Celebrating Military Women

What made you decide to join the military?

Jessica Bugbee (Army)

I decided to join the military when I was 27 years old because I wanted to serve my country and give back to the opportunities I have had in my life. Another reason is that I wanted to be in the medical field, so I ended up being a combat medic. Being in the military made me feel like I was participating in something that transcended my own needs and allowed me to help other people. However, I soon realized that I spent more time serving others than myself. When I decided to leave the army, I joined other types of organizations with the idea of ​​being in a civilian environment where they could help me at the same time that I helped people.

Mary Mendola (WAC)

I didn't go into the army because I wanted to serve the country. I entered because I wanted to have the opportunity to go to university, since my family was opposed to the idea. I was the only child of an Italian American family where I was taught that my role in life was to finish high school and get married. When I told my parents that I wanted to go to college, my mother went to her room to cry because she thought that if I was smart no man would want to marry me. My father simply thought that spending money on my education was a waste. Why invest money in my education if I was going to end up married to a man who would support me anyway? My biggest dreams in life were to graduate from college and become a writer. When I turned 18, I decided to join the army because it was the only way to escape the fate that my parents' culture and community had imposed on me.

Dawn Austin (Air Force)

I decided to enter the army not for patriotic but for selfish reasons, since the conditions in which I grew up were not very favorable for a successful adulthood. Joining the military was the only way for me to go to college, so I joined right out of high school. I highly value the ties I formed in aviation as they taught me to raise a family with different ethnic backgrounds. The sense of belonging that is formed is so strong that none of these differences matter.

Andrea Molina (Marine Infantry)

After 9/11, I felt like I wasn't safe anywhere. At 26, I joined the Marine infantry because it was the only way to feel like I was part of what was happening and to help. In the military forces I learned that “where men walk, women must fly”. This means that, to get far in both the civilian and military fields, women travel a much more complicated path than men. After internalizing this reality, I tried to be excellent in everything I did. I knew that as a woman it would cost me twice as much to achieve my goals as it would for our male counterparts.

*Traducción al inglés y edición final por Karen Ruiz León
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