Speaker 1: Please be advised the following episode contains references to violence
Speaker 1: and may not be suitable for all listeners. This is
Speaker 1: BETS You Should Know, a podcast from My Heart Radio
Speaker 1: celebrating the many who have selflessly put their lives on
Speaker 1: the line to serve their country and the armed forces.
Speaker 1: Every Veterans Day, we as a country honor and commemorate
Speaker 1: the people who fight for our freedom and defend our country.
Speaker 1: And in this four part series, you'll hear from these
Speaker 1: individuals as they share their unique experiences in the military
Speaker 1: and the lessons they learned that carried them into their
Speaker 1: new roles in civilian life. Former U. S Army Captain
Speaker 1: Kenny Martin has a story unlike any other. The daughter
Speaker 1: of a single mother, Kenny spent her teen years living
Speaker 1: with her grandparents after a tragic event befell their family
Speaker 1: and left her mom serving a twenty eight year prison sentence.
Speaker 1: During the trial, Kenny was told her voice and story
Speaker 1: didn't matter. Thankfully, it wasn't long after joining the Army
Speaker 1: that Kenny found her voice again. Today, she uses her
Speaker 1: voice to lift up and support the voices of others
Speaker 1: by working with nonprofit organizations that serve veterans I had
Speaker 1: a chance to speak with Kenny about the incredible work
Speaker 1: she did in military intelligence and the hopes she has
Speaker 1: for her own daughters. Hi. Hi, how are you good
Speaker 1: to talk to you? Get to talk to you? Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't talk to you on the radio
Speaker 1: when I hear your voice, but good to hear your voice.
Speaker 1: But for real, it's kind of weird. It's like an
Speaker 1: interactive radio show. Now. Usually just yell and I wouldn't hear.
Speaker 1: But now you can say whatever you want any time,
Speaker 1: and I have to acknowledge it. I know. Well, I'm
Speaker 1: very honored that you'd spent some time with me, So again,
Speaker 1: thank you very much. Yeah, thanks for doing this. Let's
Speaker 1: start from the beginning. I kind of like to get
Speaker 1: to know what what folks are about before we even
Speaker 1: talk about the military service. And so tell me where
Speaker 1: you grew up and what home was like for you
Speaker 1: early on. Sure. So. I born and raised in Colorado,
Speaker 1: originally from Colorado Springs, but currently live in Denver with
Speaker 1: my husband and my two kids. I was raised by
Speaker 1: a single parent, my mom My father Quasi in the
Speaker 1: picture when I was little, but they got divorced when
Speaker 1: I was pretty young. My mom and my grandparents raised
Speaker 1: myself and my two younger brothers in Colorado Springs. Growing
Speaker 1: up with a single mom, Do you feel like that
Speaker 1: in any way or anything from that, because I grew
Speaker 1: up with a single mom too, and it had a
Speaker 1: lot to do with the decisions I made in life. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure. So speaking of life decisions, tell me about
Speaker 1: your decision to listen the army. How did that come about?
Speaker 1: It was actually a spur of the moment decision for
Speaker 1: me to go into the army. I think being raised
Speaker 1: by a single parent and then my grandparents. My grandfather
Speaker 1: was a West Point class of nineteen thirty two and
Speaker 1: served thirty two years in the army, and his side
Speaker 1: of the family has very long history of service in
Speaker 1: the military, dating all the way back to you know, England,
Speaker 1: the Civil War and everything. So yeah, I think the tenacity,
Speaker 1: the grit, the resiliency that single parents have to have
Speaker 1: and that they have to instill in their kids to
Speaker 1: be able to function in life. You know, I think
Speaker 1: having two kids in my own even with a great
Speaker 1: supportive partner, was really hard to do. And so having
Speaker 1: a single parent being able to raise three kids with
Speaker 1: my grandparents, you know, it definitely teaches you a lot differently.
Speaker 1: I think you you rely on each other, you get
Speaker 1: really close to your family, I think. And there's just
Speaker 1: a lot to be said about single parents for sure.
Speaker 1: When you were a teenager, your mom got remarried to someone,
Speaker 1: Is that right? Yeah? So, you know, as a kid,
Speaker 1: I grew up an incredibly supportive family, a really good
Speaker 1: school system, and I always had that support system to
Speaker 1: to build up my confidence. You know. I was in
Speaker 1: Gift and Talented Student Council president and my mom, being
Speaker 1: a single parent, went with low income. We were also
Speaker 1: a free and reduced lunch program. Kid like me and
Speaker 1: my brothers were right, but we were never taught that
Speaker 1: we were victims of anything. We were never taught to
Speaker 1: take advantage of any of the programs, but to be
Speaker 1: thankful for them and of all the things that we
Speaker 1: can be thankful for. To continue giving to our community.
Speaker 1: So we always did volunteering with our church, with our neighborhood,
Speaker 1: with other groups, and so we've always just been taught
Speaker 1: to give back in that kind of way. So seven
Speaker 1: were juniors in high school and my mom had gotten
Speaker 1: remarried to this guy and they had met because she
Speaker 1: actually was going to school to get her pH d
Speaker 1: in criminology and sociology, and after a few years, the
Speaker 1: marriage started to deteriorate pretty quickly, and he became pretty abusive,
Speaker 1: mostly mentally to my mother and then also to me
Speaker 1: and my brothers. So there would be multiple days where
Speaker 1: we would come home from school and the house would
Speaker 1: be trashed. We would come home and you know, they
Speaker 1: would be arguing, and my mom would tell us, you know,
Speaker 1: go to youth church and come back and I'll make
Speaker 1: sure he's gone out of the house and you guys
Speaker 1: can sleep here and go to school the next day.
Speaker 1: As the relationship became more toxic and abusive, Keeney's mother
Speaker 1: filed a permanent restraining order against him, which required he
Speaker 1: moved out of their home in Boulder, Colorado. He was
Speaker 1: scheduled to come over to our home to pick up
Speaker 1: the rest of his belongings, and this was in May
Speaker 1: of He came over and while they were in the
Speaker 1: house and he was escorted by a member of the
Speaker 1: Boulder Police Department. He told my mom that she couldn't
Speaker 1: watch me all the time, and she couldn't take care
Speaker 1: of me all the time, and he was going to
Speaker 1: do whatever it took to either bring harm to me
Speaker 1: or take me and my brothers away from her. So
Speaker 1: that really scared her, and it scared her to the
Speaker 1: point where she had purchased a handgun unbeknownst to me
Speaker 1: and my brothers, and she had kept it in her house.
Speaker 1: She had taken lessons on how to use it in
Speaker 1: self defense, and in that moment when he told her
Speaker 1: he was going to take us away from her and
Speaker 1: possibly hurt me, she decided in that moment to pull
Speaker 1: out that gun and she shot him six times. He
Speaker 1: didn't survive. And so through the court trials and everything,
Speaker 1: it was determined that because she had purchased that handgun
Speaker 1: at advance, it was premeditated murder and not self defense
Speaker 1: since he had physically never done anything to her. So
Speaker 1: in October of which was twenty three years ago, my
Speaker 1: mom was sentenced to twenty eight years in prison. She
Speaker 1: obviously missed high school graduation, college graduation, all of that stuff,
Speaker 1: but she was here in Colorado and we still got
Speaker 1: to see her. And that kind of was like the
Speaker 1: first watershed moment of my life that brought me into
Speaker 1: this military service. I'm so appreciative of you being completely
Speaker 1: vulnerable with your story because I think a lot of
Speaker 1: people in different ways relate. I think you and I
Speaker 1: have very similar stories growing up with just the parental situation,
Speaker 1: how vulnerable we were as kids, but how protective my
Speaker 1: grandma was from for me or even you know, my
Speaker 1: mom when when she was raising me. So so I
Speaker 1: really appreciate you sharing that. You know, and as as
Speaker 1: you're getting into the first stage of your life in
Speaker 1: the Army and you go into basic training, like, that's
Speaker 1: where I want to start with you and I talking
Speaker 1: about this. Tell me what going into basic training was
Speaker 1: like for you. I got a letter in the mail
Speaker 1: from our r O t C unit saying they were
Speaker 1: looking for students who would be interested in joining our
Speaker 1: O t C and possibly commit to being in the
Speaker 1: military afterwards. And that summer I was like, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not doing anything. So I went to basic camp
Speaker 1: in June of two thousand to my first ever military
Speaker 1: experience activity. That basic camp is really what changed my life.
Speaker 1: Um it was four weeks. It was the hardest mentally,
Speaker 1: the most grueling physically, and the most fun thing I
Speaker 1: had ever done. And it was the first time ever
Speaker 1: that I had actually touched a weapon before in my life,
Speaker 1: and I remember being so nervous about handling live rounds,
Speaker 1: especially given my situation with my mom. Had no idea,
Speaker 1: you know, how I was going to do one drill.
Speaker 1: Sergeant took an interest in me, and I think just
Speaker 1: saw the leadership potential that I had, and he knew
Speaker 1: how nervous I was, and so he took me aside
Speaker 1: and helped me feel comfortable with my weapon, and then
Speaker 1: we went to the life fire range. I hit thirty
Speaker 1: eight out of my forty targets and actually was in
Speaker 1: the top three at the range. So so that was
Speaker 1: pretty awesome. I was pretty proud of myself for, you know,
Speaker 1: overcoming this big fear and for kind of being a
Speaker 1: badass at the time. So I came back from this
Speaker 1: basic camp experience in Fort Knox with this whole renewed
Speaker 1: sense of confidence. It was then in that moment that
Speaker 1: I realized I had this voice and that I had
Speaker 1: lost it during the trials when my mom was sent
Speaker 1: to prison, the judge overseeing the case didn't allow me
Speaker 1: to take the stand to talk about my experience living
Speaker 1: in that home with my mom and her husband, and
Speaker 1: so essentially I told me that my voice didn't matter.
Speaker 1: So when I went to that basic camp for the Army,
Speaker 1: I was told that my voice did matter and that
Speaker 1: I needed to use it. From that day on, I
Speaker 1: had to rebuild myself really, and it was those members
Speaker 1: of the military, my friends, the drill sergeants, all of
Speaker 1: those people that were involved in that camp and then
Speaker 1: later on in r O t C who really helped
Speaker 1: me regain my voice and regain my confidence so that
Speaker 1: I could be a voice for others going forward. That's
Speaker 1: when I decided, like, I'm going to join the Army.
Speaker 1: As soon as I got back, I signed my contract
Speaker 1: and started r OTC for the last two years of
Speaker 1: my college experience, and then graduated in December of two
Speaker 1: thousand two and became an active duty Army officer. From
Speaker 1: that point on, your first year in the Army, if
Speaker 1: you were to put into a minute nutshell, what would
Speaker 1: you describe it as the first year in the Army man,
Speaker 1: I would say it teaches you a lot about yourself
Speaker 1: about what you're capable of doing, because you are put
Speaker 1: into school and you are tested mentally and physically beyond
Speaker 1: like anything that you ever thought you could imagine. It
Speaker 1: really either breaks you down, quite honestly, or it helps
Speaker 1: break you down and then builds you right back up.
Speaker 1: Kenny found her voice and trusted a support system of
Speaker 1: friends and mentors during our first few months in the army,
Speaker 1: and eventually she would also find someone to love for
Speaker 1: the rest of her life. I met my husband in
Speaker 1: September of two thousand four. We deployed to Iraq in
Speaker 1: February of two thousand five, so we didn't really have
Speaker 1: much of a dating history before deployment. We had no
Speaker 1: clue if we were going to see each other again.
Speaker 1: We didn't know what communications were going to be like
Speaker 1: at that time. So we're like, well, I guess I'll
Speaker 1: keep my cell phone number, and if we come back
Speaker 1: at the end of this twelve months and make it
Speaker 1: back alive, let's call each other and kind of start
Speaker 1: all over. I was just reading about your wedding day.
Speaker 1: How did it happen? Is it true? Because what I
Speaker 1: read was you were not even on the same continent. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's true. So on October, my grandfather, who again had
Speaker 1: helped to raise me and my two brothers, he actually
Speaker 1: passed away. I was able to get a Red Cross
Speaker 1: message and was home within twenty four hours of his passing.
Speaker 1: Because my husband and I were not married yet, the
Speaker 1: army still considered us single soldiers even though we were
Speaker 1: engaged but not legally married. He was not able to
Speaker 1: come with me to go home to attend my grandfather's funeral,
Speaker 1: so I went home by myself. He decided to start
Speaker 1: looking into how we could get married. Turns out Colorado
Speaker 1: is one of four states that allows a marriage by proxy,
Speaker 1: so we looked into how that was possible because that
Speaker 1: sounded really weird. And in Colorado, if one person is present,
Speaker 1: the other person can fill out an affidavit and a
Speaker 1: power of attorney and have another person mary their person
Speaker 1: by proxy. So I had my best friend marry me
Speaker 1: in proxy for my husband on November four, Colorado time
Speaker 1: zone and November five, Iraq time zone. But we did
Speaker 1: have a real wedding, mostly because he's always grown up
Speaker 1: in the church and had always just pictured having an
Speaker 1: actual wedding, so he wanted that. And then he also
Speaker 1: wanted his signature on our marriage license, so I have
Speaker 1: to marriage licenses. Is that legal? I don't know, let's hope.
Speaker 1: So you know, I love it. I think it's a
Speaker 1: fantastic story. Can you tell me about the work that
Speaker 1: your husband was doing as you guys were over there
Speaker 1: at the same place. Yes. So with the third Infantry Division,
Speaker 1: he was stationed in Baghdad within the Green Zone or
Speaker 1: the International Zone as it's known. He was in charge
Speaker 1: of force protection for the entire divisions areas of operations,
Speaker 1: so that was all of Baghdad and some of the
Speaker 1: surrounding areas as well. He had a pretty unique role
Speaker 1: with forced protection because he was in charge of physical security,
Speaker 1: so all the checkpoints and those kind of things that
Speaker 1: our division was in charge of the security for the
Speaker 1: polling sites during the first national Iraqi elections in two
Speaker 1: thousand five. That was a little bit scary, but a
Speaker 1: great opportunity for him again because he was just on
Speaker 1: the road all the time. One of the reasons why
Speaker 1: we are adamant about voting and talking to these younger
Speaker 1: generations about why it's so important to vote and use
Speaker 1: their voice when they're voting is in Iraq, people were
Speaker 1: waiting in line to vote to make their voice heard
Speaker 1: for the first time ever. And there were suicide bombers.
Speaker 1: There was vehicle bombs, there is roadside bombs, there were
Speaker 1: attacks on polling places to silence those voices. After my
Speaker 1: husband and his teams would go out to clean up
Speaker 1: these polling sites, people would be their waiting in line
Speaker 1: again to make their voices heard. So it's it was
Speaker 1: that important to them that despite these attacks, they would
Speaker 1: go to the polling sites. And while you're there, what
Speaker 1: type of work are you doing in Iraq? So when
Speaker 1: I was over there, I had two different jobs. So
Speaker 1: the first half of the deployment, I was in charge
Speaker 1: of these drones by planes. They were the shadow tactical
Speaker 1: unmanned aerial vehicles. I was a first person with a
Speaker 1: third infortuted division to have that type of equipment. Myself,
Speaker 1: my company commander, and our first sergeant. We received our
Speaker 1: equipment and we also welcomed our first soldiers into that
Speaker 1: unit in July of two thousand and four and then
Speaker 1: had to train and prepare for deployment by February of
Speaker 1: two thousand five. So that was a really unique experience
Speaker 1: because there was only one other unit in the army
Speaker 1: who had been doing it, and they had just done
Speaker 1: it the year prior to us arriving, So it's a
Speaker 1: really steep learning curve. One of the things I think
Speaker 1: I learned out of that deployment and out of that
Speaker 1: experience of being a platoon leader is you know, you
Speaker 1: get your soldiers, it's a really wide age range of
Speaker 1: people that you are thrown in together with all varying backgrounds,
Speaker 1: and then me as a platoon leader, I had the
Speaker 1: least experience among all of them, but I was looked
Speaker 1: at as a leader. So so really, I think for
Speaker 1: for me, one of the things that I've always tried
Speaker 1: to do as a good leader, a good manager, or
Speaker 1: even just a friend is just making sure that you
Speaker 1: take care of your people, you know, making sure that
Speaker 1: when we got over to Iraq, they were calling their
Speaker 1: families and they had been in touch with their families
Speaker 1: to let them know they had gotten there, making sure
Speaker 1: that they needed what they needed to be able to
Speaker 1: do their jobs well and to be able to make
Speaker 1: it home. And so, my guys, we had a laundren
Speaker 1: recovery site located out of Taji, which is just north
Speaker 1: of Baghdad. It was our responsibility to make sure that
Speaker 1: these drones were conducting two seven operations on reconnaissance to
Speaker 1: ensure the safety of our coalition and US multinational forces.
Speaker 1: My guys saved a lot of lives from the work
Speaker 1: that they did, and it was work that that couldn't
Speaker 1: go without a break. So we literally had birds up
Speaker 1: twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, the
Speaker 1: entire year. I want to talk now about your life
Speaker 1: after the military, starting with your retirement from the Army.
Speaker 1: When did you know it was the right time to
Speaker 1: leave and what was that transition into civilian life like.
Speaker 1: So after my deployment to Iraq in two thousand five
Speaker 1: to two thousand six UM and obviously meeting my husband
Speaker 1: and then getting married and all of that stuff, the
Speaker 1: Army at the time was doing these extended deployments where
Speaker 1: they were going to be deployed for eighteen months sometimes more,
Speaker 1: and we decided at that time that maybe being dual
Speaker 1: military wasn't the right fit for us. At the time,
Speaker 1: just starting a family and everything that we wanted to do.
Speaker 1: The situation with my mother was improving and she had
Speaker 1: an opportunity as well to be released from prison, and
Speaker 1: so it was at that point in time that we
Speaker 1: decided that leaving the military was going to be the
Speaker 1: right decision for us. So in two thousand seven is
Speaker 1: when we got out and we moved to Colorado where
Speaker 1: I was born and raised, and we were able to
Speaker 1: be with my grandmother, my brothers, and then also helped
Speaker 1: support my mom as she transitioned out from the prison
Speaker 1: system and then helped her with her transition into civilian
Speaker 1: life as well. What drew you to volunteering and working
Speaker 1: with nonprofits during this time? In two thousand and eight,
Speaker 1: the Medal of Honor convention came to Colorado, and that
Speaker 1: is when I met all these veterans who had received
Speaker 1: the Medal of Honor, and the Medal of Honor is
Speaker 1: the highest award bestowed upon any military service member, and
Speaker 1: these true real life heroes were just so humble and
Speaker 1: many of them had their own stories that they were
Speaker 1: willing to share with us. And it was in that
Speaker 1: point that I realized that I wanted to do more
Speaker 1: for veterans. Being a veteran myself, I think for a
Speaker 1: lot of veter ends leaving the military, that's one of
Speaker 1: the things that we all miss the most is that
Speaker 1: we have this higher purpose and greater mission that we
Speaker 1: are all going towards. With volunteering, I was looking for
Speaker 1: something to contribute to and to just better myself and
Speaker 1: better the community that I was living in and so
Speaker 1: using my post nine eleven g I Bill, I decided
Speaker 1: to go to school to get my master's degree and
Speaker 1: start working in the nonprofit sector. So the first nonprofit
Speaker 1: organization that I worked for was called Veterans Green Jobs.
Speaker 1: They were interested in helping veterans who are transitioning out
Speaker 1: of the military to get jobs in the green energy sector,
Speaker 1: and so it was a really great organization to be
Speaker 1: part of. I was surrounded by other veterans who wanted
Speaker 1: to just help our fellow brothers and sisters and arms,
Speaker 1: and I'm still again very good friends with many of them,
Speaker 1: just because of that common interest and the common path
Speaker 1: that we took together. Working at Veterans Green Jobs really
Speaker 1: helped me to refine how I wanted to help veterans,
Speaker 1: and it was in employment. It was helping them discover
Speaker 1: what they wanted to do post military, the skills that
Speaker 1: they had learned, and the leadership that they had been taught,
Speaker 1: and how all of that can transition into a successful
Speaker 1: civilian career where they can work for companies that they're
Speaker 1: proud of, where they can have jobs that are well
Speaker 1: paying and support their families and just be out in
Speaker 1: their communities again, So where did things go from there?
Speaker 1: What was the next tour for you in your career
Speaker 1: after Veterans Green Jobs. So I started working with many
Speaker 1: companies across the country and helping them to recruit veterans,
Speaker 1: essentially like a headhunter almost, but again we were a
Speaker 1: nonprofit organization and helping veterans achieve employment. And so with
Speaker 1: with that came a lot of connections into companies that
Speaker 1: were interest in hiring veterans. Xcel Energy was one of
Speaker 1: the companies that I partnered with. They operate out of Minnesota,
Speaker 1: and then they also have corporate headquarters in Colorado and Texas,
Speaker 1: and so being in Colorado, it was a really great
Speaker 1: opportunity for me to work with this company, this utility
Speaker 1: company that had so many great jobs and were interested
Speaker 1: in hiring veterans. Again, it was just really great timing
Speaker 1: where after I had graduated from Regis in two thousand
Speaker 1: and ten, and then the CEO of Xcel Energy in
Speaker 1: two thousand and twelve actually testified in front of the
Speaker 1: joint chiefs about why it's smart to hire veterans, why
Speaker 1: it was a good business case to hire veterans. With
Speaker 1: that came internally the interest and intentionality of Xcel Energy
Speaker 1: wanting to hire veterans and create a veteran hiring program
Speaker 1: internal to the company, and I was brought in to
Speaker 1: launch their internal veteran hiring program, which to this day
Speaker 1: we still hire ten percent military veterans. External to the company,
Speaker 1: we have a fantastic internal employee Veterans Affinity group, and
Speaker 1: there's just a lot of people who do a lot
Speaker 1: of good for veterans in the communities where we work,
Speaker 1: live and play. Now I am an account manager working
Speaker 1: with large customers and communities to help them achieve their
Speaker 1: energy goals and sustainability goals, but I'm still very involved
Speaker 1: in that employee affinity group. I'm actually the chair of
Speaker 1: the Military Veterans Employee Group at XL and we do
Speaker 1: a lot as far as supporting our employees who are
Speaker 1: currently serving in the National Garden Reserve, who may be
Speaker 1: going on active training or deployments, supporting them and their families.
Speaker 1: We do a lot of volunteering in the communities, helping
Speaker 1: homeless veterans, building care packages, renovating homes, writing letters to
Speaker 1: veterans who are in our nursing centers and community living centers.
Speaker 1: So we do a lot in the community through that
Speaker 1: Veterans program, and so it's in that way that I'm
Speaker 1: still able to give back to the veteran community and
Speaker 1: to help my brothers and sisters in arms. What are
Speaker 1: some of the biggest obstacles or misconceptions around employment for veterans,
Speaker 1: both from an employer and a veterans perspective. I think
Speaker 1: for a lot of transitioning veterans coming out of the
Speaker 1: military and directly into civilian life is we don't understand
Speaker 1: the full breadth and scope of everything that we achieved
Speaker 1: in the military being really attractive to the employers and
Speaker 1: to the companies who want to hire us. The average
Speaker 1: soldier is in charge of millions of dollars of equipment,
Speaker 1: they're in charge of each other, They're taught so many
Speaker 1: leadership skills, but you don't really realize all of that
Speaker 1: because it's just part of your day to day while
Speaker 1: you're serving in the military. It's nothing really special, it's
Speaker 1: nothing really that stands out. But to the civilian mindset
Speaker 1: and to corporate America, it does stand out, and I
Speaker 1: think people need to understand that sounds almost like you
Speaker 1: were teaching veterans how to remarket their skill sets. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's exactly right, is remarketing the skills that you've acquired
Speaker 1: in the military. You're you're given a job, and you're
Speaker 1: given an MS or a designation for what your job is,
Speaker 1: and that's really all you think that you're doing. But
Speaker 1: as one of my mentors put it perfectly is veterans,
Speaker 1: you're more than your MS. You are the leadership that
Speaker 1: you've learned from. You are the people and the culture
Speaker 1: and the diversity that you've surrounded yourselves with, and you're
Speaker 1: the experiences that came with your MOS. And so it's
Speaker 1: really unique experience being a veteran coming out into the workplace.
Speaker 1: You know, the biggest misconception, unfortunately with veterans is the
Speaker 1: stigma around PTSD. PTSD isn't just a veteran issue, it
Speaker 1: is it is a human issue. Um. Anybody can suffer
Speaker 1: from PTSD, and and while it's true many veterans UM
Speaker 1: have big diagnosed with PTSD, it doesn't mean they're not employable.
Speaker 1: Many who are diagnosed know what the triggers are and
Speaker 1: they avoid them or they have ways of dealing with them,
Speaker 1: and they can function just as fine in the civilian
Speaker 1: workplace as anybody else, What are some of the causes
Speaker 1: and organizations that you really care about and that you
Speaker 1: continue to work with today. The causes that I care
Speaker 1: about really kind of run the gamut, and they have changed,
Speaker 1: I would say over the last decade that I've lived
Speaker 1: in Colorado. I would say one Veterans obviously is still
Speaker 1: probably one of the top priority of causes for me,
Speaker 1: and so just volunteering and working with a number of
Speaker 1: the veterans serving organizations is still there. I've also been
Speaker 1: on the board for Women Veterans of Colorado, which is
Speaker 1: a organization that just brings together women veterans in Colorado.
Speaker 1: It gives us a platform and a space to come
Speaker 1: together as women who have served in the military, who
Speaker 1: have served in the Armed forces, and have this unique
Speaker 1: experience for us to come together and support each other
Speaker 1: through the emotional, the physical, the mental kind of all
Speaker 1: the challenges that came with being a woman in the military.
Speaker 1: One of the cool things that I got to do
Speaker 1: was actually part of this documentary called Women Warriors, and
Speaker 1: the production team was from a local community college out
Speaker 1: of Front Range Community College, and these students put together
Speaker 1: this awesome documentary of women veterans from Colorado from all
Speaker 1: different eras of service from World War Two all the
Speaker 1: way to post nine eleven, and it was a great
Speaker 1: opportunity to tell our stories of service and talk about
Speaker 1: our experiences, whether they were good, whether they were bad,
Speaker 1: and how that helped to shape who we are today.
Speaker 1: And that team actually won an Emmy for their work.
Speaker 1: I have a Congressional Record of Service sitting at the
Speaker 1: Library of Congress now um for my contributions to that documentary.
Speaker 1: So just really unique opportunities through women veterans of Colorado
Speaker 1: and really special relationships with with all the ladies that
Speaker 1: I've come to know through that as well. It was
Speaker 1: really an empowering thing for me to join the Army,
Speaker 1: even more empowering now post military service to use the
Speaker 1: voice that I was given back to help others in
Speaker 1: the community, whether it's building the future for my kids,
Speaker 1: whether it's for homeless veterans who are suffering and dealing
Speaker 1: with mental health issues, whether it's helping to lay a
Speaker 1: path for other girls like my daughters to follow in
Speaker 1: my footsteps and join the military. My husband and I
Speaker 1: have grand dreams of both of them serving their country.
Speaker 1: I will try to build them up as much as
Speaker 1: I can so that they are they are army strong
Speaker 1: and army ready. But really it'll be up to them. Well,
Speaker 1: I appreciate your openness so much on so many levels. Um.
Speaker 1: I think you have a tremendous story and also just
Speaker 1: a will that is giving back constantly. So thank you
Speaker 1: for your message, thank you for your story, thank you
Speaker 1: for your time, and most importantly, thank you for your service. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Hopefully I'll see around sometime. I'm in Colorado
Speaker 1: quite a bit, so maybe one day I'll see out
Speaker 1: and about for sure. Thanks Bobby. It is inspiring to
Speaker 1: see veterans like Keeney not only volunteer to serve their country,
Speaker 1: but find new ways to continue a life of service
Speaker 1: as civilians too. Thanks for listening to Vets you should
Speaker 1: know check out our other episodes from more great stories
Speaker 1: from inspiring vets who continue to work selflessly and tirelessly
Speaker 1: in civilian life to make positive change. If you like
Speaker 1: what you heard, please rate and review the podcast. We
Speaker 1: want to hear from you, and don't forget to subscribe
Speaker 1: for free or follow the show on the I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Speaker 1: Vets You Should Know is a special four part series
Speaker 1: podcast from I Heart Radio hosted by me Bobby Bones.
Speaker 1: Our show has written and produced by Molly Sosha, Andy Kelly,
Speaker 1: Ethan Fixel in partnership with Haley Ericson and Garrett Shannon
Speaker 1: of Banter, edit sound design and mixed by Matt Stillo
Speaker 1: and my personal producer and hero is Mike d an
Speaker 1: Turn