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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.

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Mentioned in the is episode:

Going through MEPS in the Air Force - Episode 34

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Kevin Barba

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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.

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.

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Resources:

Women of the Military Mentorship Program

Girl's Guide to Military Service available where books are sold. 

Signed copies of A Girl's Guide to Military Service

Girl's Guide to the Military Series

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

Resources:

Women of the Military Mentorship Program

Girl's Guide to Military Service available where books are sold. 

Signed copies of A Girl's Guide to Military Service

Girl's Guide to the Military Series

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.

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Women of the Military Patreon Site

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Thank you to my Patreon Supporter:

Kevin Barba

Resources:

Women of the Military Mentorship Program

Girl's Guide to Military Service available where books are sold. 

Signed copies of A Girl's Guide to Military Service

Girl's Guide to the Military Series

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

Resources:

Women of the Military Mentorship Program

Girl's Guide to Military Service available where books are sold. 

Signed copies of A Girl's Guide to Military Service

Girl's Guide to the Military Series

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.

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

Resources:

Women of the Military Mentorship Program

Girl's Guide to Military Service available where books are sold. 

Signed copies of A Girl's Guide to Military Service

Girl's Guide to the Military Series

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)

Resources:

Women of the Military Mentorship Program

Girl's Guide to Military Service available where books are sold. 

Signed copies of A Girl's Guide to Military Service

Girl's Guide to the Military Series

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 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)

Resources:

Women of the Military Mentorship Program

Girl's Guide to Military Service available where books are sold. 

Signed copies of A Girl's Guide to Military Service

Girl's Guide to the Military Series

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.

Resources:

Women of the Military Mentorship Program

Girl's Guide to Military Service available where books are sold. 

Signed copies of A Girl's Guide to Military Service

Girl's Guide to the Military Series

#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:

- First two sign ups:

Ginger Miller Women Veteran Interactive

Kevin Barba The Unwavering

Patron supporter shout out:

Kevin Barba

Resources:

Women of the Military Mentorship Program

Girl's Guide to Military Service available where books are sold. 

Signed copies of A Girl's Guide to Military Service

Girl's Guide to the Military Series