Visory Veterans…Happy New Year 2024!

This year, I wanted to start by giving thanks to all of our Visory Veterans, their families, and friends who support our community each and every day. Your selfless service and sacrifice are not forgotten.

As I reflect on the past year, I thought a lot about my military journey and my experiences along the way. I wanted to share some of those with you and start a dialogue about military service and transition from military service.

I’ve found that writing down what I’ve experienced, whether it be during a deployment, during one service obligation, from years of service, or as I transitioned out of the military, can help resolve unsettled feelings and provide clarity. Fellow Veterans can read, relate, and validate our collective feelings, while sharing what they’ve experienced along the way.

To start this dialogue, I will use the 3 Ups and 3 Downs framework

3 Ups and 3 Downs is a system that helps us reflect on our experiences by isolating three positives, or “ups,” and three negatives, or “downs.”

Three Ups: During My Service

1. First and foremost, it was my distinct privilege to serve in the United States military. Honor, service, and sacrifice are among my Ups. I am a patriot and a believer in our country and what it stands for through the Constitution I swore an oath to defend. You adapt, evolve, and become what and who is needed for a given mission.

2. As a nurse, being deployed and caring for our combat wounded was one of the most rewarding experiences I encountered during my years of service. That may sound strange, given I was in an active war zone taking care of combat wounded service members in a Combat Support Hospital, but as I helped their physical and psychological wounds, I understood the impact of my true purpose of serving.

My most poignant memory: I cared for a Soldier who came into our EMT burned head to toe from JP8 fuel. He was still talking when he laid on the gurney, and as I held his hand, he asked me not to let go. He never made it off the gurney and died minutes later. I don’t recall his name but will never forget his face and how he touched me still to this day.

3. My overall career experiences were also an “up.” Looking back, I may be viewing this with rose colored glasses, as I do recall some very difficult times. But overall, being stationed all over the world, being able to travel and experience places and cultures I’d otherwise never had that opportunity was a definitive positive.

Three Downs: During My Service

1. Leaving family behind for training, deployments and on occasion, PCSing alone. Learning to be away from family is part of the “resiliency” we all had to develop, but it was still a “down” for me.

PCSing is sometimes identified as a “down.” Although I enjoyed PCSing and moving to new places, I will agree that it was difficult on family members, especially children, having to uproot, enroll in a new school (sometimes in a new country), try to adapt and find new friends.

2. Each PCS came with a new command, job/position. In my career, a PCS meant having to “prove” yourself with your senior leadership and staff. With each move, it was almost like starting over.

3. Mandatory everything…from training to fun, must-dos get tiresome after 30 years. I understand and wholeheartedly support discipline and mission requirements, but every training evolution cannot be “priority.” Over the years, I reconciled mandatory fun for unit camaraderie and morale.

Those are a few of my thoughts. Do you have a different perspective? What are your ups and downs/memories you’d like to share with our Visory Veteran community?

Although each of us have similar experiences, we understand they are your individual experiences. If you, a fellow Veteran or family member needs some assistance, please access our Visory Veterans Resource page.

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Share your military experiences and memories with our Visory Veteran Community, 2024!