Speaker 1: Please be advised the following episode contains references to violence
Speaker 1: and may not be suitable for all audiences. Welcome to
Speaker 1: Veterans you should Know a podcast from My Heart Radio
Speaker 1: that celebrates the men and women who have honorably answered
Speaker 1: a call to serve their country in the Armed Forces.
Speaker 1: I'm Rob Reel, actor, comedian, and former Marine raw In
Speaker 1: this special series Honoring Veterans Day, I'll be speaking with
Speaker 1: four incredible veterans as they detail challenges they've faced and
Speaker 1: how their experiences in military service served them in their
Speaker 1: everyday civilian lives. For this episode, we're switching things up
Speaker 1: a bit and speaking with a future veteran. Chief Warrant Officer.
Speaker 1: Natasha Ryan is an active duty black Hawk pilot with
Speaker 1: multiple deployments under her belt in her twenty plus years
Speaker 1: in the Army. Yeah. I didn't join for probably the
Speaker 1: most patriotic reasons, but I will tell you that it has.
Speaker 1: You know, over the wars of these last two decades
Speaker 1: absolutely changed who I am at the core of myself.
Speaker 1: Her first time stationed overseas, she bumpd with two women
Speaker 1: aviators who encouraged her to submit a flight package to
Speaker 1: become a pilot. And to her surprise but not ours,
Speaker 1: she was accepted into the pilot training program, changing her
Speaker 1: life forever. Thank you for joining us, Natasha. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the show. Thanks Rob. It's really great to be here.
Speaker 1: So let's just start at the beginning. Shall we tell
Speaker 1: us where you're from and how you found your way
Speaker 1: to the military. So I joined in and I was
Speaker 1: in Ohio, That's where I grew up. I was lifeguarding
Speaker 1: over the summer, playing soccer out of four ride scholarship,
Speaker 1: and there were two of us that were on four rides.
Speaker 1: The other girl had blown out her knee that season
Speaker 1: in the school said hey, we're not to pay for
Speaker 1: school next year. So I thought, Man, if that happens
Speaker 1: to me, what am I going to do? So went
Speaker 1: home lifeguarden was talking to some of my friends there
Speaker 1: and one of them said, Hey, what do you think
Speaker 1: about joint in the military? IM I know they pay
Speaker 1: for school. I know that's not the most patriotic answer,
Speaker 1: but that's what got me in the door. That's a
Speaker 1: real answer. That's a very real answer, and it applies
Speaker 1: to almost everybody signs up. So yeah, I can tell
Speaker 1: you twenty two years later though, that's not why I'm
Speaker 1: still here. But anyway, so I went talked to recruiters,
Speaker 1: signed up, and was relatively quickly off on my first
Speaker 1: deployment to Bosnia. And it was just kind of hooked.
Speaker 1: You know, when you're young and you work at a
Speaker 1: pizza shop or something like that, you don't realize that
Speaker 1: you could potentially have a real impact in the world.
Speaker 1: And so getting the opportunity to go overseas and see
Speaker 1: the way other people live outside of our you know,
Speaker 1: America bubble and being able to affect that was hugely
Speaker 1: impactful for me. So it wasn't too long after that
Speaker 1: that I just said, man, I gotta do this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you're right, a lot of people underestimate that. I
Speaker 1: remember Tom Rix, who was a journalist for the Well
Speaker 1: Street Journal who wrote a book about the Marine Corps,
Speaker 1: and he and he was talking about some of the
Speaker 1: Marines he met, these nineteen twenty year old squad leaders
Speaker 1: that we're taking patrols through the streets of Somalia, and
Speaker 1: their decisions our international incidents, you know, like if they
Speaker 1: decide to engage, if they tried to pull that trigger,
Speaker 1: if they decide that has global ramifications potentially, and you
Speaker 1: have these nineteen twenty year old soldier or marine out
Speaker 1: there making those decisions, sailor or airmen making those decisions,
Speaker 1: and to think, like you just said, a year before,
Speaker 1: they were in a pizza shop. So it is really
Speaker 1: amazing that you can go from something like that to
Speaker 1: a tremendous amount of responsibility. Now you find yourself in
Speaker 1: the army, you're deployed pretty quickly, but you decided to
Speaker 1: change jobs. If I understand correctly, and you did not,
Speaker 1: it's not small change either. It was a pretty radical
Speaker 1: change in MS, which for our non military listeners military
Speaker 1: occupational specialty, your j Ob, can you tell us about that? Yeah.
Speaker 1: So when I came in in the jobs that were
Speaker 1: offered to me were predominantly administrative jobs, and so I
Speaker 1: got a job as a seventy one LIMA Fox five
Speaker 1: and back then that was an administrative specialist with a
Speaker 1: postal specialty. And so I went on this mission of
Speaker 1: Pakistan where we were based out of the Islami Bod
Speaker 1: Embassy and helping to run the mail out of there.
Speaker 1: And when I got to one of the posts we're
Speaker 1: staying the night there, I woke up in the morning
Speaker 1: and there were two women that got up and they
Speaker 1: had flight suits on and it's kind of embarrassing, but
Speaker 1: it was two thousand four or two thousand five, and
Speaker 1: I didn't realize that. I've never seen a woman pilot.
Speaker 1: I just didn't realize that was a thing. So I
Speaker 1: asked them if they were crew chiefs and they they said, no,
Speaker 1: we're pilots. And I spent a good part of the
Speaker 1: deployment with them, flying the mail around to these different
Speaker 1: spots in Pakistan, and they said, hey, you should, if
Speaker 1: you're interested in it, you should put a flight packet
Speaker 1: in and they said it just like that, so that
Speaker 1: it sounded like it was going to be real easy,
Speaker 1: and uh, and it was not. The packet process, the school,
Speaker 1: none of it was easy. Yeah, that sounds like a
Speaker 1: classic recruiters trick. Oh yeah, it's a walk in the park. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you do a little boot camps, no big deal. Then
Speaker 1: you go a little training here and there, and then
Speaker 1: you're gonna be stationed in Hawaii. Trust me, just signed
Speaker 1: right here. It's amazing how they do that. But that's awesome.
Speaker 1: So these two aviators, you spent a lot of time
Speaker 1: with them, obviously traveling around, flying around, delivering the mail. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that tie you spent with them, something triggered in you.
Speaker 1: You saw something that you thought you could do. I'll
Speaker 1: definitely say that I feel like representation is really important.
Speaker 1: I would have never thought that I could do that
Speaker 1: job if I didn't see somebody like me doing it.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I don't think that I couldn't
Speaker 1: have done it, but I probably would have thought that
Speaker 1: there wasn't a place for me, and maybe I wasn't welcome,
Speaker 1: so put the packet in. I was in Korea when
Speaker 1: they called and said, hey, you got selected, and you know,
Speaker 1: my first thought was a ship. I better hurry up
Speaker 1: and get smart. So I went to Warrant Officer Candidate
Speaker 1: school and I got through that a lot of rite
Speaker 1: of passage stuff, just seeing who can suck the best.
Speaker 1: And got out of that school and they said, hey,
Speaker 1: we're getting ready to go to see your school next.
Speaker 1: Before one can earn their pilot wings, they must pass Survival, Evasion,
Speaker 1: Resistance and Escape Training, also known as SEER school. This
Speaker 1: military school prepares perspective pilots for a worst case scenario.
Speaker 1: It teaches them what to do and how to survive
Speaker 1: if their aircraft goes down. Behind enemy lines. If you pass,
Speaker 1: the next stop is flight school. The Army's warrant officer
Speaker 1: flight program has the nickname high School to flight School
Speaker 1: because it's the only service that allows pilot training without
Speaker 1: a college degree. After two years of classroom and hands
Speaker 1: on training, Natasha earned her gold wings as a qualified
Speaker 1: Army Blackhawk pilot. When you enlisted, did you ever think
Speaker 1: that you were going to be in the cockpit flying
Speaker 1: in a combat zone? I mean, did you ever have
Speaker 1: that moment when you're sitting the cockpit going through your checklist, going, Wow,
Speaker 1: this is happening. I'm here, I'm driving this thing. Wow, brob,
Speaker 1: I ever thought I was going to join the military.
Speaker 1: I mean, that was never even in my plans, let
Speaker 1: alone to be a rotary wing aviator. I mean, it
Speaker 1: just never crossed my mind. And I'll tell you, I
Speaker 1: distinctly remember thinking, when I was putting this packet in,
Speaker 1: You're probably not going to get picked up, but at
Speaker 1: least this is a good story to tell your kids
Speaker 1: when they try out for like Little League and they
Speaker 1: don't make the team, that hey, at least you tried,
Speaker 1: because now you know. And so when they called, that
Speaker 1: really was my first thought. I was like, oh, ship,
Speaker 1: get smart, hurry up. But when I the first time
Speaker 1: I set in a black Hawk, I remember just looking
Speaker 1: around me and thinking, there's nowhere they didn't put a
Speaker 1: switch or a button or a lever, and how am
Speaker 1: I ever going to get all this down? It was overwhelming. Yes,
Speaker 1: it absolutely is. I had a little pilot experienced myself
Speaker 1: when I started in the Marine Corps, so I fully
Speaker 1: appreciate what you're describing and what you're talking about, and
Speaker 1: it is a daunting task. And I do appreciate what
Speaker 1: you're saying to about trying going for something and whether
Speaker 1: it happens or doesn't happen, it's the fact that you
Speaker 1: through your head in the ring and said I'm willing
Speaker 1: to give it a shot. And then when they call
Speaker 1: your bluff, it's another thing because then you're like, oh, crap,
Speaker 1: I gotta get smart like you just said, or I
Speaker 1: better figure this out, or I guess I'm in this now.
Speaker 1: But it's kind of a wonderful thing too, because it
Speaker 1: brings out your best. Usually you find that your whatever
Speaker 1: you your thought your limits were, they weren't there. They
Speaker 1: were way above and that's great for growth for personal growth.
Speaker 1: I think, Yeah, I think a place that I have
Speaker 1: lived in consistently is a place of impostor syndrome and
Speaker 1: just constantly being around all of these greats and just
Speaker 1: thinking what am I doing among these people? And it's
Speaker 1: a matter of time before I'm found out. And so
Speaker 1: I remember going through flight school and I kept a
Speaker 1: notebook of whenever the i P or the instructor would say, like,
Speaker 1: you got that I was at the North and South, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I got it, I got it, and I'd write it down.
Speaker 1: They probably thought I was taking notes and I was
Speaker 1: on all the ship I didn't understand. We have a
Speaker 1: library on Fort Rutger that's just for flight school students,
Speaker 1: and some old, well seasoned aviators work in that library.
Speaker 1: So I would take my notebook with me there every
Speaker 1: single night, and I would set with those old guys
Speaker 1: and I would man, I'd tell me, I need you
Speaker 1: to tell me about this, because I definitely said I understood,
Speaker 1: I don't am I I P is gonna ask me
Speaker 1: about it tomorrow. Get me smart tonight. That's so smart, though,
Speaker 1: and that's so true. I obviously I served two and
Speaker 1: my answer was always yes, sir, yes, ma'am got it.
Speaker 1: Absolutely locked and loaded. I'm moving out right now to
Speaker 1: go take care of that. And I would go run
Speaker 1: around the halls going what does this mean? What does
Speaker 1: this mean? What do I do? You know you're looking
Speaker 1: for answers anywhere, but the answers always yes, I got it,
Speaker 1: I got it. And then you then you go find
Speaker 1: it somehow. You find somebody smart, or find somebody has
Speaker 1: a clue, and you start doing your detective work. But
Speaker 1: I do love the fact that you took the time
Speaker 1: to find your way through it. You didn't take anything
Speaker 1: for granted. You found that resource. I heard you say earlier.
Speaker 1: I want to go back for one second. You know,
Speaker 1: when I joined it, you know, it didn't feel like
Speaker 1: it was for the most patriotic reasons or whatever. It
Speaker 1: felt like it was more business and more practical. But
Speaker 1: that is that. That's life, you know. It is a
Speaker 1: little bit of patriotism. Otherwise you would have come up
Speaker 1: with other options, but it is practical. Over your time
Speaker 1: of service and through the growth professionally and probably personally
Speaker 1: that you've gone through in the military, maybe that outlook
Speaker 1: has changed a little bit. I don't know. You tell us, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, when I think about it. I
Speaker 1: think probably the best analogy is like you don't meet
Speaker 1: your significant other because you bet they have a great personality,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean they're good looking, and the the
Speaker 1: same goes for the army. Yeah. I didn't join for
Speaker 1: probably the most patriotic reasons, but I will tell you
Speaker 1: that it has, you know, over the course of these
Speaker 1: last two decades, absolutely changed who I am at the
Speaker 1: core of myself. No other generation of members of the
Speaker 1: military have been in too full scale conflicts literally for
Speaker 1: two decades consecutively. So there were many times where it
Speaker 1: was coming back from a deployment and waiting sometimes twelve
Speaker 1: months to the day before we were off again. For
Speaker 1: a lot of us, that was our life for a
Speaker 1: good portion of our careers, was just going back. And
Speaker 1: there was a point where I felt like I knew
Speaker 1: how to fly better in Afghanistan. I mean without a map,
Speaker 1: I felt like I could have flown you around that country.
Speaker 1: I was just there so much. But it truly becomes
Speaker 1: a part of your identity, you know. Now I'm I'm
Speaker 1: a wife and a mom and I remember, I mean
Speaker 1: this just happened, my daughter telling me that she didn't
Speaker 1: want to go to school and I could not help
Speaker 1: but think back to when we had assisted in UH
Speaker 1: building a school for these little girls in Afghanistan, and
Speaker 1: the Taliban had come in two days after we opened
Speaker 1: it and poisoned their water and killed them all, and
Speaker 1: so things like that. I mean, that absolutely impacts how
Speaker 1: I parent, because I definitely let Gabby Ryan know that,
Speaker 1: you know, in our house, you're gonna be grateful to
Speaker 1: go to school, You're gonna be happy. You've got running
Speaker 1: water in there, You've got great teachers, you have a
Speaker 1: whole building over your head. There's so much to be
Speaker 1: grateful for. And I don't ever want her to take
Speaker 1: that for granted, because the bottom line is eight of
Speaker 1: the world doesn't live like we do, and I just
Speaker 1: don't want her to ever forget how fortunate she is
Speaker 1: to be here. So I would have to say that
Speaker 1: my experience over the last two decades of absolutely I
Speaker 1: got the degree. I got two of them. H nice.
Speaker 1: But who I am is greatly largely in part to
Speaker 1: the experiences and the people I've met in the military.
Speaker 1: I think for people who have seen firsthand what tyranny
Speaker 1: looks like or injustice, it's something you never forget and
Speaker 1: you never take for granted. And so I have kids too,
Speaker 1: so I hear you. When I try to explain to
Speaker 1: them just how precious what we have and how valuable
Speaker 1: it is, and they want to get a Starbucks, I'm like,
Speaker 1: did you even hear what I just said? You know,
Speaker 1: it's crazy. On Natasha's first deployment to Afghanistan, she was
Speaker 1: part of a female Engagement team. These specific teams of
Speaker 1: women's service members work with special operations forces, similar affairs
Speaker 1: and intelligence teams. Their mission to help open up lines
Speaker 1: of communication and local villages. Male soldiers were often seen
Speaker 1: as threatening. Had engagement teams with women like Natasha's had
Speaker 1: the potential to build rapport with the Afghan women, and
Speaker 1: that was often critical it's admission success. There was a
Speaker 1: time we went to this women's hospital and we were
Speaker 1: told there was a portion of our training where it
Speaker 1: was like we were shown pictures that were of essentially
Speaker 1: women that would have been like disfigured somewhat, and you
Speaker 1: had to practice just keeping like a straight face when
Speaker 1: you saw this stuff, because when she realized you could
Speaker 1: speak dor, she'd get a little bit more comfortable with you,
Speaker 1: and they were really comfortable with you. They would take
Speaker 1: their book off, and sometimes you just didn't know what
Speaker 1: was going to be under there. We definitely we saw
Speaker 1: things like um saying there was a man without honor
Speaker 1: as a man without a nose. So when some of
Speaker 1: these really young girls would run away from you know,
Speaker 1: what was their sixty year old husband that they've been
Speaker 1: married to, and they would capture them again, they would
Speaker 1: cut their noses off. So you just had to really practice.
Speaker 1: She'd take that broke off, and you just have to
Speaker 1: brace for impact because it might be an eye gouged out,
Speaker 1: it might be an ear cut off. One woman, her
Speaker 1: son kept speaking for her and I couldn't figure out why,
Speaker 1: and I realized eventually that she had her tongue cut out.
Speaker 1: And the perspective that you get when you get into
Speaker 1: these situations is I'll never be I'll never be the same,
Speaker 1: and I'm so grateful for that, absolutely, And somebody has
Speaker 1: to tell that story. Somebody has to tell those stories
Speaker 1: because I think people back home have no concept of
Speaker 1: the tyranny and the terror that people live under every day.
Speaker 1: Veterans you should know will return after the break, Welcome
Speaker 1: back to veterans you should know in the army. I
Speaker 1: believe women make up about I could be off on that,
Speaker 1: but those are the numbers that I heard women make
Speaker 1: about of the army going down that funnel. It's even
Speaker 1: less in the aviation community. Oh yeah, Do you feel
Speaker 1: like you are a mentor two young women out there
Speaker 1: that want to be pilots? Do you feel that responsibility
Speaker 1: or do you feel eyes upon you? We tiptoe around
Speaker 1: it so much, and I really think that women really
Speaker 1: just want to be the same as you know, no
Speaker 1: special considerations. I think as far as the mentorship goes,
Speaker 1: there were not a lot of higher ranking women when
Speaker 1: I was coming up, and so I feel like at
Speaker 1: this juncture it's important for me to stick around and
Speaker 1: important for me to make sure that not just the
Speaker 1: young women, but it's normalized for the young men also,
Speaker 1: and that we can be a mom and a wife.
Speaker 1: You can have a family and continue to do this job.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to detract from your capabilities in the
Speaker 1: cockpit or or wherever they're doing the job. But I
Speaker 1: think the important thing is for women, did just realize
Speaker 1: that we're absolutely capable, competent able to do this and
Speaker 1: we should be there. I agree? I agree. Do you
Speaker 1: think the opportunities are there, you know, like I said,
Speaker 1: when I was coming up, nobody said, hey, girl, there's
Speaker 1: this really cool crew chief job, or you could do
Speaker 1: a program called high school to flight school. Nobody mentioned
Speaker 1: any really cool jobs like that. And when you think
Speaker 1: about joining the military, you don't think about processing some
Speaker 1: cool guys pay problems. You know, you think about going
Speaker 1: and doing a really cool army job. I think I
Speaker 1: wasn't any different, and then going to do an administrative
Speaker 1: job was a little bit of a letdown. But that
Speaker 1: doesn't have to be the end. You know, that doesn't
Speaker 1: have to be where you stop. You've got to continue
Speaker 1: to push forward and look for those opportunities. They're there.
Speaker 1: They might not be offered up to you, but they
Speaker 1: are there, and you can. You have to go seek
Speaker 1: those out. In all opportunities and occupations in the military
Speaker 1: were open to women for the first time. We are
Speaker 1: still seeing many first because of that. The Tomb of
Speaker 1: the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery is a sacred
Speaker 1: memorial in resting place for unidentified service members who perished
Speaker 1: in war. A guard from the Army's third U S
Speaker 1: Infantry Regiment, also known as the Old Guard, stands watch
Speaker 1: over the unknown soldier at all times. This fall, for
Speaker 1: the first time in history, the tomb had its first
Speaker 1: all female changing up the guard. When I saw that image,
Speaker 1: it was incredibly powerful to me. I mean, I think
Speaker 1: that is for sure in our military, guarding the tomb
Speaker 1: is just absolutely one of the highest honors that there is.
Speaker 1: And too for the first time ever, get to see
Speaker 1: that there were three women doing it was, you know,
Speaker 1: like I said, an incredibly powerful image. I know it
Speaker 1: resonates to me being in the military, but I think
Speaker 1: the important thing is for the generations to come seeing that,
Speaker 1: and not just the women, not just the young women,
Speaker 1: but the male population as well, to start normalizing that
Speaker 1: and viewing that women's contribution can be just as equal
Speaker 1: to a male's and and a lot of different occupations.
Speaker 1: So I think there is a standard to be met,
Speaker 1: and just like there is for the soldiers that guard
Speaker 1: the him, there's some strict standards that have to be met,
Speaker 1: and if that individual male, female, black, white, whatever it
Speaker 1: may be, if they have met those standards, let them
Speaker 1: have the job. I couldn't agree more. I think if
Speaker 1: you meet the standards, there should be no limits on anything.
Speaker 1: It's all about meeting the standards. You are a woman,
Speaker 1: and you are a leader, and you are a soldier.
Speaker 1: These are all facts. They're not in dispute. So let's
Speaker 1: talk about that, Like, do you see progress? Are you
Speaker 1: feeling like there is progress with regard to women in
Speaker 1: the army and the military in general. Absolutely, And I
Speaker 1: think the fantastic thing is that women are aggressively seeking it.
Speaker 1: And I think we are up to eighty four women
Speaker 1: that have been through ranger school and we just had
Speaker 1: a woman lead, a woman ranger lead in combat, and
Speaker 1: I think that those things are incredible, and I'm so
Speaker 1: excited that for my daughter, those aren't going to be first,
Speaker 1: you know, and that happens for her and her later years.
Speaker 1: It's not going to be a first. It's going to
Speaker 1: be normal. You said you have a daughter. You mentioned
Speaker 1: your daughter. What do you want her to know about
Speaker 1: your service? If she could have one takeaway that she
Speaker 1: gets to put in her hip pocket for the rest
Speaker 1: of her life, what would what would you want that
Speaker 1: to be. I've thought about that a lot, actually, you know,
Speaker 1: and I think that this is probably a thought that
Speaker 1: crosses anyone's mind who has I guess as far as
Speaker 1: the military goes anyone that has some rank about them,
Speaker 1: or has held a position of high authority, or had
Speaker 1: a really illustrious career. You worry that are your kids
Speaker 1: going to feel like they're always kind of standing in
Speaker 1: your shadow? Are they going to feel like they have
Speaker 1: to live up to what you did? I wanted to
Speaker 1: give everything to whatever she decides to do and know
Speaker 1: that she is very loved and very supported. I had
Speaker 1: a mom that just really never made me feel like
Speaker 1: there wasn't anywhere that I There was no where I
Speaker 1: didn't belong, so I never knew that there were places
Speaker 1: I probably wasn't welcome, and so I just walked in
Speaker 1: the door like I was supposed to be there, and
Speaker 1: I felt like the people that thought I shouldn't be
Speaker 1: were the ones with the problem. Just try, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean I tried and I got picked up, you know,
Speaker 1: So whatever it is, just jump in. Because failure is
Speaker 1: an integral part of success. You cannot have one without
Speaker 1: the other. And I've failed a lot more times than
Speaker 1: I ever succeeded. True words were never spoken when I
Speaker 1: started in acting in comedy. I failed so many times
Speaker 1: and they were all just flaming disasters. And yet if
Speaker 1: you stick with it, things can happen. So I totally
Speaker 1: agree with you on that. You also have a husband
Speaker 1: who I believe was a marine, which I'm sure that
Speaker 1: is a never ending source of frustration for you to
Speaker 1: hear his marine pride every day. Now he's out of
Speaker 1: the service, right now, he is out right, he's already
Speaker 1: in civilian as. He grown his beard and his hair
Speaker 1: and his hippie now he has wait, well, i'll tell
Speaker 1: you this. Robbie still gets his haircut on a military base,
Speaker 1: but he definitely has a tamed out beard. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it's tough, man. I have to hide the crayons all
Speaker 1: the time. It's hard when you got a five year
Speaker 1: old and they're fighting over crayons to eat. But now
Speaker 1: he's a great guy. We met on my last tour
Speaker 1: to Afghanistan, so you know, it was super scandalous and
Speaker 1: he was a contractor when I met him over there.
Speaker 1: He had just gotten out the Marine Corps, came over
Speaker 1: to do some private security contracting, and man, he was relentless.
Speaker 1: It was really like, you're going to marry me? Pretty much,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna leave you alone and tell you marry me.
Speaker 1: Marina admission is a dangerous thing, is it? Is it ever? Yeah,
Speaker 1: So came back to Texas with me and really it's
Speaker 1: just been an adventure. From there. We then PCs to
Speaker 1: Germany and went all over Europe. Fantastic. Yeah, he's a
Speaker 1: great dude. He's an accountant now, believe it or not.
Speaker 1: And if you ever saw Chris, he still looks very
Speaker 1: much like a marine. Still very much in great shape,
Speaker 1: super handsome man, and he crunches numbers for a living
Speaker 1: and loves it and it is really good at it. Wow,
Speaker 1: I I it's so hard to visualize a marine putting
Speaker 1: himself in a cubicle with numbers all day. Military people
Speaker 1: speaking acronyms PCs. You mentioned that, you know, you and
Speaker 1: your husband PCs throughout Europe. Can you please just let
Speaker 1: the people know what PCs means. Yeah, it's a permanent
Speaker 1: change of station. Now that means you went to Europe
Speaker 1: and we're stationed there and then probably got to move
Speaker 1: around Europe a little bit and in the in that process,
Speaker 1: got to travel all through Europe. Is that what I'm hearing? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what That's what the recruiter promised. And you're probably
Speaker 1: the only person that they ever delivered for on a
Speaker 1: promise like that. Oh yeah, it was a great time.
Speaker 1: I mean any time that we had time off, we
Speaker 1: would jump on a Ryan Air flight for like twenty
Speaker 1: bucks and we would be gone and some completely different culture,
Speaker 1: completely different food architecture. We kept a really cool scrap
Speaker 1: book too, so that Gabby can look back on those memories.
Speaker 1: I mean, we took her all over Morocco, Iceland, Switzerland, Ireland.
Speaker 1: Those are all those places I want to go to,
Speaker 1: all those places. Those are places sound amazing and brought
Speaker 1: to you by the United States Army. So I guess
Speaker 1: you know that is one of those little you know,
Speaker 1: they make a lot of promises in the recruiting office
Speaker 1: and very few payoffs, so that one clearly paid off
Speaker 1: for you, which is great. Sure did Sure did so, Natasha.
Speaker 1: A little Bertie told me that you are thinking about
Speaker 1: retiring soon. One is that correct? And two? If so,
Speaker 1: what are you looking forward to in civilian life? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So I got probably roughly to three more years left.
Speaker 1: You know, coming down to the end is definitely bitter sweet.
Speaker 1: You look forward to retirement and then it comes and
Speaker 1: you're like, man, how am I going to keep in touch?
Speaker 1: With all my friends. What am I going to miss
Speaker 1: out on a lot of fomo there? But I have
Speaker 1: definitely pondered teaching after I get out. I think you're
Speaker 1: almost remiss to have all of these worldly opportunities, and really,
Speaker 1: you know, like we were a small piece of history,
Speaker 1: you know, things that are going to go into these
Speaker 1: kids history books, and we weren't there, you know. And
Speaker 1: you talk about the military being one person of the population,
Speaker 1: and we are the one percent that was actually their
Speaker 1: boots on ground, smelled it, saw it, tasted, it hurt it.
Speaker 1: So I think the opportunity to give some of those
Speaker 1: first hand accounts are important. And then you know, like
Speaker 1: we had talked about earlier, the appreciation for what education holds,
Speaker 1: especially for demographics around the world that literally going to
Speaker 1: school is a fight for your life. Maybe absolutely, I
Speaker 1: love that. I think teaching is very noble. My mother
Speaker 1: was a teacher for thirty in years. I've actually thought
Speaker 1: about that too, to be honest with you, because I
Speaker 1: do agree with everything you just said. I think with
Speaker 1: the the experience and the knowledge that you have, you
Speaker 1: would almost be remiss not to somehow give that back
Speaker 1: with the wisdom that came along with that. Now, your husband,
Speaker 1: I have to do that every time the marine. Now
Speaker 1: he's been a civilian for a while. How has that
Speaker 1: helped you? I mean, you're you're about to leave twenty
Speaker 1: plus years, whatever you end up doing. Have you seen
Speaker 1: your husband in civilian life and his path and his
Speaker 1: experiences and his does that help in any way? Does
Speaker 1: that help shape what you're thinking? Yeah, Rob here reminds
Speaker 1: me anytime he sees me, like get up for something
Speaker 1: at at five or six o'clock in the morning, he
Speaker 1: makes sure to let me know, just quietly out here
Speaker 1: in the darkness. I don't miss that, you know. So
Speaker 1: I I know that he's definitely happy in the civilian world.
Speaker 1: I'm anxious, you know, because there's a certain way that
Speaker 1: we communicate with each other in the military, and it's
Speaker 1: usually very direct. I don't know how that translates into
Speaker 1: the civilian world. You know, you don't want to go
Speaker 1: into school like a drill instructor. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: I feel like my class would be very orderly and disciplined,
Speaker 1: and so I don't know, I might have to pick
Speaker 1: a whole different profession. I might have to you know what,
Speaker 1: I might have to go back to the mail. I
Speaker 1: might have to go back to walking the mail solitary
Speaker 1: with my dog, mace and headphones on. That might be
Speaker 1: what I have to do. No, I'm with you. As
Speaker 1: military people. We we cut through the bs and we
Speaker 1: get right to the point because we don't have time
Speaker 1: for the polish and the pleasant trees, and it's just business.
Speaker 1: Let's just get to business. Here's what you do, here's
Speaker 1: what I do. I trust you to do what you do.
Speaker 1: I trust me to do what I do. Let's work together,
Speaker 1: let's get the thing done. And out there in civilian
Speaker 1: land there's a lot more bs and polish. It's exhausting,
Speaker 1: and we come off as terse sometimes because we're just like, okay,
Speaker 1: let's just cut to the quick. I hear you. That
Speaker 1: is a little bit of a difference. I would say,
Speaker 1: could You'll be fine. You'll be fine. Your class of
Speaker 1: love you for it. You really have had an amazing
Speaker 1: career and one that I hope people aspired to because
Speaker 1: you do have this wonderful journey where you took advantage
Speaker 1: of all your opportunities and you made the most of them.
Speaker 1: You made it happen for yourself. You were the captain
Speaker 1: of your own ship and you did it, which to
Speaker 1: me is what this whole life is about. If people
Speaker 1: are thinking about joining the military, what would be your advice,
Speaker 1: what would be your nugget of wisdom that you can
Speaker 1: pass on after your journey that you've been through. Gosh,
Speaker 1: there's so much, you know. That's a tough question because
Speaker 1: it's wide open ended. It is, and I think the
Speaker 1: best advice that I could give them is these are
Speaker 1: probably going to be some of the most at least
Speaker 1: for me, especially flying the Metavact mission. These were for
Speaker 1: sure the most honorable days of my life. I don't
Speaker 1: think that there is something better that I could even
Speaker 1: think to do. So it's gonna have its moments that
Speaker 1: are incredibly fulfilling, and like any other job, you're going
Speaker 1: to have, you know, people you work with that you
Speaker 1: don't like, maybe hours you work that you you don't appreciate,
Speaker 1: and bosses you don't like. I mean, the good news
Speaker 1: in the military is are going to change out every
Speaker 1: two years to just hang on, but you're gonna get
Speaker 1: to go to some pretty amazing places that you may
Speaker 1: not have otherwise. You will for sure meet people that
Speaker 1: you would not have sat down and had conversations with otherwise,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna make some of the best friends of
Speaker 1: your life. Friendships that you know, you don't see that
Speaker 1: person for five years, and when you get back together,
Speaker 1: you pick up right where you left off. It's incredible.
Speaker 1: If I could get a certification, if I could get
Speaker 1: a degree I did. The Army used to have a
Speaker 1: saying back in the day of be all you can be,
Speaker 1: and I really try to take that to heart. I
Speaker 1: think I came from an environment where statistically I probably
Speaker 1: shouldn't have six in it. My dad wasn't like a
Speaker 1: West Pointer nobody and my family had gone to college
Speaker 1: at that point. Yeah, there was no reason that I
Speaker 1: should be where I am today. But I really think
Speaker 1: that at the end of the day, those decisions. You know,
Speaker 1: life's about choices, so you really got to choose wisely,
Speaker 1: and it is up to you. You can work at
Speaker 1: the post office and put a flight packet in and
Speaker 1: go fly helicopters. You know, you can go from driving
Speaker 1: around a fifteen pack van with mail in it to
Speaker 1: find a two million dollar aircraft. It's definitely up to you.
Speaker 1: I know, specifically, like you just said, some people feel
Speaker 1: like I've heard infection and say, well, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't understand how to get anything done on trust me
Speaker 1: that post nine eleven g I Bill. If you don't
Speaker 1: take advantage of that, you are missing the opportunity of
Speaker 1: a lifetime. It can change your life, it can change
Speaker 1: the trajectory of what you want to do with your life.
Speaker 1: Just give it a shot, find out how to make
Speaker 1: it happen, because it's worth it anyway. Natasha, I can't
Speaker 1: thank you enough for being here today and sharing your
Speaker 1: story with us and inspiring me and hopefully inspiring anybody
Speaker 1: who heard you today, because I think you are what
Speaker 1: it means to join the military and just carve out
Speaker 1: a path for yourself and something that everybody, including yourself,
Speaker 1: can be proud of. So thank you. Thanks for being
Speaker 1: with us today. Thank you, Rob, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much to Natasha for joining us and sharing
Speaker 1: her incredible words of wisdom. I know you're going to
Speaker 1: go on and do great things in retirements. You are
Speaker 1: an incredible role model, not only to your daughter, but
Speaker 1: to really anybody who meets you. Thanks for listening to veterans.
Speaker 1: You should know to hear more inspiring stories of perseverance
Speaker 1: and camaraderie. Check out all our episodes, including those from
Speaker 1: season one, featuring veterans who have overcome incredible obstacles and
Speaker 1: found renewed purpose in their civilian lives. If you enjoyed
Speaker 1: this episode, please rate and review the podcast. We would
Speaker 1: love to hear from you. You can listen to the
Speaker 1: show on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. Veterans you Should
Speaker 1: Know as a special four parts series from I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and hosted by me Rob Wriggle. Our show is
Speaker 1: written and produced by Molly Soscha, Nikia Swinton, and Jackie Perez,
Speaker 1: with assistance from Quincy Fuller. The show is edited, sound designed,
Speaker 1: and mixed by James Foster and Matt Stilla.