A big theme of this episode of Women of the Military podcast is the importance of advocating for yourself. Sometimes it can feel like you don’t have options when you are in but you have more power than you think. Claire joined the Army when she was 22. She was looking for something different and a friend shared about the career field 35M Human Intelligence Collector in the Army. But her career was plagued by injuries and then she ended up leaving the military about 18 months after joining.
Advocating for yourself
Claire had considered military service but the recruiter recommended she go to college and try ROTC. College ended up not being a good option and at 21 she was living at home and was a hostess. She needed something different. So she started to look into the military and ended up joining the Army as an Intelligence Analysis. She also took the DLAB and scored really high and was excited to join the military. The plan was to go to boot camp, then Advanced Individual Training and then head to school at the Defense Language Institute (DLI) in Monterey. Injuries disrupted this plan.
Getting hit in the head
Overall she enjoyed boot camp, but she got hit in the head when going through an obstacle course when a team member swung around with a 2 by 4 on his shoulder. She got knocked to the ground, but her team members quickly pulled her up hoping she was okay. She didn’t want to tell the drill sergeant for fear it would delay her training or get her in trouble. Two days later, she was still dizzy from the hit on the head and when standing up quickly to answer a drill sergeant’s questions. She passed out and hit her head again. After spending the weekend at sick hall and was given fluids and not addressing the concussion. She went back to training and it was time to go through the gas mask chamber. She felt better and didn’t realize that these two incidents would affect her later in life.
At AIT
Going through AIT everything was going well. She was thriving and loving her career choice. Then she twisted her knee and was incorrectly diagnosed with runners knee. It took months before she was seen by another doctor who correctly diagnosed her injury and told her the stark reality that she likely wouldn’t heal fast enough to be able to continue to serve in the military. While she was working to heal she was dealing with mental health. She asked her supervisor if she could get a meeting with the Chaplin and was told he didn’t have any openings. She ran into the Chaplin while waiting for a bus and asked when he would have openings. He said he was always available and set up an appointment so she could talk to him.
Eventually she was medically disqualified for service through a med board. Because she hadn’t served a certain amount of time she did not get retirement but did get the GI Bill. She moved back home that at first felt like she was back at square one, but at Christmas party she met the admiral at JTFC and was able to get a job as an executive assistant. Then she met someone and started the process of working for the FBI. She went to school at George Mason and ended up meeting an Army guy. Putting her plans for a career in the FBI off the table. She now lives in Kentucky working for Phillips as an executive assistant and has helped stand up programs to support veterans.
