Marina continue to help women after military service through her non profit Military Women’s Collective. Marina served in the Navy for 24 years. She wanted to use her foreign language skills but ended up as a sonar technician. Her career began in 1997 and ended during COVID. We talked about the ups and downs through out her career while ending the interview to highlight the programs available to women veterans in the Southern California area.
Helping Women After Military Service
Marina joined the Navy after living abroad and not feeling that her career was going in the right direction. She met with various recruiters and decided to join the Navy. It was only a few days after visiting the recruiting station that she headed out to follow her dream of serving in the Navy. She was a sonar technician and after completing bootcamp ended up in San Diego. Initially she was planning to move to the East Coast for her first ship. But ended up switching her orders went to Japan instead.
Being in the Gulf during September 11th
She was in Bahrain when the twin towers were hit. With the attack her ship was given orders to move and they left so quickly that a few members from their ship didn’t make it back aboard before they left. They were also one of the first ships to fire into Afghanistan. While the ops tempo picked up the Navy was already deploying and as she moved from ship to ship for different assignment she traveled all over the world.
Reporting to Leadership
On one assignment where she was helping out another ship one of the senior leaders was hitting on her in person and sending emails. She found out another woman was experiencing something similar. Together they went to the senior enlisted leader to report what was happening. Instead of finding support she was brought in by the upper levels of leadership defending the person they had accused. Later on she was a character witness. She also shared those saved for the case.
Military Women’s Collective
Not being heard and feeling isolated was what led her to start her non profit Military Women’s Collective. She wanted women to have a place to connect. She is offering various options from hiking, to painting, to meditation and more. Events are in Southern California area. You can learn more about MWC at their website: https://www.militarywomenscollective.org/
