You are listening to the women of the military podcast where we share the stories of female service members and have a military touch their lives. I'm your host military veteran military spouse and Mom Amanda Huffman. My goal is to find the heart of the story and uncover issues women face while serving in the military. If you want to be encouraged by the stories of military women and be inspired to change the world keep tuned for this latest episode of women of them. military Do you want more stories of military women veterans? I just launched a book sharing 28 stories of military women. It includes stories ranging from women in the process of joining the military to women who have served and retired stories from the Army Air Force Marines and navy but don't take my word for it here what Natalie said about the book. This is a fabulous collection of inspirational stories of endurance struggles and women forging their own Futures. They diversity of their background and experience is fascinating. But the broad range of military careers is astounding and sets to Heart how integral women are in the military. This is a must read for anyone considering a career with the Armed Forces or struggling to figure out their future career The Challenge and adjustments. These women have made to create the life best suited for them is the type of motivational encouragement that can help others be confident in reaching their dreams. Check it out on my website Airmen to Mom.com or on On my guest today is Carrie car one. She was an officer in the Coast Guard and I'm really excited to hear more about her story. So welcome to the show. Thank you. My first question is why did you decide to join the military? My father sister and brother all went to West Point. That's the Army's Military Academy and it was kind of expected that I would follow some kind of suit, but I preferred the Coast Guard missions and I wanted to feel like I was directly impacting the public that I was serving which is the Coast Guard doesn't a daily basis. So that's why I chose them. I like their mission. So you decided to go to the Coast Guard Academy instead of West Point correct is the process the same you have to get the nomination and all the other steps. I don't know guard doesn't require a congressional nomination. It's only on your own Merit. It's actually harder to get in. I think the Coast Guard there's like 5,000 people applying the way to take 200 and something so it's like one out of 18. Whereas the West. Point 10,000 people apply and I'll take a thousand so one out of ten get in. So it's harder to get into the Coast Guard. So what do they base it on your grades or what is the information they collect to weld been over 25 years, but they just look at you. Well rounded individual community service academics Athletics figure out in some crazy way if they think you'll be a good fit or not. What was your time like at the Academy? That's going to take more than 40 minutes to talk about and I'm sure there's other things. We'd rather discuss in my in my situation. I went for Marine Science degree a bachelor's degree and I never used the degree. I thought I was going to be doing something different and I got a degree in something that I've never used. It was like a biochem track of the Marine Science field. I wish I'd have known that because I've been wasting my time doing it in school for four years for anybody no matter what school you go to. I feel like college is kind of where they test to see if He's gonna learn and it's not really how you're gonna actually do your job, right? So, can you give me an overview of your military experience after you graduated it was complicated by class had I think 42 graduating Engineers, but there was 60 billets for engineers on ships. So they went to the what they consider resemble next technical major, which is mine and pick the last 20 of us to be Engineers. So I had no engineering background knowledge education and I went engineering On the Coast Guard Cutter change for two years and was an engineer watched and ER I got qualified and I did everything I needed to do which is a lot of work and a little overwhelming at times because it wasn't my I wanted to engineering degree or what. I got it while it's cool and I didn't but then because I got fully qualified on my ship when it came time to transfer. I got sent to another engineering Billet for another three years. So my first five years after graduating I did engineering work. I work on a ship and then I worked at a shipyard fixing boats. What do you do as an engineer on a ship? They're just have the entire plants that all the electronics auxiliary engines everything that keeps his ship running and afloat. That's our job to maintenance and do rounds on and know how it systems work and repair if necessary and feeling the ship and yeah, so a lot of work a lot of different things. Yeah, it was it was good. I mean I enjoyed I enjoyed learning but it was a lot of work. So after your first 5 years then did you switch career fields or I wouldn't say I switch career Fields. They just determined that my engineering track that they had me down for two tours now wasn't going to result in me getting up too high because I don't have the academic background in the engineering field, which was a kind of a must need if you go up higher in rank, so They released me out of the engineering field into the Marine science science safety field. They change the herbology of what they call stuff. We've postcards gone through a couple different changes. Yeah. I ended up showing up at the sector. Well, it was a marine safety office houston-galveston and it was in the process of secularization. So we were changing how we do business and I did two years facility security implementing the MTS a Regulations for this is after September 11th. And then I did a year of pollution response and then a year of vessel inspecting and I also stood command you to watch during that time frame. So I had warm a lot of different hats and got to try a lot of different things and got my Marine safety pin at the end of it and I liked it. I like the variety to the Coast Guard has but it makes it very hard to get really good at something when you're constantly changing it out. Yeah, that would make it hard. What did you do after that my went from the sector houston-galveston to work life supervisor District 5 which was in Portsmouth, Virginia Chesapeake, Virginia. And that was I had a civilian staff and we would deal with rape sexual assaults domestic violence that kind we would give training and then we would respond to those issues that happen for military members within our aor and we had like, North Carolina, Virginia. Part of or states or something like that 7,000 people total. I think I was responsible for making sure they were trained and responded to if there's a problem after I left that job we went through what's called modernization. So they short toward me into another Billet in the area. I was a logistics for just under a year at sector Hampton Roads and I left there and went to California. So, where are your first two tours were see tours where the rest of them all were. You land-based. My first tour was a seat or my second tour in engineering. I was at a shipyard fixing boats, but I wasn't on a boat and then all the rest of the time were you on a boat or were you on land mainly on my end? I did deploy. So part of my that you're supposed to have like a primary and a secondary career path. I ended up having like four different. Tracks that I regularly dipped into I did the engineering for the first two and then I had like admin and Logistics and then I had response and Logistics and so I did like two tours and everything to towards an admin Logistics response and Engineering we should not supposed to do here supposed to have a more dedicated career path. But when I was after the Virginia tour when I was out in California, I got deployed the Deepwater Horizon and I did that for a couple months and then I went After I left that District response advisory tour in California, I went to the Coast Guard Incident Management assist team that was stood up as a Fallout from Deepwater Horizon and I was Logistics department head at that unit and my job was responding to emergency. So we had to consider why spill and there's the Ebola crisis and there was the Customs border staff and it was just any kind of Emergency. The Coast Guard would get involved in this unit was specifically geared to providing. Then management kind of Peace into making sure that we responded correctly. I don't think people know a lot about what the Coast Guard's role in mission is especially the behind-the-scenes stuff that they're doing. Is there anything that you did that you don't think people would really expect someone who served in the Coast Guard to do or be a part of half the time people don't think that I'm a coast guard forces, which is crazy because we have like the highest number of females in any service. I think the Coast Guard has the best representation and yet everyone always is like, oh your husband was in am like no actually it was me. But anyway, that's normal. That's normal the Coast Guard we have a like I think it's up to 11 plus missions. We keep adding missions and our we don't necessarily get the same funding or people to We said Mission. So I mean we do ice-breaking ops we do a time. We do, you know, obviously drug interdiction and migrant Ops and search and rescue and it just it's great that the Coast Guard can wear so many hats but I also feel like we become a jack of all trades and a master of none and we are when it comes to vying for funding and stuff, but Congress lives level like we get overloads. We didn't get paid you know that right this last year. So Seas were going to work and not getting a paycheck. Check and I was just I was embarrassed and ashamed that our government didn't know that they would be doing that to people who were, you know, there's a very small population of people that serve their country. And for those folks to be forgotten is Washable, you know I think anyone connected to the milk and Military Community knew that was going on and I hope people outside the military Community knew and then yeah, it was a really long time. So it was horrible knowing it's going on and doing the right thing to stop it from happening or two totally different things. That's very true. Then you can say oh I meant to slam on the brakes and not hit the dog, but if the dog is dead, it doesn't matter what your intentions were. You still killed it. That's very true. You talked about the plane for I can't remember what the operation was. What did you say? It was? Yeah, what was that about? I haven't watched the movie version that they put out but there was just an oil rig off the coast that had a leak that they couldn't cap and soft. So I just kept pumping stuff into the environment and that's the difference between a vessel having a problem like Exxon Valdez or whatever if it spills the most you can lose is however much The Vessel can carry So there's a finite capacity. But when you're talking about oil rig Pipeline and stuff it's going to keep going and until that Reserve is met which who knows what that is. So it's a little scarier problem to deal with because you don't know exactly how bad it is going to be, you know, yeah. Were there any other deployments that you are a part of no, I mean, I did a bunch on my ship where we went to think we did a self Patrol with migrant offs and drug addiction. We did a sar search and rescue for the crab-fishing fleet up off Alaska and then we did a 6-month Patrol the Persian Gulf with the Russell Conwell and your Brian a forgetting to maybe are no Navy destroyer into frigates. And that was what was it like to be In the Persian Gulf is hot the temperature in our the engineering plant. Anyway is very hot runs hot. It's engineering. It's you know engines are putting off heat and then it's just hot over there. And I remember that I think the state I'm in the engine room was like eight minutes and once you were in there for 8 minutes, you had to get out and be out for a couple hours and hydrate. Otherwise, you couldn't go in let you back down to More work and stuff. We just remember being very hot. Okay, that's crazy. Was it with with going in out every eight minutes or like to switch off and was it possible to get work done or did it make it really challenging and you guys had to figure out a system to make it work? I mean you had your round to do and we I don't remember exactly how we figured out how to do it, but it was doable. The main thing is making sure nobody got dehydrated you're sweating. I mean, you're just dripping wet like everybody. Yeah, so you want to make sure everybody's safety came first and the rest of it. No, we workers as an officer in the Coast Guard. How's that different from like an enlisted troop? I mean, we all stand watches and duties or responsibilities are different. So enlisted folks would usually be more boots to ground in the field and then officers would so we doc, you know, sometimes go with them on boarding. You can things like that, but we would be more in charge of directing traffic and you know, like the big picture items and doing a lot of the admin stuff and they got to do all the fun stuff when we got to do all paperwork. That sounds about right but it didn't exclude you guys from doing watches and that sort of thing. That was something that everyone did. Yeah when you're on a ship everyone has to pull their weight and then when your Junior so as a junior officer, you're in the field a lot with the enlisted which is good because then you And what it is they're trying to do so as you become more senior and you're more in a management role, you know what it is. They need in order to function. So it's not like the officers and didn't have any field times just as you become more senior you get less and less of it. Did you face any struggles while serving in the military? I did towards the end of my career. I at 38 years old needed to pursue infertility treatments and the Coast Guard was not support about that. Was there any reason in particular that they weren't supportive or based on policy? They considered fertility treatments to be elective like a nose job or a boob job would be elective surgery. So me trying to get pregnant was considered in the same category as an Of surgery something I chose to do in my case. I had a medical condition PCOS which is polycystic ovarian syndrome and it validated the fact that I needed some medical help but the Coast Guard didn't recognize that as a medical reason so that state elective. So anything negative that came of those treatments they probably can pay and they did so that is part of the reason why I ended up being retired wasn't my choice that's really sad because they're Can something that's like two totally different things. Like I completely agree. I had added an eeo complaint in the eeo complaints we officer that was representing. My former supervisor compared getting infertility treatments to the same as getting a DUI for justification and lowering my marks. And I was just you really just compare me trying to get pregnant to someone having an alcohol events. I just was floored by the idea Ike I still to this day can't even understand how they came to that conclusion. Is that being a valid? You know still don't understand. Yeah, that's not even that's that's wrong. I mean, it's almost like you have to be joking, right that can't possibly be coming out of your mouth right now, but no that was just a few years ago. That's really Sad and you said because of it because you got lower marks because of getting infertility treatments that you ended up having to retire from them ice cream for command of an o-5 job and I was in an o-5 job, but I was never promoted o5 and if you don't promote up and you have so many chances to do it and they force you to retire from so I did not make even though I hit some I think some major Milestones to prove that I was commander or to material. I'm I never picked up work. So even though I did the job. I've actually filled 105 bill it and did the job for two years. They still wouldn't promote me to the position. And without that promotion. I Can't Ban I was forced out and were you ever able to get pregnant? No after so I went through multiple IVF treatments because I'm in the military. I didn't get to stay where I wanted or goat necessary to the fertility centers. I wanted to go to in. One of my moves I went from California to Virginia. So after we did the fertility treatment my embryos were now in California, but I was now stationed in Virginia. So we had our stuff shipped from California to Virginia, which if you were stationary and not moving around we would have to worry about but I did have to worry about it because I was no longer in California. My embryos were damaged in shipment. They didn't put the lid on the Goblet that held the glass brows with the embryos and we vibrated in In transit and broke, so I had to do another treatment to try to get these embryos back and that didn't work. So I had to do a third treatment and I didn't work and it's just was pretty much a disaster experience and then when I retired so I had no support I was standing watches while I was you know doing with infertility treatments. I've got deployed to Texas City why while I was doing an infertility treatment, so I was giving myself shots in a rental car for he was nowhere else standard. To do it they like doing your stomach and your but I'm out in the field somewhere. So I'm like, well, I'll just have to make do yeah, and of course particularly treatments you want to not be stressed out and you want to have a good sleep and you want to have a good dietary in the whole thing pretty much everything you needed to help make something like that successful. I was not getting access to or being allowed to do because of my job. So not only were they not supporting my IVF treatments. They were almost sabotaging the success of them and then when I retired the yay Authorized they found my PCOS to be service-related and they authorized me to have IVF treatments which at the time so I when I was 38 years old and I was young enough to actually take advantage of infertility treatments to the point where there's a chance for Success will help financially or with my job and then once I'm retired and I'm 43, and the chances of it being successful are like not good at all. Now I have now I have a medical condition. Our coverage couldn't get before and it's like well, I appreciate getting it now, but it's like a daily dollar short and it's you know saying yeah. Yeah, it's where was this five years ago when I really needed it and could have used it and it might have actually worked right? I'm working with the swan. It's a service women's Action Network. I went to the hill this February to talk with Congress congressman and Senators about the lack of support for infertility care. In the military and what we could do better and you know, they did an informal survey and they found out that the infertility was hired service women. I'm seeing a specialist on the side and they found toxins in my system that you know could be attributed to my infertility on top of my medical condition. So there's a lot of things that are missing. There are some IVF centers the dod and the Army has six of them, but there you don't have access to them. There's a wait list. You can't necessarily get station where they are still cost you money in my case. I was over the age limit like there's just it just it's not a uniform thing and if I don't want to get pregnant Oh They'll issue me. The birth control is IUI or whatever to keep me from getting knocked out. But if I want to get pregnant not only you on your own but they're not going to they're not going to help you whatsoever. And then my other beef is that folks that go through transgender take the same steroids the hormones that I take to try to get. Pregnant they take the same ones to change their gender and I'm trying to take those to try to get pregnant and they'll support transgender, but they won't support me. Yeah, that is really frustrating and I recently learned about service women Action Network and I'm working with them. So that's it that they're a great organization. If you're a female veteran, you should definitely check them out. Yep. They have a free newsletter you can sign up for and then they keep you, you know abreast of what's going on and they have the regular updates and I'm Them now as a volunteer trying to get grants and whatever other hope I can do to help continue to support women, right and this is a big issue that people don't really talk about and I didn't even know about so thank you for telling us your story and it's just heartbreaking what you had to go through and I'm sorry for that. I'm glad that you're not sitting on the sidelines and that you're taking your experience and hopefully change. Changing it for someone else in the future. I appreciate that. It's not people stood on Point post on Facebook and stuff. They've had miscarriages or you know, it's always like the baby announcements and things, you know, the happy stuff and nobody wants to say I've had my failed IVF and read it it's very hard and frustrating because they're and miscarriages happen all the time in the military, but women don't talk about it and they don't get necessarily the support. They need both emotionally and physically to process that they've had a miscarriage back in the day. Wouldn't even know you had one, you know, but today's technology you can know within 10 days of getting pregnant that you're pregnant. It's kind of a disservice because now people know that they're losing, you know babies before whereas in that didn't necessarily know. You know, I guess that whole ignorance is bliss thing. So there's a lot of places and opportunity for improvement and I hope I mean kind of shocks me that I even ended up in the situation I did was I thought my mom was one of the first female police officers in England back in the day and she told me all kinds of stories and I thought gosh, I'm so glad I wasn't, you know a female in the workforce back when she was because that just sounds horrible and here I am 40 years later and my stories are not far off of what she went through its like wow, how could we have not improved, you know, like over this last multiple decades. We've really not gotten that much better in certain areas. So, Yeah, that's one of the reasons that I wanted to start the podcast was because there have been a lot of positive things that have happened for women in the military, but there's still stuff like this that happens and it's still happening and women are struggling with a lot of different issues that people don't even know about so I really appreciate you talking about this. I appreciate you having a platform on which I can share the story. So folks can you know make things better? Is there anything else from your time with the Coast Guard that you want to talk on that? We didn't touch on already. I would say I did a lot of recruiting towards the end of my time the Coast Guard my last six months I focus on recruiting and I think just people no matter what service they join to educate themselves on what it is the service does the pros and cons. It and just know that when you raise your right hand give your life to that service. That's kind of exactly what they take and you may not in a dying serving your country, but your life is no longer your own and I didn't understand that necessarily when I joined it 17 and then you know 24 years later. I realized that that's what happened. It felt like a bad divorce when I left the Coast Guard because of the way I was retired. It was like a I swear I was abused in the relationship and then didn't realize it now thing. I got out of our separation was my freedom. So yeah, I wish I could say more positive things and the best thing was my Shipmates and some of the experiences. I had that the overall politics and bureaucracy of this organization that I dedicated my life to you for a while Cisco quarter of a century. It was shameful and how I was treated on the way out the door. I agree China almost answered my last question, but I'm gonna ask it again. Anyways, just because I think it Be a little bit different but what would you tell women who are considering joining the military? He said to do your research, but is there anything else so I know I know that things change over time but in a granted maybe I'm not the best person to be giving advice because the way I did business didn't ultimately result. I mean, I had honorable service but I didn't get the career I wanted out of it. But ultimately you have to be able to look yourself in the mirror and I am I'm proud of who I am and I'm proud of what I've done and I don't have a problem with with my contribution. I have a problem with how I was treated, but that's that's another thing. So we are women be proud of being a woman know that you don't have to lose your identity in order to serve and be the best version of you that you can and it's okay. So we are different men don't have the same piping. We do we in a we do give birth. Babies, we we have differences and we should not be segregated for those with me should celebrate those and I hope more women feel comfortable with that and I think we're getting to that place where there's less of the judging and oh, you know, you have to have your own room to breast pump. Well, would you want your wife, you know doing that in a bathroom which isn't necessarily sanitary, of course not so when there's things that you know, it's not rocket science, but it's crazy that we still have to say. Hey. How about we do this little bit better? And that would be the other thing a lot of folks complain that there's a problem and that there's an issue. There's an injustice the amount of time wasted complaining when they can actually do something about it. And that's where I have put all my focus. I don't even know if people I know that I served with even know that I'm doing some of the stuff because I don't have time keep telling you know what I mean? So that it I'm going to do something about it and if you can't help me move it forward. And I'm not going to waste my time with it. So well, thank you so much for your time and thank you for your service. And I'm so sorry for what happened for to you. But I am I'm so thankful for what you're doing for the future women who are serving it now and will serve in the future and I like that philosophy if If there's something I can do then I should do it and I just appreciate what you're doing. Well, I appreciate you. So, thank you. Thank you for listening to this episode of women of the military make sure to subscribe so you don't miss any of the Amazing Stories I have with women who have served in our military. Did you love the show? Don't forget to leave a review. Finally. If you are a woman who has served or is currently serving in the military. Please email me at Airmen to Mom at gmail.com so I can set you up to be on a future episode of women of the military.
Kerry was an officer in the US Coast Guard. She attended the Coast Guard Academy and graduated with a degree in Marine Science, but the Coast Guard needed Engineers so she spent her first five years in the Coast Guard doing Engineering work. She ended up bouncing around to different jobs and not following the traditional career path all of that starting with going into a career that she didn’t have a background in. Her jobs ranged from Sexual Assault manager to logistics to emergency response. We talked a lot about the different missions the Coast Guard is a part of. The Coast Guard does so many different missions to support and defend the United States and most people don’t even know about what they do. When she tried to get pregnant at 38, she found out she had Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) and needed infertility treatments. Her leadership didn’t support her choice to seek infertility treatments. She was forced to move in the middle of treatments and lost the embryos. Her leadership gave her low marks and sent her out into the field. In the end she wasn’t able to get pregnant and then after being forced to retire she was told by the VA that her PCOS was service related and they provided medical care, but it was too late. She was then 43 and the likelihood of success was almost non-existent. She never became a mom. She now works with the Service Women Action Network (SWAN) to help work to change policy and prevent others from having to go through a similar experience. She has chosen not to complain about her situation, but to be an advocate for women and bring change. Mentioned in this episode: Service Women Action Network (SWAN) Would you like to be a guest or know someone who might want to share their story for the Women of the Military Podcast? You can sign up here and I will be in touch with you shortly. Are you Leaving the Military? Get my free guide: Navigating Life After the Military! 