Jill knew at age 10 she wanted to join the military. And although she thought she would follow her father’s career and join the Air Force. She ended up joining the Army after completing Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) and then receiving an Army ROTC scholarship. Jill began her career in 1982 and left the military in 2008. Through her time in the military, she saw many changes, supported Desert Storm from Korea, was at the Pentagon on September 11th, and more.
PTSD Awareness leads to healing
The Army paid for her master’s after college and before active duty. Originally, the Army assigned her to be an Ordinance officer but was able to remind them with a Masters in Public Administration and Human Resources serving as an Adjutant General Officer.
She headed off to officers’ school and then began her career at Ft. Bragg. She shared about how she had a great assignment and met so many great people. We then jumped forward to her being stationed in Korea supporting the Desert Storm.
September 11th
On September 11th she was working at the Pentagon. She and her office mates were watching TV knowing something was up because the second plane had hit the World Trade Center. Someone stated that everything comes in threes. She told everyone to calm down and it wasn’t long before the plane had hit the Pentagon.
They evacuated and went to the staging area. One person knew the correct staging area location. So long before the attack on September 11th people had been too busy to participate in the emergency training that finding everyone and getting accountability required them to go back into the Pentagon.
The aftermath of the attack
The next day they were back at work. It took years for work at the Pentagon to go back to normal. With 24-hour ops lasting for years, the construction and the smell.
PTSD Awareness
At her last assignment, she worked for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, to conduct a focused study of wounded warrior issues, specifically in the areas of post-traumatic stress (PTS) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). She build a team and spent 18 months traveling the U.S. to hear stories from those who had served. It impacted her so much that when she left the military she create This Able Vet LLC.
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