Jen Sardam wanted to serve in the Public Affairs career field, but initially began her career in Radio Communications. She served in both the Army and the Army National Guard. She bounced between the National Guard and active duty and move to a number of different assignments. Her career began  in the Radio Communications field but was able to switch over to Public Affairs after leaving the Army. She shared about her experience doing multiple jobs in the PA career field and deploying twice. We also discussed the challenge of leaving the National Guard and the emotions that came along with leaving. She is working to find a way to help others through offering support to women veterans.

Serving in Public Affairs

A friend conscience Jen to join the Army instead of the Peace Corps, but then her friend didn’t join. But the military ended up being a great career and personal choice for her. She shared about initially joining in the radio communications career field but wanting to be part of the public affairs. This led to her leaving the military and then joining later in the PA career field.

She joined back through the National Guard and this time served in the Public Affairs career field. She had the opportunity to attend the Defense Information School (DINFOS) before deploying. It was a deployment to Bosnia, but she ended up staying in Germany to do media analysis. She ended up loving Germany so much she went on active duty. Her quest to join active duty and go to Germany was successful.

Deployments and serving

She had the opportunity to deploy twice. Once on a unique mission that took her all over CENTCOM interviewing and sharing stories of soldiers for companies who had members serving overseas. Her second deployment was to Iraq during the draw down where once again she was focused on media analysis.

Leaving the National Guard

It was difficult to leave the National Guard. On paper it made sense. She had served her time, was a new mom. But losing her identity and community while going through post pardon challenges made for a difficult transition. It was hard to lose that support and identity. This was something I also experienced when leaving and we spent a long time discussing the challenge of leaving and the emotions that many people experience when leaving the military. She is hoping to help others by creating a writing group for women transitioning out of the military. More to come!