b'WILLIAM JAMES COLLEGE 15hink of a veteran. Whom do you see?Revolutionary War, some have even passed as men T Maybe you think of a relative, or a friend,to serve. Until 1973, the US Military was allowed to or someone you have seen in a movie orfill only 2% of positions with women, and they were on the news. Its not likely that the firstlimited to careers as nurses or spies. Since that time, image that comes to mind is of a woman.women have proved indispensable, and as a result, by Im Dr. Jenny DOlympia, associate chair and2016 all combat restrictions were lifted, opening 100% assistant professor in the Counseling and Behavioralof military roles to women. Health Department and director of the Military andDespite this significant progress, most civilians Veterans Psychology and Train Vets to Treat Vetshave no idea of the important roles women play in the programs at 蜜桃tv. My family hasmilitary, and they rely on stereotypes in their vision served in every conflict since the Revolutionary War,of what a woman veteran looks like and in which jobs a tradition I proudly continued for 9 years as a captainthey served in the military. As former women service in the United States Air Force in the intelligencemembers, we are often judged negatively or depicted field. Its my passion to raise awareness about womenas victims, or worse, we are invisible. veterans and the need for them to be recognized forI would like to leave you with a story of bravery.their courage, strength, and leadership.The following is an entry from my diary duringWhen I raised my right hand to join the service, my first deployment in support of Operation I dreamed of traveling to Europe and learning aboutEnduring Freedom.the world in a time of peace. Everything changed on September 11, 2001, while I was at Intel school andJune 12, 2002 the military life I signed up for took a dramatic shift.Wow! That was another 16-hour day. It was scary, I was immersed in the War on Terror from my firsttoo. An Mc-130 Talon went down, and for the first few duty station, which was with the least known andhours we didnt think there would be any survivors. most highly trained special operations unit in theAs heartless as it may sound, it is a casualty of world, the Air Force Special Tactics. Though I hadwar until you know the people on the planes and never heard of them, I quickly became a member the people most impacted by the incident. Their of the team. I traveled to war in support of Operationoffice is 10 feet from ours. I could hear their flight Enduring Freedom three times, two of which were crew cursing the world as they kicked their metal in Afghanistan.trailer and shouted into the sandy monsoon winds. During my final deployment, over the course of It was such an intense wakeup call a ball of fire, 95 nonstop days, I supported over 76 combatsecondary explosions, and radio silence. They came operations, and 35 rescue and recovery missions, up and said aircraft down and that was it. Big ball with maps, charts, and intelligence data so specialof fire and aircraft down. Then, the entire voice tactics operators would be safe from the enemy. comms and chat system came alive as everyone was I was the first woman intelligence officer to deploytrying to find out the status of the crash and no one with my team. They treated me like family, regardlesswas giving any answers. Everyone was afraid to ask of my gender, and I would go to war with them andif there were any survivors. We were all hoping that do it all over again. I was part of an incredible teamsomeone would relay a sign of life from their location contributing to a mission to end terrorism. but not a soul would ask. Two hours of coordination, There are nearly 2 million women veterans,sheer panic, and utter hustle, and we all thought the 10% of the total veteran population, over 345,000worst. Hanging on for dear life because those could of whom deployed into the warzone in the War onhave been one of our people or even us. The plane Terror. Women have participated in every conflictleft us and will never return, taking with it 3 souls and, like Deborah Sampson, a brave soldier in the'