even find a new job. After graduating she worked for a handful of companies before becoming a consultant for various small businesses. She also is working to grow a group for veteran small business owners to support each other. It is called the Veteran Owned Collective and you can learn more about it here. You can also learn more about Katie at her website: www.katiemhorgan.com This episode was made possible by Insure the Heroes, get a free life insurance quote today by calling Melissa at 844-514-LIFE today!