The Morning Formation Podcast
Hosted by KP Phillips—a U.S. Army combat veteran, former law enforcement officer, and seasoned instructor in tactics, firearms, and combatives—The Formation Podcast is built on the core pillars of Survivability, Situational Awareness, and the mindset to Adapt & Overcome.
Drawing from over two decades of real-world experience in combat zones and high-risk environments, KP leads authentic conversations with warriors, protectors, and everyday individuals who’ve faced adversity head-on. This podcast is more than content—it's a movement for those who understand that the fight begins before the event.
Through storytelling, lived experience, and expert insight, The Formation Podcast equips its listeners with the mindset, tools, and awareness to remain vigilant and prepared—whether on the battlefield, in the streets, or in everyday life.
The Morning Formation Podcast
Fighting for Better Military Housing: Melissa Godoy's Advocacy Journey
Caught in a whirlwind of systemic failures and neglect, Melissa Godoy brings her personal battle for better military housing to the forefront. Having once walked the halls of mold-ridden and poorly maintained military accommodations at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Melissa transforms her family's struggle into a relentless advocacy campaign. Join us as she dives deep into the heart of military living conditions, exposing the hidden truths about asbestos, rodent infestations, and more, calling for systemic reform.
Melissa's journey is a testament to the power of social media as a vehicle for change, showcasing her impactful use of platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. As she navigates this complex landscape, Melissa catalyzes a movement, drawing attention to the dire circumstances that military families endure and rallying support for their cause. Her drive highlights the essential role of advocacy in holding military housing accountable, and she provides invaluable insights for those wishing to step into the ring themselves.
The conversation takes a broader look at the challenges faced by military families, from the financial strain of high living costs to the educational impact of constant relocations. Through Melissa's experiences and stories, we uncover the persistent neglect within the military housing system, while exploring potential solutions and the significance of the Tenant's Bill of Rights. With unwavering determination, Melissa's journey underscores the urgent need for accountability and reminds us of the power of persistence in the pursuit of justice for our service members and their families.
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warriors fall in it's time for formation. So today's guest I actually met her on tiktok live. I tuned in and paid attention for a few minutes and quickly realized I need to get this lady on my podcast, mainly because she was doing such a great job with answering so many questions. And today I have the honor of speaking with Melissa Godoy, a dedicated advocate for improved military living conditions since 2019. Through her active presence on platforms like Instagram, facebook and TikTok, melissa has been a vocal supporter of military families, helping to shed light on the challenges many military families face today, and she's been working tirelessly to help advocate for a lot of changes for our military community.
Speaker 2:So, melissa, thank you for joining me. Hi, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Quite the honor and I am so happy that you are on the West Coast, because it's a struggle sometimes to fight that three-hour difference between the west and the east coast, and it doesn't sound like a lot, yeah, but uh, you know, I'm sure the world runs off the east coast, so it's uh, it's great to join you this on this wonderful friday evening. Thank you so, melissa, I just want to start off and ask you you know what inspired you to get started overall in advocating for the betterment of military living conditions?
Speaker 2:To long story short because I could give you the longer version, but for time's sake, the shorter version we'll have to do. We lived in, you know, my husband's active duty and we lived in military housing for years, you know, for years and years and years. And it wasn't up until we moved to JBLM that we saw what other families were going through. You know, I heard snippets here and there, but it just seems so outlandish to even consider that the housing, you know, could be unlivable or moldy or some of the other rumors that I was hearing, you know, within the military community, and it was just so unbelievable and I was so naive I just was like, well, that would just, it can't be that bad.
Speaker 2:And then we moved to joint base Lewis-McChord and we experienced that you know, we experienced the neglect from the military housing company, their complete disregard for our well, you know, our well-being and our safety, concerning all the complaints we had.
Speaker 2:And we ended up getting, you know, we lived in that house for pretty much exactly a year and that year, you know, for lack of better words, that year was hell and I ended up getting us displaced and while I was in the hotel, man that just lit a fire, I got to see and experience all of the injustice that so many families were talking about and so many other families were experiencing at that time in Joint Base Lewis-McChord and I just I felt like I just struggling for that one whole year in the housing, with endless complaints, endless maintenance issues getting ignored, and at the same time, you know, my husband is selflessly serving his country and we're just forking over all this money to be treated that way. And so that just lit a fire and I thought I have to do something. So I started these social medias and it started out as Lincoln Military Housing Toxic Homes, and then that turned into Military Housing Slumlords, and then that turned into military housing slumlords, and then that turned into military living conditions.
Speaker 1:Do you remember what were some of the top issues? Were there any major health issues? That was wrong with the military housing.
Speaker 2:There was just a lot of things wrong all at the same time. There was massive, just I think the biggest issue is ventilation. When you have poor ventilation, that leads to mold growth and poor ventilation, no AC, nasty water, rodent and bug infestations Just little things here and there falling apart. Poor maintenance response, slow maintenance response. I remember we had a leak underneath our kitchen sink and there was water slowly pooling from underneath the kitchen sink and I kept wiping it and I thought, wow, that's a big deal. There's water, you know. And I called the maintenance line and I said, hey, we have an active leak and someone didn't show up to our house until 24 hours later.
Speaker 1:Wow. And you know what's interesting about all this is, my father was stationed at Schofield Barracks back in 1990. And I remember as a kid looking at the base housing, thinking, wow, this base housing is old. Fast forward to 2003, 2004,. I get stationed at Schofield Barracks as a you know, as a brand new commissioned officer and it was the same housing that I thought in 1990 looked old. And here we are in 2023, 2024. And it was the same housing and I'm like, wow, this is like super. This is the same housing that we had back when I was 10 years old, living here on this base. It hasn't changed at all.
Speaker 1:I do remember like a lot of what you're saying, where, like trees were growing like into the house, there was like green, like moss on the actual houses on the windows and I thought who would live here? And it was one of my decisions when I got stationed at Schofield Barracks to not live on base. But shortly thereafter they did update the housing there on the base, but it was never to a decent quality standard of something I would want to live in. So I had the option to live off base. But those are conditions that are very substandard and should never be offered to, especially folks that are serving our country Like I know that a lot of times you know those contracts go out and it's the lowest bidder, I guess sometimes, and that's still no excuse. Overall, in your advocacy efforts, can you highlight some of the most pressing issues military families encounter regarding their living conditions? Is there anything else besides what you mentioned with the ventilation and the slow maintenance that you also can highlight?
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, there's contaminated water, gas leaks, asbestos, lead, what else? I think the biggest issue is the mold. There's families that literally have mold growing all over their house, on their belongings, on their clothing, their bedding, their furniture, having to throw out, you know, couches and beds and bags of clothes and toys, a lot of health issues, breathing issues. They're just handing out albuterol inhalers, just handing them out. So many families we had albuterol inhalers by the time we left housing. And there's families living in condemned homes, homes that were condemned and then they would turn around and put families back in and that's it, and it's not just isolated to family housing, the unaccompanied housing.
Speaker 2:Unaccompanied, you know, the for the single soldiers. They're experiencing so worse issues If you could even believe that, and they're not even allowed to complain about it. They don't have, you know, spouses like me to advocate for them. They're, they're in those barracks and they're stuck in there and they can't complain and their complaints are ignored. You know, I'm sure there are very responsive, caring commands out there that are just beside themselves with with. They don't know what to do, you know. And then they go to DPW, the director of public works say, hey, you know, these leaders are like hey, I got soldiers in here living in a moldy building, what can we do? And they get ignored. So there's multiple levels of negligence happening and it starts from the top down. You know, through through my advocacy you know I've kind of learned what the bigger picture is. And everything starts and ends with Congress.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Congress, they're the ones that allocate the funds. They're the ones you know. Senate Armed Service Committee they're the ones that allocate the funds. They're the ones that you know call all the shots for our military service members and our complaints are falling on deaf ears. I've been complaining to the Senate Armed Service Committee since the beginning, continuously send them emails and speak to them and have meetings, and they're like yeah, yeah, we hear you, we hear you. So this is happening, this is happening, and all they do is contact the command and and and it just it's like an endless cycle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a. It's a lot of inefficiency and a lot of like a lot of nothing happening. Because I, even when I was enlisted, I went to my advanced individual training and we had a temporary set of barracks that we stayed in prior to us starting our AIT training and during my time there I remember like sleeping on the bunks and looking at how disgusting they were, very unclean, like I ended up getting bronchitis staying in those barracks and I spent the next like nine weeks just coughing out my lungs and then you go to sick call and they just told me to drink water and run it off and that's all you really can do when you have bronchitis. But you get that. You get bronchitis from usually from like poor living, like like unsanitary living conditions, and I know that that's what happened. Was that staying in those barracks? I I remember distinctly how, how dirty they were and they were very disgusting and there wasn't a whole lot for us to do to clean them up because it was so bad.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I just want to ask you overall, you know, since you started your advocacy and the platforms that you're using Instagram, facebook, tiktok how has that aided in your overall efforts to advocate for the betterment of our military community?
Speaker 2:all efforts to advocate for the betterment of our military community. Well, I thought, since Congress you know there's a slow response with Congress what I wanted to do is get the word out. The general public, you know, and there was a time in my life I was the general public, I was not military affiliated, I was not married to anyone in the military and I thought that the military was a prestigious organization and it still is. But there were a lot of things that they don't talk about and housing you know the defect, and the medical care. There were things that they just don't talk about and they don't put out in the media. I never saw headlines reflecting such living conditions related to the military, never read anything in the news or saw anything in the news that had to do with poor living conditions. So it was very unheard of, it was a very hush-hush subject. So I thought, wow, the general public needs to know about this. Because of the general public. It's kind of I mean it's, you know putting. Because of the general public, it's kind of I mean it, you know putting, putting them in the spotlight, putting, you know, bad publicity. It's kind of obnoxious, but you know what it works putting, putting bad publicity about them saying hey, you know, if people don't know about this, I'm gonna tell them'm going to let them know.
Speaker 2:So I joined as many platforms as I could and just started putting content out there and families. Up to today, I've probably talked to thousands of service members and their family members married service members, single service members and they would tell me stories about their living conditions, their defects, their medical malpractice, sending me thousands of pictures of their living conditions just full of mold and bugs and all this stuff. And I thought, wow, the general public definitely needs to see this. And that has created, that has caused quite a stir with the powers that be that, hey, we, we can't be letting people know that you know we're not taking care of our service members. So that kind of generated a response and a domino effect. You know, when some of my tick talks went viral with over a million views, I was getting contacted by different DPW workers, different leaders, and it generated that response that I wanted. If you're not going to pay attention to me and these issues, I'm going to make you.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, and those social media platforms have a way of doing that in today's world, in 2025. And it's great that folks like you are fighting for that advocacy, because the one thing that I've learned over the years is you know, I served in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004, 2005. They say less than like 5% served in that war. 5% of the US population say less than like 5% served in that war. 5% of the US population. It bothers me now when I ask folks about things that I feel like they should know something about. So when I ask about stop loss, the majority of Americans don't know what that is. And it bothers me because I'm thinking to myself why and a lot of it has to do with the fact that less than 5% of the population I think 6% of the population ever served, and then less than that even served during wartime.
Speaker 1:So why would anyone care? So you've got 95% of the American population walking around. It's not in their backyard, it's not in their purview, so why do they care? And so what you're talking about is you're talking about living conditions. So less than five to 6% of the US population. They don't live in barracks, They've never experienced military housing, so why would they care? So unless you're out there doing what you're doing and talking about it, they would never ever know. And just overall, like in your efforts so far since you began your journey in being an advocate, you kind of led into it a little bit, but what changes or improvements have you witnessed so far with your advocacy overall with military housing?
Speaker 2:Well, when we first got displaced in 2019, I heard about the Tenants' Bill of Rights and I think they were just generating, they were just starting the talks about the Tenants Bill of Rights, but I was still in the middle of my housing issues and it just seemed hopeless to me and I didn't respond to those emails. I thought, wow, I felt like it was just a hopeless situation. I thought, wow, I felt like it was just a hopeless situation. But as I started, when I created a wave of displacements and I went all over the news and JBLM and just started displacing families myself, like hey, this family is living in mold, and I displaced over 30 families myself in a span of two weeks, over 30 families myself in a span of two weeks. Now, and I don't want to say specifically my actions, because there are dozens of other advocates out there that are, you know, going to the Hill and they're doing a lot of legislative work and I'd like to think that I'm just a drop in the bucket you know what I mean and that we're all working together towards the same thing and we're all doing something towards and working towards that goal. But I know, in JBL, families were getting displaced, people's homes were getting worked on. Families that were fighting to leave their house because of the living conditions got to leave their house and break their lease. But now, you know, with a combined effort of a lot of advocates and a lot of moving parts, we now have the tenants bill of rights. Tenants can withhold bh, even though a lot of this is very inconsistent there is no checks and balances, there is no enforcement but it is still there. There's still a lot of improvements that need to be made, but at least when we were in housing, we didn't have anything. I complained and I was literally told if you don't like it, you can leave. We weren't told hey, you have a military housing advocate. Hey, you have the Tenant's Bill of Rights. Hey, you can go to your residential communities initiative rep. You can go talk to this person or this person it was. If you don't like it, you can go to your residential communities initiative rep. You can go talk to this person or this person it was. If you don't like it, you can leave.
Speaker 2:So, through a combined effort of so many advocates and I'd like to think I'm included in that group there are now resources changes happening and even as far as the barracks. Changes were happening there as well. I've helped fix AC units in barracks. I've helped fix certain things in barracks.
Speaker 2:Somebody came to me with an issue with their AC unit and their defect and I just sent an inquiry to the Senate Armed Service Committee and said, hey, this defect they're blah, blah, blah, they need their ACE. And the soldier got back to me the next day and said somebody came over and fixed it. So that's kind of what I did. I would just send inquiries and just be that constant voice, that constant reminder, like hey, I was that checks and balances, because there is none, there is not a team of people chasing everybody around the military and in the Senate Armed Service Committee reminding them that they have service members that need help. And it's not just me, there are so many other advocates that are helping and posting about it and getting attention on it. So the changes are happening, not as fast as we want them to happen, of dollars they don't have. So I'm satisfied with any kind of change, no matter how small it is.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, it's all about holding them accountable, and folks like you are doing just that, doing your part to try to hold them accountable for making conditions bearable and livable and within standard. And just for folks out there that don't know, we've been talking about it, but JBLM stands for what? And then also too, can you walk me through the process of when a military service member shows up to a base? I know it goes off of rank two from what I understand, but how does that work? As far as whether or not you go in the barracks or you live on base or you live off base, do folks have options?
Speaker 2:Well, it depends on the installation, it depends on the state, it depends on how big the installation is. I know the bigger installations like Fort Cavazos and Fort Liberty. You know the couple installations in Georgia. Then Joint Base Lewis-McChord, the bigger installations tenants have a hard time getting into housing. There's long wait lists. People are living in RVs and living in hotels and stuff and it also depends on the cost of living that. So it varies close to three grand a month and that exceeds, you know. And then you're talking about gas prices, you're talking about utilities, you're talking about all the extra expenses that come with living off post. So it all depends. You know where they're living, what the cost of living is in that state.
Speaker 2:I know a lot of families here in Joint Base Lewis-McChord are struggling to live, you know, especially for you know the junior enlisted E1 to E4, and you know they don't make a lot of money.
Speaker 2:And so when you have rents that are $2,500 and up and a lot of them have, you know they need like a three or four or five bedroom house because they have large families the rent is just unaffordable.
Speaker 2:And of course there comes spouse unemployment and when you move to a new installation, spouses don't have that extra income to put on that rental application. So now you're basing everything off of that one income, which most of the time will disqualify you from even renting, because now you need three times the rent amount to rent. You need, you know, back, you need you need a credit check, and a lot of these young families, they don't have credit. So it's just so many things stacking against these families and so many things that they encounter. And a lot of families are one one vehicle families. They only have one vehicle. So that makes spouse unemployment even harder. You know, spouse employment even harder to obtain when you have a young family and they have kids and then one vehicle and it's just a never ending just piling it on these families and before you know it they're forced to live on posts where they're encountering all those housing issues.
Speaker 1:Right, and one of the things that you didn't mention that I remember being a military brat myself was the schools. So if you live off base and your kids go to a school that may not have a whole lot of military families there, it's a huge difference when you move every four years and you go to a new school. Some schools are geared towards those types of kids that literally just moved in. You've got other kids there that are not of that state Hawaii, for example, where my dad was stationed there. I originally was from there and we lived far off base.
Speaker 1:The school that I went to was not really geared towards kids that move every four years which made education a little bit harder too, whereas, like, the schools that are closer to the base have teachers with that type of I guess, understanding and that type of education towards helping kids find that gel a little bit better into the learning atmosphere. I think that can be a real challenge sometimes to get that assimilation. When you're in a new class you've got new teachers every four years you're moving. The schools, from what I've seen, that are closer to the base are a little bit more geared towards kids that transition like that, versus the ones that are far away. So you didn't even mention that part. But like that is again something else that stacks against all that stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But overall, you know over time, since you're, you know, on this journey of advocating for military service members, have you partnered with any other organizations or individuals, any collaborations to help further your cause and, if you have, can you share some of those experiences?
Speaker 2:Well, when I first started, it became kind of a research. I wanted to learn everything there was to know about military housing and the contracts and what other people were experiencing. I wanted to talk to other advocates. You know, other advocates reached out to me and shared some resources and I just started asking all the right questions. I wanted to know who, what, when, why, where, how, and it just it turned into like a self self-driven research and it just it turned into like a self-driven research and I encountered a lot of advocates along the way that were able to give me some resources that I have now. Part of it was just learning, learning who to go to. People started reaching out to me and it was a lot of trial and error. I never ran social medias before, so I made a lot of mistakes. I learned, I grew from those mistakes. I started learning how to handle a crowd of people and learn to interact with a crowd of people. So when you run these social medias, you know you're you're dealing with the public and different walks of life.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And before I knew it, you know, people like you started reaching out to me like, hey, you know my posts would go viral. Or you know, word of mouth and slowly, and you know, and I stayed consistent, that's the biggest thing. A lot of these advocates, you know they get. I stayed consistent. That's the biggest thing. A lot of these advocates, you know, they get burnt out and it's easy to get burnt out. It's it's never ending. But I, I was so committed to the cause because what happened to us was real and it was serious and I knew how how bad it was that I just stayed consistent and that's the biggest thing was consistency. People think like, oh, I'm going to start a social media and I'm just going to get thousands of followers overnight. I remember my Instagram had like 40 followers for like six months, but I just stayed consistent.
Speaker 2:I knew in my heart that this needed attention and I didn't care. I didn't care if anyone followed me. I knew I had to put this stuff out on social media and people needed to see it. And before I knew it, people started reaching out and podcasters started reaching out. Other pages started reaching out. Leaders, you know, senior NCOs, housing officials, even senators, their, their secretaries, were reaching out like actual senators and governors. There, you know, people were like oh I'm, I'm in the office of Senator blah blah blah and I saw your social media and I wanted to know if you had some time to talk with me. So, um, it was just, uh, really, I, I really had to depend on a lot of those advocates and they really extended their arms and said hey, welcome aboard.
Speaker 1:Yeah, trust me, I know the ups and downs of doing this and having to learn social media and spending like 45 minutes doing like a video or something like that and then just completely trashing it and having to start over again. Yeah times where I did podcasts, where I forgot to hit record.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Thankfully, today I didn't do that. But, like when I first started, I was so frustrated and I was like you know, why am I doing this? I'm wasting so much time? But you know, at the end of the day, something like this is very soul fulfilling. So I'm so thankful that the algorithm brought me to you because, trust me, I do know from my own personal experiences how bad the living conditions can be on some of these bases. But overall, is there a personal story or experience that you can think of that deeply influenced you and helped with your commitment to this cause?
Speaker 2:and helped with your commitment to this cause, just hearing everyone's stories and hearing how hopeless and helpless families felt and knowing and seeing. You know my own husband, who has been serving this year for 20 years and retiring this fall. You know, knowing how much our service members sacrifice every day and being away from home long hours and sacrificing their mental health. You know, going on my my husband went on four combat tours and you know he's been blown up and shot at and saw things that he never wants to talk about. And then him coming home and experiencing those things by these contractors who are literally stealing their money, and knowing how much each and every service member all 4 million of them right now serving active duty today are sacrificing and knowing how much, how they're getting taken advantage of getting taken advantage of.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when you're going downrange and you're deploying, the last thing you should worry about is the roof over your head for your family. That should be a no-brainer. That should be taken care of. So you're 1000% right and as a former military leader myself, I know how pressing it can be when you're serving in war, serving in combat, and then you're reaching back home and hearing about these things that are happening to your family and I've had to deal with it. When I was a platoon leader, when I was in Iraq, there was times where I'd have to. I would hear from the soldiers oh, this is happening, that's happening back home. And here we are trying to focus on the mission, trying to stay alive, trying to maintain our survivability, and we're having to look back and handle stuff in garrison. That really should not even be. It should be a no-brainer, it should already be taken care of.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when we got displaced, my husband, literally the day before, flew to Fort Cavazos Back then it was Fort Hood, so he was in Fort Hood, supposed to be there for a month training. And the very next day we get displaced and I don't want to tell him because I'm already a decade into this marriage and I know he can't just fly home. It would just stress him out, it would ruin his training. So I didn't tell him. We were in the hotel for a week before I told him and that's a funny story in itself. But yeah, he was training and he finally, after finding out that we were in a hotel and I was displacing people and just raising all kinds of shenanigans, his commander was like man, we got to send them home.
Speaker 2:We were in the hotel for a month and he had to be sent home three weeks into his training. So, yeah, it disrupted his training. And I know families, spouses, their service members deployed, and then they get displaced and they don't know what to do and you guys don't want to call yeah, you're right, you don't want to call home and then find out that your spouse or your family member is experiencing all this stuff and then you're continuously forking over all this BAH just to experience all this. It's an absolute injustice.
Speaker 1:When you got displaced. What exactly happened?
Speaker 2:When you got displaced, what exactly happened? Happy in my own little world, but after so many months of just being ignored, I called the housing company. Well, I'm sitting there thinking why are we sick? My lungs are full of fluid. My daughter sounds like Darth Vader she was three at the time. You could hear fluid exchange in her lungs.
Speaker 2:Months of rashes and headaches, and I couldn't eat. I didn't eat a full meal for four months. I lost 17 pounds and I knew there was something in that house making us sick, but I just didn't know what. I've never lived in a house that made me sick and we were in and out of the hospital for a year. Medical records show us going to the ERs and urgent cares at least every two to three weeks with breathing issues and just all kinds of stuff digestive issues and I just knew it was the house.
Speaker 2:But where, how? What do I look for? So I'm sitting there at the edge of my bed and right in front of me was the master bathroom and the master bathroom door and I'm just sitting there like completely helpless. My husband is gone, I'm sick, I don't know what's going on and my eyes just kind of trail to the floor, to there's a, there's a wall and then the door is right here and I look down at the bottom of the wall and I always noticed that that corner was always dark and I thought, is that the shadow or is that the wall that's dark? And I noticed I saw like little lines like this right above the wall trim. There's that piece of trim right along the carpet and I saw like dark shading, just uneven. So I'm just staring at it and I'm like that looks really, really weird. So I got down and I I kind of picked at it with my finger and I picked off a huge chunk like the wall. The paint just chipped right off and then I saw all this black stuff in it. And then I looked alongside the wall and that black stuff was just thicker along the trim. And so I got a screwdriver and a pry bar and I just pried off that trim very carefully because I knew I would have to put it back. So I gently pried it off and that does mold all underneath that trim.
Speaker 2:So then I followed that wall around into the bathroom and just days prior maintenance came over, because I was in the bathroom and just days prior maintenance came over Cause I, you know, I was in the bathroom and I saw a piece of trim by the, by the shower that had mildew on it and I was like, wow, there's something going on. And I was naive and I was just like whatever. So I called maintenance and I showed them and I was like I think it might've gotten water damage on it. So then they were in there for about 15 minutes and they came back out and said you're fine. So I went in there and it looked like he had painted. Well, it looked white. I was like, oh, okay, he must've replaced it. That's awesome. Well, a couple of days later, which was the day before we were displaced, I looked at that same piece of trim and I saw brown stuff and I thought I thought he just replaced that. No, he had painted over it.
Speaker 2:So then, as you know, fast forward to when I'm inspecting and I go around and I'm like, wait a minute, let me look at that piece of trim. So I pried it off and the wall was just non-existent. The drywall was just crumbling and you could see right through the wall. You could see the metal lining pieces. It was a nightmare and I just kept prying off wall and at that point I didn't care. I just took the pry bar.
Speaker 2:I took the, the whatever, the crowbar and I just stabbed it into the wall and pulled it out and exposed inside the wall and it was just black, black mold. And then we also noticed that I would get black spots all over my carpet and I thought, wow, are we dirty people? And, thinking back on it, we had mold literally growing on our carpet and I would sit there and shampoo my carpet because I'm thinking, wow, we must be wearing our shoes. So I was strict. I was like you guys cannot wear your shoes in the house anymore. I'm tired of cleaning this carpet. But it wasn't dirt, it was mold growing on the carpet. I could see just black spot all over.
Speaker 1:That's so unacceptable and so scary, but what you're saying is so true. That's so unacceptable and so scary, but what you're saying is so true and I can tell you from my own experiences and I'm sure folks that are going to be listening to this can also tell you some good horror stories. This has been a problem that's been going on for decades. This isn't new. To report this, further than your your command to where you can get other folks to listen and actually make a difference. So you know, god bless people like you who are taking the time to expose this, because black mold should not be something that I mean that'd be the last thing on my mind for sure and but that's so dangerous in general. Just even be living in those conditions.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So you know, wow, that's that's. That's a crazy story and I'm glad that you were able to find find the problem. But how many people out there you know don't find the problem and live like that for the entirety of their so many you'd be, surprised so many. And the health issues right.
Speaker 2:So many it's. You'd be surprised to know how many people are having unknown seizures in housing.
Speaker 1:You have no idea.
Speaker 2:People that have never had seizures in their life all of a sudden move into housing and have seizures. Kids having seizures, that's terrible. Kids getting admitted to the hospital with lung problems. One of my friends she was having seizures. She didn't have epilepsy. They tested her. I did all kinds of tests not epilepsy but she had quite a few grand mal seizures while living in housing and she happened to be one of the families I displaced and who sued with me and she was having seizures.
Speaker 1:That shouldn't. That's completely it's, it's bad it is. People don't know that it's and they think I'm being dramatic or I just want attention, right, oh, it's bad, it is so bad I know and I agree with you 100 because I can tell you that from my experiences I live in like living in barracks, like I mentioned before. I end up getting bronchitis, like in in my transitional barracks, and then yeah so too.
Speaker 1:When I was in hawaii, this was back in like 1990. From 1990 to 2004, the housing didn't change, you know, and and I can tell you, this has been a problem that's been going on for decades. Overall, overall, with your advocacy, mel Melissa, I want to ask you what are your primary objectives, moving forward with your work for military living conditions?
Speaker 2:the military housing privatization, through my own research and my own efforts in trying to find the answer, and why these housing companies are behaving the way that they do and nobody is doing anything. They know, congress knows, everybody knows, but why isn't anything done and they're not being arrested? Balfour Beatty was charged with felonies for maintenance report fraud. There's dozens of lawsuits and nothing is being done. So the legal part of me I was a paralegal student years ago, so my legal oriented mind I'm like, wow, how are they protected? Something is protecting them, but what so? That only led me to believe that it's those contracts that's protecting them. But what so? That only led me to believe that it's those contracts that's protecting them, those MHPI contracts from 1996.
Speaker 2:So ultimately, if we really want to see changes, we're going to have to either buy back housing, like the UK did the British military. They bought back their housing for 6 billion pounds or whatever they did, they literally just within the last month bought back their housing or we're going to have to amend those contracts or cancel them, find the military housing in breach of their contract. But there's a lot of roadblocks to that because I've heard that military housing advocate requested those contracts with FOIA requests and they got them back almost fully redacted. So nobody really knows what's in those contracts and why those companies are so protected from felony charges, from lawsuits.
Speaker 2:Lendlease was recently sued for they had to pay a military family in Texas $10.4 million, so they ended up selling out. And then another company moved into their place and nobody's in it. So hush hush and the military. Of course they're in joint venture with these, these companies, so they can't really do anything to their partner and it's just an endless cycle of straight BS, of straight red tape BS. And so I've moved my whole campaign towards cancel or buyback. Cancel or buyback, that's it.
Speaker 1:So I don't want to get too much into politics, but there's been a lot of changes lately, specifically with your cause.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Are you hopeful, optimistic or are you pessimistic?
Speaker 2:No president has ever addressed the military issue, not in a way that I would like to see.
Speaker 1:Because less than 5% have to deal with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's so strange, but I feel that, with enough noise maybe you know, I don't know I'm pessimistic. It's been six years now that I've been actively advocating, every single day, running these social medias, putting content out there, contacting the Senate Armed Service Committee, contacting all the powers that be, encouraging our state's leaders to get involved with their installation, and nothing's been happening. So I don't know, maybe maybe you know I'm always hopeful, but I'm used to disappointment.
Speaker 1:This is I mean, this is seems, seems like a lot of changes going on right now. A lot of people are on notice. A lot of people are on notice. There's been a lot of there's been a lot of tarps that have been pulled over and been like what's this.
Speaker 1:What's this? So I don't know. I mean, it's the jury's out, I don't know. But, like you're saying, something has to be done, because this is something that has been going on for decades and decades and it's not something that's brand new For anybody else out there. Melissa, that's an aspiring advocate for the trials and tribulations that you've been through so far. What advice would you offer to individuals who also wish to advocate for military families or similar causes, such as yourself?
Speaker 2:It doesn't matter if you've got six followers, if you've got 600 followers, if you have 1200 followers, I don't care. Don't worry about the numbers. Make your social medias and keep posting. Keep putting that content out there, spreading the word. Keep talking to families, Hustle, go to these spouses groups and make posts. Hey, my name is this and this is what I'm doing.
Speaker 2:I started this social media. Put yourself out there, be vulnerable, be willing to make mistakes and correct yourself Sometimes. Be willing to be wrong, be wrong sometimes but then correct yourself. But ultimately, stay consistent. That was my whole thing. I didn't care. I just stayed consistent and kept posting.
Speaker 2:And now here I am and I've written articles for Pop Smoke Media. I've done a couple podcasts. I've interviewed for countless articles Senate, armed Service Committee, they know me. So stay consistent and it'll happen. But ultimately, just stay consistent. Don't ever lose that fire. Don't ever lose that, that drive. Always keep in your mind of what happened to me. This is what happened. What happened to me was was true, it, it really happened. It was that bad and and just keep, keep at it and don't ever become discouraged. Don't listen to naysayers. If I listened to naysayers, I would have quit in within like four days. So never listen to naysayers. Let them talk, let them have their opinions, let them run their mouths, block them. Whatever you have your truth, you have your truth. I had my truth, I know what happened and just hold on to that.
Speaker 1:I love. I love that advice is to be consistent, because it's very difficult to be consistent, but also uh, would like to also add to be bold and don't be afraid. Get over your fears of getting on camera. Get over your fears of voicing what you, what needs to be said. How do you, how do you deal with the haters? How do you deal with the people that are calling you a Karen?
Speaker 2:I don't. I don't deal with them. I don't give them the time of day they want my attention. I don't give it to them. They can form their groups, they can form their chats, they can talk about me until their lips fall off. I don't care. I have a path. I have a purpose. That's where I'm going and it doesn't involve them. I don't waste the time. I've got things to do. I've got grown up things to do. I've got grown up things to handle. I'm here to create changes. I'm not here to feed into the drama.
Speaker 2:I'm 46 years old. I don't have time for that. And I'm surprised they have time for that. You know, we have jobs, we have kids, we have families, we have. We have schools, we have kids, we have families, we have schools, we have goals, and whoever does not align with that, I don't even know who they are. They know who I am, though I don't know who they are. So that speaks volumes. You know what I mean. At least my name is getting out there. At least I'm in good publicity. Bad publicity, it doesn't matter, it's still publicity. Keep talking about me, because then it creates attention.
Speaker 2:People are like well, who is this? Melissa Godoy? Let me go see who she is, and then they'll see my advocacy and be like, oh hey, so not everyone is a hater and if they are, I don't know how to help them. How can I help you? How, how can I help the haters? See, I'm trying to help everybody. How can I help you? What can I do for you? You know what I mean. That's the attitude I've gotten. When I first started, oh my God, it was a wreck. But through the years, you know, I've I've gotten a thick internet skin. I've got a thick internet skin Like people are are hating. Let me join in on you. I let me join in on the conversations. I hate myself too. Sometimes. It just it doesn't phase me. I don't care, I love your attitude.
Speaker 1:I love your attitude. It puts a big smile on my face because that's just how it is, and even in real life. Even in real life, not on social media, not on the internet, even in real life. That's how you should be with friends, family. You know, you, do you. If you believe in what you're doing, do it, you know and don't don't worry about the judgment and all the other garbage that comes with it overall.
Speaker 2:It's always going to be there. There's always going to be people saying something. There's always going to be people giving opinions. Oh yeah, the only thing, the only opinion that matters is what you think of yourself, and you should think highly of yourself.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep. And you know that's the thing. I've been doing this for a couple of years now and I've had people say that I suck. I've had people say you know, this is going nowhere. But I really don't care, like, at the end of the day, and so I you say what are they doing?
Speaker 2:What are they doing Typing on their little fake profiles? You suck, okay. So do you Like? What do you want me to do for you? I don't know how to help you.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and that's why you put a big smile on my face when you said what you said. Yeah, just overall. How can the general public contribute to improving the living conditions of military personnel and their family?
Speaker 2:Call the senators, encourage them to help military families. Your votes matter. Vote for the senators that care about the military and, ultimately, just share posts. If you know a service member and you find an advocacy page, you can share their posts. Get the word out.
Speaker 2:Ultimately, what we need right now is legislative changes. We need congressional changes. Call your congressman, call Trump, say, hey, what about the military? We have men and women that are sacrificing themselves, their lives and their mental health and their well-being for the betterment and the protection of this country. Take care of them. That's what we need. We need Senate advocacy, and senators are slowly jumping on board slowly, so it's starting to go that way. But if we have the general public, you know all these votes, because that's what the senators want. You know all these congressmen. They want votes. So now they have to work for them. We need our state's leaders, our country's leaders, to care about their military again. You know, you guys are just disposable, your people. We're not talking about a softer military, we're talking about a better military. So ultimately, the voters need to go out there and advocate for the military.
Speaker 1:Right. We need more than just flag waving. We need action to happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you know, unfortunately, like I say, five to six percent of the US population ever served. So our voices need to be 95% loud. And with that being said, melissa, was there anything that I didn't mention during this podcast that you'd like to mention before we finish off?
Speaker 2:Non-combat deaths, non-combat deaths, most definitely. Non-combat deaths, most definitely 95% of I'm not sure about the numbers, I know it's high though there's a huge percentage of service members that are dying at home from non-combat deaths A huge percentage. And there's a couple of Gold Star family members and they don't even consider themselves Gold Star family members, because to be a Gold Star family member, you know your service member has to die in combat, and these people are not dying in combat, they're dying at home from medical malpractice, like a PV2, caleb Smith I'm not sure how to say that ring but's pv2 caleb smith from what used to be fort bragg. They found him dead in his barracks and his body was decomposing for six days in his barracks, to the point that other people in the barracks was spraying for breeze to cover up the smell of his rotting flesh what was command?
Speaker 1:They just didn't check on him.
Speaker 2:They just didn't check on him, isn't it?
Speaker 1:Six days. That's really weird, because if somebody's not at formation that's why this is the morning formation At the end of the day, if you're not at formation, for accountability purposes and disseminating information, we're sending somebody up to your barracks. That just sounds like freaking. Some really piss. Poor leadership.
Speaker 2:Six days. Colonel Outtan was his leadership and then they I mean I can send his mom over to you, heather Heather Baker she started a social media called PV2 Caleb Smither Justice for PV2, caleb Smither and she's done legislative stuff and I'll give her your email so you can contact her. She's got a story for you and there's so many other non-combat deaths happening. That is a huge, huge, huge subject that needs more attention. Some of their stories are just heartbreaking.
Speaker 2:And Caleb, he was only 19 years old and he fresh out of basic, not even at his first duty station for seven months. He was at Fort Bragg for seven months when they found him in his barracks and it's just devastating. You know when somebody volunteers for this country and then they get ignored. And you know medical malpractice oh my gosh. I could go on. Medical malpractice is another thing. We have service members. You know getting maimed and hurt in these hospitals and you can't complain about a military hospital like you can in a civilian hospital. These doctors in the military are not sanctioned, they're not penalized their. You know their doctor, you know their certificates or licenses or whatever allows them to practice medicine, aren't controlled like they are off post and it's a scary world to be in the military and then go to a hospital, be sick or hurt and then get ignored. And that's what happened to Caleb. He was turned away from Womack Medical Center three times with symptoms consistent with meningitis and he died in his room of meningitis.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I came across his mom's social media in, I think, march 2020. He died January, was it 2021? But yeah, I came across the mom's social media and she just started and his story. Just, I just cannot believe somebody being left in their barracks for six days.
Speaker 1:That's unbelievable. Being a former army leader myself, that's insane. The fact that somebody in that chain of command squad leader, platoon sergeant, platoon leader, company commander, executive officer, all the way up yeah that nobody bothered to check. That's that never. I mean that for me, that that never happened with us. I get. So that's that's the crazy thing about that, and yeah, I'm definitely interested in hearing more about that.
Speaker 2:I'll definitely give her your email and I'll send her over. I said I would drop. I would drop a couple lines for her.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, at the end of the day, for me it's all about spreading the awareness out there for our military community and making things better, and that's what it's all about. And you know, that's really heartbreaking to hear that something like that would happen under anybody's watch.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's insane. Wow, yeah, no. So I'm so grateful that the algorithm brought me to you and it's been absolutely entertaining that the algorithm brought me to you and it's been absolutely entertaining. I'm not on TikTok all that much, but I probably will spend more time on TikTok. I didn't really want to invest a lot of effort and energy into it because I didn't know what was going to happen to it a year ago, two years ago.
Speaker 2:They kept talking about.
Speaker 1:They kept talking about canceling it and everything. So I was like, man, why do I want to spend spend most of my time on Instagram? Tiktok is probably here to stay, along with all the other social medias out there, and I know that you're on Facebook, instagram, tiktok, twitter, now known as X, and I'll make sure I put all those down in the show notes. If you're listening to this, click down there and follow Melissa on her advocacy journey and support her as well. She's already got quite a following on TikTok and Instagram just through her tireless efforts overall and her consistency, and I'm very proud of you and I'm very appreciative of everything that you've done and thank you. It's an honor for me to sit here tonight and talk to you and just hear your journey, and I'm really interested to see where you go with it and hope that we can make some big changes for our country's armed forces.
Speaker 2:You guys have a hard job and it's difficult and I want to do anything that I can to help, so it's definitely my honor.
Speaker 1:It bothers me that I spent so many years trying to rub the military off my skin because I just wanted to be a civilian, I just wanted to be just another person. And here I am, years later, back at the table again, because this is truly like we are a special group of people to to you know, your husband doing 20 years and all the sacrifices that you guys have made as a family, um is something that many families don't have to endure. So God bless you and and everything that you're doing for our community. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:You're welcome, thank you.
Speaker 1:And for everyone else out there, please follow Melissa on any of the social medias. She's also on YouTube. I just followed you on there. Thank you, so you can, you can, you can link up with her on on anything that you're on any platform out there.
Speaker 2:So just make sure you follow her.
Speaker 1:For everyone else out there as, yeah. For everyone else out there. As always, I want you to stay tuned, stay focused and stay motivated. Warriors, it's all out.