TIA&TW - Supporting Women Veterans

[Music] on this is america and the world our focus is women in the military and women veterans recently the u.s house subcommittee on health and human services held a hearing to examine the concerns of organizations representing women veterans later on this program you'll meet jen silva chief program officer of the wounded warrior project who testified before the subcommittee nearly five thousand women gave their voices to this initiative our guest now is retired u.s army specialist joe marty cruz who shares her personal and traumatic experience in the military joe marty cruz is that correct pronunciation yes thank you thank you for joining us what attracted you to join the military uh to tell you the truth uh i was married once upon a time and it was a joint decision that we had made unfortunately it didn't work out for him um and i had already sworn in so off i went uh you served in uh afghanistan huh i did correct uh it was not a happy uh uh welcome that you have faced can you tell us a little bit about your welcoming in afghanistan i was part of an aviation unit that's male dominated and upon arrival to afghanistan not only were we in an active war zone but i dealt with sexual assault and sexual harassment from my own unit and so it was a very um trying time uh yes there was good and bad moments but definitely you know a lot of challenges that i faced throughout that year i've read that even with me asking a question about your experience in a war zone can trigger uh a kind of a repeat in your mind and in your emotions of what you experience but rather delicately can i ask you to kind of paint a picture for us of what it's like to live in a war zone yeah absolutely so you know upon arrival it takes a couple days to get to your final forward operating base the night that we landed on our uh fob as we call it um we were under attack immediately after unloading from the aircraft and we immediately took cover we did what we had to do and that was that moment where it really hits you and you realize wow this is going to be my life for the next potential year right it's an aviation unit deploys every other year and it kind of just sinks in you hear the stories you you know you you've seen certain things but if there's nothing like living it hearing you know the sounds of um just alarms going off uh you don't know what's going on you don't know if you're gonna survive and that really became my life for the next year so uh sleep wasn't really some i was definitely sleep deprived it wasn't something that you can really shut off and go to sleep you're just constantly on high alert um just really trying to survive and make it through when are you part of a a larger unit of of how many people would be uh at that forward base it was a it was a pretty large i mean head count it's kind of rough to say i would say um my unit was easily over 130 and there were several units plus there was a special forces unit and we also have local contractors civilian contractors and then we have four nationals that work on base one of the things that i keep learning and and doing these uh programs has been an education for me is uh first of all when you're in that kind of a situation there's a there's a tremendous bonding with fellow soldiers right men and women did you lose friends when you were there we did we did we we lost some some members of our team um which was obviously very unfortunate um but yes it's it's very trying it's very difficult so there's living in the war zone all of that shelling bombardment sirens gunfire losing people then on top of all of that there was this sexual assault as well is that i won't uh uh go there but um uh is that usual usual is a hard word women experience that a lot don't they in the military so honestly to tell you the truth it's it's both genders so males and females are targets in my particular case my unit was male dominated and there was only a handful of females and i just so happened to be one of the straight single ones and so being in that type of situation where hormones are going uh at a rapid pace you become an easy target and i had just joined the unit no one really knew who i was i was getting to learn who my team members were i was getting to learn my job at the same time on top of that trying to survive so it's just it's one of those things where it's it's definitely you see it you you see it day in and day out it almost becomes uh normal for sexual harassment to occur whoa what caused you did you put in the the full full year there or what how what caused you to separate huh so actually during my time uh overseas there were several different sexual assault and sexual harassment uh cases that took place one of them actually um we went through the full ucmj trial and he served time was that with you yes so um a two second recap he was actually one of my assigned battle buddies um and he was assigned to me due to the ongoing rapes that were occurring on the forward operating base so for our safety our first sergeant assigned us battle buddies and he was a staff sergeant that was assigned to me for my protection uh little did i know that he had been filming me taking a shower for a series of five months that surfaced through an investigation that occurred when files were found on a usb that he had shared and one of the files had my name on it so when the investigative team the cid team came into play there's videos that surfaced um obviously you can tell i was oblivious to the situation the way that it occurred was again due to the fact that it was male dominated the shower trailer that we had they sectioned off one shower with plywood but the plywood didn't go all the way up we had our our own personal entry door towards the back of the trailer but the plywood didn't go all the way up so he mounted a gopro and that's what he utilized to film and sell to other soldiers within the unit or share with other soldiers within the unit and it was a very you know obviously i felt betrayed the unit's expectation was for me to brush it off and you know stick together nothing really happened in their eyes that it was critical and so coming back into garrison back into the states um through particular traumas that had occurred in certain challenges in an injury i was medically retired uh you've had uh i'm so sorry to hear that and thank you for your openness and your vulnerability in sharing that with us i'm just so sorry you've had a tough go you had a tough go in separation uh what were some of the symptoms and some of the things you had to deal with so the the main challenges was not real you don't really have a voice in the military right so there was three particular females that protected me during my time in the military one of them was my female commander um she really took front and center helping me protecting me i was dealing with retaliation upon returning to the states people were following me there was death threats because of this trial um and it was ongoing and so you know she became she became that that protection you know and if it wasn't for them really in that support system um i don't i don't know if i if i would have made it you know and then coming out of the military you're really trying to truly understand what is it that you're going through people tell you you have ptsd but what is ptsd right because they give you the diagnosis but they don't really tell you how to cope with the trigger points and your emotions right and they don't teach your family how to deal with with you because it's a new version of yourself so um you're you have anger management issues you know your uh everything bothers you you want to be isolated um and it took about three years coming out of the military uh once i i was introduced to the window warrior project where i actually felt like other people understood me and i and i felt comfortable and i started opening up again how deeply involved are you in a wounded warrior project and i know that one of the things that you took part in one of the programs that they offer is this odyssey program tell me a little bit about that and how how that's helped change your life huh yes absolutely so once i joined the wounder warrior project i was introduced to them by one of my neighbors a list they send you out an email and in the email there's different events whether it's peer support groups odysseys events just sometimes it's just a dinner where you can sit down and just chit chat with other like-minded individuals right and project odyssey became an opportunity and so you go through a series of questions and upon arrival to the location that they sent us it was a phenomenal experience i mean for the first time i'm interacting with individuals where i don't feel alone there's other people that have gone through the same thing there's other people that understand what it is to be on a deployment there's other people who understand the challenges that you deal with right there's certain words or certain terms there's certain things that you deal with that people don't understand and project odyssey i mean they staffed it with they had a therapist you know just in case you you needed a moment where you needed to ground yourself there was someone there listening they had um team building exercises you know they really sat down took the time to understand what you were going through and say hey i'm here for you i'm listening and upon completion of odyssey if there was anything else that we needed uh they were offering services as well and follow-up calls to make sure that we are that we were all okay and that to me was a very pivotal moment where i felt wow someone really cares you know and the va is not listening uh the military is not listening and here comes a non-profit organization that's all ears willing to be an extreme support system for me and my family isn't it amazing that we don't know each other you know and this opportunity comes for us to just talk with each other you're just just you've just educated us so beautifully today uh of the uh i guess the good the bad and the so-so of of military and you've had a rough go uh it's just thrilling to talk with you and and and you're so open and honest and vulnerable i think you're going to help an awful lot of people just listening to the conversation thank you so much thank you i appreciate it thank you so much for this opportunity good luck to you in the new job huh thank you thank you underwriting for this is america and the world is made possible by the japan america society of washington d.c featuring the 29th national japan bowl a japanese language and culture competition streaming live april 9th 2021 the national association for children of addiction faces and voices of recovery the forerunner foundation the rotundaro family trust the sultanate of oman the kingdom of morocco and the embassy series uniting people through musical diplomacy thank you miss silva for joining us today thank you for having me uh you have just been testifying before a house uh subcommittee on health i guess today tell us a little bit about the the hearing uh how exciting that was for you and uh kind of give us a broad scope of the who what when where and why of the hearing the house hearing today great yes i'd love to uh so we had the i had the privilege of of testifying in front of the subcommittee and um was grateful to be able to illuminate some of the information that we found after we invested the last year into our women warriors initiative and really highlight some of the uh challenges that women veterans face in including access to care good quality care within the va or within the community care network of the veterans administration also some of the long-term effects that women have related to military sexual trauma which affects about 44 of the women that we serve at winder warrior project and then finally some of the things that can be learned through what we've been able to do operationally related to peer support groups and virtual environment how that can really be a powerful tool in serving women veterans so we were able to highlight that to the committee the subcommittee and we were grateful to also hear from the va that they want to work with us to to really be a partner in increasing access to care for the largest growing cohort of service members in the largest growing cohort of veterans so you know we all need to be ready to really serve women in both while they serve and then also afterwards after they become civilians so we were excited to be part of it so so let's lay this out for the folks at home that uh the uh wounded warrior project uh put together uh a kind of a mega survey of of women of which i gathered 5 000 women participator just about in the survey uh over as you said over the last year and then there were a number a dozen or more round tables of people who had participated in the survey and uh just in a in a simple uh that's a lot to chew off right there but what was the goal that you were looking for going in while we've at window warrior project we've served women since our inception in 2003 within our women warrior population but we really wanted to dive in over the last year because we were seeing challenges from serving women we we knew that they were telling us that they had unique and discreet challenges that were not being addressed and so we wanted to take the year to really listen we're a very data-driven organization before we go out and advocate for something we wanted to get some data around it and so that's why we invested the time over the last year to really dive into the largest issues that are related to transition and access to good quality care and and so that's what we did over the last year okay so so so you did the study and you boiled it down and so uh give me three areas of concern of women who i guess either either are serving or have transitioned out if that's the correct phraseology what are the what are the three major concerns that they have there may be five but let's focus on top three huh three is a good number great yes so um so i would say the number one uh well the number one issue i would like to talk about is access to quality care we have found that we're talking about health care now right okay yes we are talking about health care within the va system so the women veterans that we serve have served honorably and they have earned their care within the va system yet as you can imagine the va system has been developed to serve mostly male patients because that's the majority of veterans and and so when it comes to care that is gender specific it has become an issue in getting that good quality care both in va facilities or in the community care network so outside the va facility and what we believe is that the va should be the coordinator of care but we really need to be creative about and really focus on getting good quality care first of all the physical environment has shown to not be safe and particularly welcoming for women veterans and as i mentioned also earlier compassionate really comprehensive care related to military sexual trauma is something that needs to be addressed within the va and so that is something that we found uh frankly is a bigger problem than we thought and when 44 of the women of the 5 000 women that answered say that they were sexually assaulted in while serving that's a big number and so we we want to make sure that the va facilities or the the community care that they receive is really safe and welcoming um in in that those are two main focuses that we saw from from the warrior initiative and then also finally transition they we are finding that isolation is a big problem for women veterans so as you can imagine there's still 10 of the veteran population in veterans today when they transition from active duty or their service in the national guard or reserves they kind of scatter they don't go into a community that necessarily knows them and then if you're 10 of that population really it can add up 89 of the women that we surveyed said that they feel isolated and so we want to make sure with that context in mind we want to make sure that we set up good peer support groups whether they're virtually done virtually or in person make sure that their transition in their transition that they are connected with other women veterans so they can feel like they're not so isolated and those are three main themes that we saw from our year of diving into this research that we would really want to tackle and be a partner with so care the quality of care the environment for the care transition these are all concerns of yours so i gather the veterans folks va made a presentation and then you were one of several organizations as well who put forth some testimony what other organizations were testifying as well today other veterans organizations yes yes so we were there with disabled american veterans dav was there and minority women veterans and then a couple other groups or one other group and um until we were grateful to be part of the mix and um and really and like i mentioned the va uh several leaders from the va were on the panel as well and and they answered questions from congress so just to put a couple of other things on the table our time is limited but you mentioned isolation i gather that a lot of the women talked about financial stresses that they were unprepared for transition transition transitioning out jobs and this idea of being part of a community which i gather also kind of reflects their service they were part of a community coming out and not having a community and this sense of isolation that you talked about what points do you think that the department of veterans affairs gut what what registered do you think you made some progress today in the service of women well i think they're fully invested in making the environment and the transition uh better for women veterans that's the feel i got from their uh time today but they have a big job ahead of them but one thing that i think is really important that we feel is very important is the interconnected and clear communication between two government agencies the dod and va is particularly related to women's health and and military sexual trauma and so the more that they can coordinate and have clear communication the more coordinated the care can be for women veterans and who have a level might have a level of distrust or mistrust with both of those entities if there's harassment going on and so we're we're excited that they really saw that as a clear a clear area that they want to be part of you mentioned the the financial stress and i think that's another theme that is worth talking if i can if i can give a plug to that for a minute because what we've found that the women veterans that we serve they have higher levels of education than their male counterparts and but yet they have a higher unemployment rate and they have a different a pay gap about eight thousand dollars pay gap um on an annual basis in their salary and so we're trying to figure out how we can be part of fixing that and and so it just doesn't make sense that with the level of education that they have that there would be um the higher unemployment rate and and that disparity in pay and so we're working with the women warriors that we serve in really great companies who want to be part of that solution to really make because these women veterans bring so many great skills to the workforce they're leaders they're really great teammates just like male veterans and so we're excited that we can be part of that with the women veterans that we serve thank you miss silver thank you very much chief program officer for the wounded warrior project and between yourself and ms cruz that we also talked with a little while ago and put into this program i think you've given everyone a wonderful education so thank you very much you've had a long day i'm sure some stress involved but thank you very much for the education thank you thank you for the time appreciate it thank you if you are in crisis or know someone who is these resources offer immediate help [Music] for information about this is america in the world visit our website thisisamerica.net or our youtube channel this is americatv and follow us on facebook and twitter underwriting for this is america and the world is made possible by the japan america society of washington d.c featuring the 29th national japan bowl a japanese language and culture competition streaming live april 9th 2021. the national association for children of addiction faces and voices of recovery the forerunner foundation the rotundaro family trust the sultanate of oman [Music] the kingdom of morocco and the embassy series uniting people through musical [Music] diplomacy

Channel: ThisIsAmericaTV

Views: 162

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: military, veterans, women veterans, thank you for your service, Army, Navy, Airforce, Marines, Veteran Affairs, Dennis Wholey, PBS, wounded warrior project

Id: n6EgMSzzLSo

Length: 26min 46sec (1606 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 25 2021