E025 Felicia Rodriguez, Part 2

Passionately Wrong Podcast Episode E024, Part 2

Interview with Felicia Rodriguez

We hear about sexual assault quite often, but what do we really understand about victims, offenders, the legal system and how our culture, gender roles and unconscious biases influence us in this controversial topic? Join Felicia Rodriguez, former Sexual Assault specialist in the Army, Victim Advocate, Command Sergeant Major with 25 years in the Army, and retiree as she discusses with James and Randy what she learned while working as a Sexual Assault specialist. Felicia will share some interesting insights and examples of the things that challenged her, as well as many people, about Sex Assault and the military justice system.

Topics covered in this video: 

• Tailoring the message to the culture of the group you’re operating in
• Discussion of the UCMJ laws and regulations Felicia dealt with, Art. 120
• What happened when responsibility was given to O6 commanders
• What the military does better than the private sector in handling tough social issues
• Felicia’s advice to women coming into the military
• Felicia’s current plans, nursing studies
• Resources for sex assault victims

Resources in this video:

National Sexual Assault Resources (RAIN): https://www.rainn.org/resources 

Transcript

Felicia: 0:00

And you can do it. You can. I absolutely believe that any woman that wants to do it absolutely can. It's just whatever you're given in life, we have to use that. Whatever it is. If you're tall and strong, use that. If you're smart, use that. Whatever assets God gave you, use those things. And don't think you can't, cause you can.

James: 0:20

Greetings, friends. I'm James.

Randy: 0:23

And I'm Randy. You're listening to The Passionately Wrong podcast where we challenge your assumptions, offer some different perspectives, and hopefully help you make better decisions. I want to give a couple more context things. First of all, I, I think, and correct me if I'm wrong, Felicia, you say that it, it's supposed to be, well, secrets probably a hard word to use, but I I don't You think that it was because of your high rank and your unique position that it was more known? Yes. I mean, if Private Johnson had that happen, you know, yes. Maybe the sergeant major in Germany knew, got it, went past the desk, but that sergeant Major in Germany would never see Sergeant Johnson. So it would never, you know, when Sergeant Sergeant Johnson moved back to the States or moved to Fort Polk or whatever, no, it wouldn't really follow her. And the, the next sergeant major would, all the people in the unit wouldn't know about her. Uh, because it would be, it would still be, I just wanted, it's still confidential and in some forms it's just because you were. You had a big spotlight on you from the beginning and that's why you, you were confronted, I think. Yes,

Felicia: 1:27

yes. And then the second I do, I do agree. Yes.

Randy: 1:30

Now, and then the second thing is, going back to group, James, just to give you some context, everybody, almost everybody in the chain of command all the way to the commander who she works for generally knows everybody else. I mean, he, she says 5,000 tab guys. But generally, if you're, if you made it up to lieutenant colonel or colonel and you grew up in the seventh group, you know, 3000 of those guys, only guys you don't know are the new guys that came in the last four years. And so when those guys get into trouble because you served in combat with them, you, you know, went on a couple missions with them, your natural human reaction is to give them the benefit of the doubt, cuz you think you know them. Better than they know than what they did. And that's why, that's why her job was so difficult as opposed to when you get into the big army, because they move around so much and there's so many of'em, the commanders don't gen, maybe they know three people in their command when they move over there or four, but for the most part, they don't know everybody else in the command. They don't know the, the, the e sevens and the e eights and the captains and stuff like that. So when something goes wrong, you pretty much go hammer'em because they, it went wrong, you know? And, and everyone goes, you know, everyone lines up ducks in a row and says, okay, this is the process. Let's do it. Uh, when, when, if you go to the small culture of, of seventh group where everyone knows each other, like, well, let's kind of figure this out. So it's a little slower process. Uh, and as a result, when it goes, when it goes sideways because the guy actually did something wrong, Everyone starts getting kind of punished along the way, like, why didn't you react faster? It's like we were trying to get facts, you know, and stuff like that. So her job was like doubly hard in some way. And the fact that she is, the reason she got raided by the commander, the colonel is cuz she is the direct rep representative of the commander. And because it was a new, thing, not everyone realized that. and once again, because she's a female, no one recognized that. And also she, she didn't want to, to depend on that. She didn't wanna say, Hey, guess what? I represent the commander, so shut the hell up and do what I say. You know, that's something she probably could have done or she could've said, I'm gonna go tell the commander, and then the commander's gonna call that guy and say, Hey, do what she says. That could have been the way stuff went. But she chose a different route. More of kind of like, hey, Let's figure this out. It's a problem. These are the consequences. It's a new program. I'm telling you, these are the consequences. You haven't seen it before because it's a new program. These are the consequences. And then ultimately, I'm sure if you had to go to the commander or the Sergeant Major and go, Hey, this guy is Rock and he doesn't wanna listen. I've, I've tried to communicate with them a couple times, I need your help. That probably happened a couple times, but she's very, she's got a lot of character and she's very convincing, and she knew the rules really well. So I'm sure she didn't do that as much as maybe other people have to depend on that. And I'm sure a male in that position probably would've went straight to the commander multiple times and said, I'm fed up with this guy. he hung up on me. So he would've called the, I mean, it would've gone a different way. but I don't know what Felicia has to say with my comments.

Felicia: 4:46

No, Randy, you're correct. The other part, like I said though, that's completely different realm, is laws. There, there were a lot of laws that were brand new coming into that position. And at that time, um, as, as you know, it, it parallels what you're talking about. It takes a while for people to understand that those laws are commonplace now, not some special thing. Like this is forevermore the law and this is how we go by it. So, um, and, and Randy's correct different, uh, environments and different cultures because even though we have a culture of the United States, then you have a military culture, then you have a big army culture, then you also have a special forces culture, and there's different pockets of different things around there. They do, um, take things differently. And I think you, what you were talking about, um, in your, your job James is, or previous jobs is it, if they're humans, it takes them a while to wrap their brains around it. Brains around it. And change is uncomfortable for people and they don't wanna change and they don't like to hear that everything they've been doing is. I mean, look at the, the woke environment now, people don't want to hear that what they've been doing is wrong. And racism, sex, assault. Take your pick, take your pick on any other topics. people don't want to hear that they have to change and that maybe the way that they've been operating before is wrong. Uh, people do not like to hear that they're wrong. And it takes a while for people to wrap their heads around. Some people are faster than others. Intelligence matters. It does. Just because you have a lot of it doesn't mean you're gonna change though, right. those are just comments based off of what Miranda said, but yeah, absolutely.

James: 6:20

I'd like to keep talking about the laws aspect of things. you mentioned that there were new laws and regulations that were put in place. first I'm curious whether they applied to just the military or more broadly. I guess you guys have your own special rules, but then what I observed is, so let's say bribery in my, in my business environment, became a topic that was always improper for us companies to, engage in. But it wasn't for many of our European colleagues. So you're in Germany and they still have legal bribery, and we had to change and said, no, now we're a US company. You can't go bring suitcases full of cash to your business counterparts. That's, that's gotta stop. And they said, yeah, we hear you, and we're not gonna stop because it's always worked for us and we're gonna keep doing it. And it only started to change when there was consequences and enforcement. So my question to you is, how did you see the combination of the laws and regulations? Maybe you could describe them a little bit. Was it military specific? were they sufficient to purpose? And then secondly, how important was, you know, visible public examples to making people see things. were actually gonna change now that the laws were gonna be enforced. In other words,

Felicia: 7:31

oh, so we're gonna unload, um, a whole bunch of stuff. And, and I, I, uh, I, I don't know how to frame it because it all kind of runs together. Looks like you were talking about in certain things. Okay. So, so when the sharp program was instituted, um, number one, they created a couple of different things. Okay. To answer your initial question, yes. Uh, military has its own set of laws and our lawyers specialize in those laws. I don't know if military lawyers are, uh, able to practice law outside of the military. I don't know if they have their license or their bar exams done or whatever. I do know that, um, we, we have our own uniform code of military justice, which spans across all branches of the, the service. Um, and our, uh, article one 20, um, at least that's what it was at the time, and I'm sure it has a whole bunch of different, um, subcategories. But Article one 20 covers sex assault. Now, article one 20 didn't exist. Uh, it was maybe a one-liner. So Article one 20 ended up becoming, I think four or five pages long in uniform for military justice, which we call U cm. And a couple of those things were, uh, number one commanders at the oh five level and below could not adjudicate anything with sex, assault or sexual harassment unless the sexual harassment had a certain threshold. But I don't, I did do sexual harassment, but I was predominantly in a sexual assault arena. what it did, it recognized that when victims previously had come to make complaints about sexual harassment or sexual assault, oh, five level commanders, which is battalion level commander or down, would not process it, would not investigate it, and would oftentimes retaliate against the victim. So they took it, congress took it completely out of their hands and left it at the oh six level and above. Now oh six level command is overseen by the general officers, what we call one star, two star research. Um, so every sexual assault case that came through, All the things that happened in that case resided at the oh six level. That is why I, as a sexual assault, assault response coordinator, Asar worked directly for an oh six because they found that people who worked in these kinds of, uh, it was like posh or something before, when other people had come to like their oh five level commanders, they would just brought, wash it under the rug there. There's no real thing about bribery in the military. What we, what a lot of times we got trained towards was quick pro quo like this for that. and it's usually revolved around sexual favors, but it oftentimes was like this commander would call this commander and be like, Hey man, this is stupid. It was like, me too, we're gonna, and they would just let go. Right? oh, six level commanders are held to a different standard, to a certain degree cuz they have an entire brigade or group, which is 5,000 people, usually somewhere around that locker between 3,700, 5,000 people in any debate. But, uh, battalion commander, they have 700, 500, 400. and so their spar is much different. This goes back to scope. they have to interact with general officers more, and they have a different level of scrutiny if they do, and they also have been supposedly weeded through the ranks, and they are more like sergeants majors. They're like less than 1% of the population. Colonel. so that was one of the things that changed. And battalion commanders hated that. Like, I'm a battalion command. I've got 20 years in the military. I am responsible, educated, I have a master's degree, some PhDs, they really feel, they, they are, very important. I'm not mis, I'm not trying to undermine them, but they also are too close to the people that have these decisions. These things are happening to them. And too many battalion commanders, oh, five level commanders they didn't properly execute their duties and responsibilities when it came to sex assault because again, a complainant is the one that had the problem and created problems. They don't wanna deal with administration because they wanna do training. So when they had to deal with this, and sexual assault takes up a lot of time now because there's a lot of other things that are now required of, of sex assault cases. Like one, it has to go to the SARC two c i d, uh, criminal investigation Division has to investigate. It cannot be a local person, not like another major or another command, or somebody local. article one 20 also created, special judge advocates, which means these are lawyers, Judge advocates that are specially trained in sex assault and how to persecute. How to persecute, it was so bad by the time that I left that job that the only people that could represent sexual assault victims were sexual assault judge advocates. And they would have like three lawyers in the courtroom because the victim, the offender, and then the judge, all three of'em had to be sexual. And they are judge advocates are one for every bird stallion. So there's not many of them. And they're already overloaded and worked mm-hmm. With all the different things. And now you add that there can only be these specialized. So it really bogged down the system. It took a long time to get things done. It was a lot of different requirements. and oh five Love Medicine One care, they were really upset that something that important was taken outta their hands, even though most of them. Didn't understand the culture that they had in their environments, their units, they didn't understand victimology, they didn't understand the judicial system, and they didn't understand these new laws. And here I am, a little sergeant, first class is seven, walking in and saying, Hey, you have to do X, Y, and Z. And they're like, blah. You know, get outta here. to be honest with you, being the Special forces community received that better than the, uh, general population. they've already completely dealt, they did that better because by the time you're a commander as special forces, like you've got it made if you know the deal. And they are very intelligent. So they understood these new things coming. and they also have had to work with foreign countries and foreign nationals, so they understood some, how to deal with people in different countries, different cultures. They more, more robust in how they communicated. And, uh, effective communication. If you'll now commanders in the, in the regular army, they don't have to deal with, you know, 400 countries and, uh, ambassadors, they don't have to deal with, you know, other people's cultures. They have just their own run mill army thing. They don't wanna hear it. So, um, that's why they didn't wanna hear that fellow battalion commanders in all the forces had misutilized. This, the Navy was actually really bad, the navy was really terrible at this. And that is why across the board blanc, it went to the oh six level command. and, and then just people didn't understand why a victim who made a claim was able to leave the unit in like three days, cuz that was unheard of two weeks and it was law then too, and victim request this and there's plausible, uh, belief that this is a credible report they could leave. Because they were being traumatized over and over and over in their units by the general population that knew nothing about it. They're just like, oh, you're screwed up and messed up again. Back to that culture, that victim, uh, during culture. and so commanders were pissed. They were mad because I'm losing this person and I don't have any authority in it. I can't have a say so. I can't tell'em no, no, you can't tell them. No. It was really, really hostile, uh, with Commanders for a little while there because they didn't understand what was going on. they didn't wanna hear it and, oh, please don't let a, don't let a special forces unit lose somebody like that right Now, luckily there was not a lot of that kind of stuff in the Special Forces unit that I worked with, but in the regular Army there was a lot, a lot, a lot. And I received a lot of those people too. Their expedited trans purpose to help prevent victims from being re-victimized by the environment that they're in or to escape perpetrators, because a lot of times the offender would continue to like, harass, and antagonized victims because they were forced to stay in their same units. Um, that, that was very prevalent, which is why this, uh, expedited transfer. And then commanders were very worried about everybody. They were more worried about people mis utilizing this program than they were about people that actually needed the program. Well, they are lying. Um, you know, and then there's reprisal. So they, they were very worried about victims lying, and then they should be, they should be in trouble now because they made a false report. So that goes back into reporting. And then again, intelligence level, like, because this is such a new program that people don't under, they didn't understand, you know, and I'm talking about this during my time, right? Things have changed since then, but people didn't understand the loss and the availability and when somebody would use them, they're like, what's this new law that I don't have any control over? And I'm mad about it. and so they, they really were like, well, this person lied. that investigation came out that it wasn't sexual harassment. Well, the person that made the claim thought it was, well, I don't believe that they need to have an Article 15, which is, you know, you, uh, non nontraditional punishment, you know, money taken the extra duty. They need to have an Article 15 for making a false report. They didn't think it was false when they made it. Yes, they did. Okay. Prove it. You know, and then it goes into like, what you can prove, what you can't prove, and so, and so forth. Now, because, this, the, this Sharp program was so emphasized, it very quickly became, a point where, uh, and, and you spoke to something that stuck with me the retaliation, how that looked like. so Commanders very quickly realized that if they were to go and pursue U C M J against victims, that it would undermine the program and the more victims wouldn't wanna come forward. So now you get into where oh six level commander has to think through, how do I deal with this? Because there's a, an allegation that was made, the investigation can't prove it, which it often happens during sex assault. And now you have a community that's in an uproar, and now you have people saying, well, the victim needs to have something happen to them. And or you have a very few cases, but a couple of them, more recently, people are using the system to get out of trouble or to put themselves in a protective victim category. And now commanders and sergeants major are like, I know it's bullshit. I know they're yessing, but I have to give this victim updates every week or every other week. And I have to give them information that they can now use in getting out of this pickle or dilemmas trouble that they're in. And, commanders have to try to negotiate a, a, a, a break in the system where the community is like, we know it's, we know it's crap, but the soldiers are like, well get them in trouble where we can't. And even if we could, why would I do that and I would undermine this program that's designed to help victims. And if I go against this person as a victim, other victims don't want in this program. So it's a conundrum. You know, whats first, the egg of the chicken? and so commanders are mad cause they don't have any authority. And now, uh, they also have to deal with people who are Mr. Za. And I think that more recently I've heard more about some people, but it's not like the private specialist female that got raped. It's the staff sergeant who is a complete turn, been in trouble and doesn't wanna do what they're told. And so now they're gonna go, you know, make a complaint or their wife is a, a sexual assault response coordinator and their wife is telling them to use these laws and how to get out. And it's generally with the staff sergeant, community staff sergeants are first class community cuz they're senior enough that they think they have some voices. They know the system, they know the laws, and they know how to s utilize it. and I think that's only been a recent thing that I've heard about. Um, again, I, I'm retired now, so I, I only get inklings of it, but I do know that there has been, even still 10 years later, there's still commanders that don't do things the right way. they don't. All of the laws that they're supposed to, and it does impact people. so I don't know if I've answered any more of your questions, but from a judicial and then reporting and persecuting a case or pursuing a case to the legal portion of it to judge, like when you actually get into a, a courtroom, it that is completely different as well as just the cultural, um, things that I've been, I'm talking about mostly.

James: 19:38

No, I think those answered, quite a few questions, Felicia. Thank you. And what it reinforces for me is that the environment might be different, between the business and military, but human nature is not. And so the resistance that you described for commanders who no longer have the ability to adjudicate really important issues and are having consequences to their forces as a result, I completely understand that frustration, the challenges that. The higher up commanders, that have in trying to make decisions to do the right thing, without causing new problems also makes sense to me. And then the regrettable, but very real phenomenon of people taking advantage of, the law and the protections that it might offer to make, inappropriate complaints. Unfortunately, that was also just a factor. Some people will do it, even though if you think about it, is one of the most incredibly selfish things you could ever do, how many people you're undermining, for your own, selfish desire to get out of an immediate problem. It's just despicable behavior, but a certain number of people, and it's a tiny number of people, but a small number of people will do it and cause problems for so many others. it's really gross. so in a way you've reinforced that, people are gonna be people wherever they are. Most of them are good. Occasionally some are gonna get into trouble. And then the laws and systems that we put in place to help address those problems are. Are imperfect at best. And it really requires people who work tirelessly like you and a lot of your colleagues I'm sure did for so long. So running a compliance program of any kind, the Sharp program, and similar ones is really hard work. and it's impressive that you did it for so long. Maybe this, gives you an opportunity to tell us so we can transition to the present and the future, why you are studying, what you're studying now, what you are hoping to do going forward. And Randy has one more question before we turn to that. Sorry,

Randy: 21:33

I got a question. My question is, so I don't know the answer to this, but I, when I was getting my master's degree, a lot of the people that were in the course with me were, all of'em were civilians and most of'em were teachers and they were, they weren't anti-military, but they weren't very pro-military by any means. And we got into a heated discussion about. Sexual assault and rape culture in the military and how it was despicable. And it was, you know, they were quoting crazy numbers, like, you know, 50% of the women in the military get, you know, sexually assaulted. And I was like, I mean, that's not been my experience, but of course I'm not a woman. we've just had an hour and a half talking about all the horrible things that, that when, when things go wrong and how the military tries to address them, and sometimes they're successful and sometimes they aren't. And some people understand the rules and some people don't. Some people are abusing the rules, but do you have any, I know you probably don't have current statistics, but you have, do you have like, uh, statistics about how the military is kind of addressing this and is this like as bad as the civilians that I was talking to think it is or is it a small percentage and the military is doing the best they can to address it and it's, it's not a perfect system, but it's better than a lot of other systems out there. Do you have any, do you have any good news?

Felicia: 22:51

Yeah, so, so that is tough, to address this. There is good news, there is good news in, in this realm. okay, so the parallels between civilian, sex assault and military sex assault. So, number one, military is the comprised of Americans. through and through I've heard it. I would venture to say, that the military is making huge progress, what I started with and how tough it was. Then 10 years later, it's very well known. and I'm just gonna speak from a, a conventional, the big army if you will. I haven't been in, in uses so since 2017, so I don't know what it looks like there, but the environment that I have seen in my units and many, and, prior to retiring, I was a J R T C observer controller, or observer coach or trainer, which. Every month for 10 months outta the year a unit comes through. And I got to work with those units. And one of the, the underlying themes is that our, I kind of get down on the wealth generation right now, but what I will say about them from a sex assault perspective is that they're very proactive. They do report on each other. they're very concerned about the welfare of their fellow, friends, soldiers, whatever. And they do are very, very quick to be like, Nope, that's not right. we need to look at that better. I think there's something wrong. I wanna protect my friend. I wanna protect this person. So the awareness of it has re increased exponentially. They do know there's a lot of resources and they do come forward and use those resources. so I think that culture in the military, it takes time. As we were talking about, they're humans. It takes time. And maybe it was a little bit of force feeding for a while, but now. the newer generation understands it. They're not scared of sex assault the way that they used to be. our generation was, and they're much more likely to utilize the resources for their own benefit or for somebody else's benefit. So I think, and it's been known through history that the military is, well, we're governed by the by, by Congress and laws, and we have a rank structure and we are the test bed for new things. Integration started with the military. they used the hundred first to go down to, I think it was in Kentucky, to assist in integrating blacks into white schools. and that was many, many years ago. But we have been a test bed for many things, to help spearhead it in community at large because they have control over workers. They have policies and regulations that were required to ab wifi. Look at Covid. so I do think that there has been the emphasis and the startup of this. I will, I, I do appreciate the Obama administration for this program and all of the subsequent goodness has come out of it, which is, it was a hard fight in the beginning, but now it's very routine. It's very known. it's very utilized. and I think a lot of people, a lot of people have embraced it, at least from the military perspective now, you know, do we not like the things, I mean in businesses, the civilian sector that, you know, it is what it is. You have to deal with it. And we don't like it, but we do appreciate it and we do use it. So I do think that is the goodness of it. And I do think that the military has done a great job in moving forward with new policies, new, progressive initiatives, and, and making sure that as many of our men and women in the service are taken care of as much as possible, there's gonna be predators. And as long as there's predators and offenders, there's gonna be sex assault. That's not something that's gonna change how we deal with our victims. And how we get them support and resources has changed. and I will say that, so when I first started out, there was a big correlation between people thinking that, colleges were safer than the military. And I absolutely don't believe that to be true. That's under reported. There's no rank structure, there's no con, there's nobody in the charge of that, or a person that you can go to. You have the local police department who is already inundated with whatever they have, big cities especially. they already are busy. And the messiness of a sex assault case and the jurisdictions of it, and I'm just. Lack of education for our young folks in our college. Cause my remind you, I'm 40, I'm 42 now, and at 32 I was still kind of a, a dumbass when it came to this kinda stuff. Now we have 20 year olds. They're all in a college dorms, drinking, being away from mom and dad for the first time. And they're just, you know, falling are so many different things. I don't know what it looks like in the civilian sector, but I will say that I think the military has done a fantastic job. There's a lot of room for improvement, but I think that they really have shown that you can change culture, to a certain degree for protect people from sex assaults. And then just awareness of it and people watching me out and looking for it. I think that they've done a great job. I do not know what it looks like in the civilian sector, but what I will say is coming out of the military, the last, you know, 120 days, last six months, I'm a little skeptical because I'm here in San Antonio and the things that I see like. Just the way that people live life. I'm like, Ooh, it's a little scary not to have a commander to be able to go to, to report and protect me. And, you know, people that will believe me when I say this versus the local cultures in whatever area you're in, may or may not be so willing to help if you are. and I don't know what laws there are in the, in the, in the civilian sector that would do that. I will say that I know that the military kind of Mother Army has laws to protect. and it's working. It is working, for Men Avenue, like I said earlier in this podcast and then that I've worked with when they were little and, and it haunted them for their whole lives. there's just as many men out there, I believe that as women, but experience sexual trauma as women. I dunno if that answered your question.

Randy: 28:40

Yeah. And so I was gonna, before we transition into what you're doing now, I was wondering if you had any, I mean, you've had an awesome career. you have almost many, as many years as I did at, in the Airborne community. You had 20 some years, and I, I had two, two, assignments away from airborne units, so I had about the same as you, maybe a little bit, maybe one or two more. drum master, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Master Master, yeah. So she's a drum master. She's got, you know, 20 years Airborne Sergeant Major. She's like the 1% of the 1%. what advice would you give to women coming in the military, you know, and the challenges they face and, and how they can succeed?

Felicia: 29:25

Oh, that's tough because I got, I got a lot of things I could say, and as you guys can tell,

Randy: 29:28

maybe that's another episode.

Felicia: 29:31

so. It's hard because women are culturally, socialized different than men are, and it is a, a masculine environment. What I would say is don't look at any glass ceilings. don't be afraid to do it. Just, and I would say is, oh, I can't lift that. Yes you can. oh, I don't shoot. Well, yes you can. you just have to apply yourself and you have to have that drive. And you can't, you can't let anybody tell you otherwise. And that's so hard to say because from the time women are born, you know, it's restrictive in certain things. Like you, you know, women do this or you're not gonna wear that. These boys are this and girls are that. So it's hard to reprogram somebody. But if you're of the mindset, you can come in the military, you absolutely can achieve anything you want to. It is very merit based. It is merit based. But you have to be smart enough to understand your environment. You have to be smart enough, or I wanna say smart enough, but understand enough. You can do it. men support women very much. They love to see strong women. They really do. And, and they're, they're accepting of women who are maybe not so aggressive or maybe not so polar like I am, but they love strong women in the military and they can do it. So any woman out there thinks that I can't do that because whatever, you gotta reprogram it. And you gotta think to yourself, reprogram your inner, inner thought process. And yes, you can. Absolutely can. I am four foot 11. I'm a Hispanic female. I was 115 pounds at my heaviest, you know, I ran faster than the boys. I drank harder than the boys. I worked harder than the boys. And you can do it. You can. I absolutely believe that any woman that wants to do it absolutely can. It's just whatever you're given in life, we have to use that. Whatever it is. If you're tall and strong, use that. If you're smart, use that. Whatever assets God gave you, use those things. And don't think you can't, cause you can. So I, I know if that's,

Randy: 31:31

no, that's a great message. And then go ahead with your final question, James. Sorry.

James: 31:36

I was just curious how you go from 25 years doing what you did and performing in the environment that you did to, I assume it was voluntary that you retired and you thought it was the right time and you wanted to see another change. And what's your thought process now about how you wanna continue helping people or how you wanna see yourself continue to perform at a high level? What do you, what do you have set as challenges for yourself?

Felicia: 32:01

Well, I, I did have a, as I mentioned earlier, a lifelong dream of becoming, a nurse, actually a physician. I, to be honest with you, I wanted to be a surgeon before I came into the Army. But I knew that was way beyond me at the time. And, and I'm way too late, too long of a tooth for that now, but I wanna enter the medical profession. I think that, I will find a lot of opportunities. I'm going to nursing school. I start here in about a month. it was a passion of mine for a long time. So I'm gonna go back to college for a few years. I haven't been utilize my GI bill. how do I help people? Okay. It doesn't matter what you do in life, you can always help somebody. I have, so Randy and I worked on Successful Soldier, just kind of, some help to, to soldiers. little advertisement for you. Um, I do plan on, I I love volunteering at ranches with, um, helping people, especially vets with P T S D, use force Therapy to help them, recover from some of their developments. so I volunteered at ranches, in a couple of different places at the station. So I'm kind of volunteering there, hiring heroes as, an option I'm thinking, but I'm looking more for, pro vet, organizations, non-profits, just to kind of do that stuff. So, my spare time, that's probably what I'll be doing. I don't think I'll have too much spare time when I'm, in college. But, you know, I, I live life at a hundred miles an hour, so, uh, you know, helping people through the nursing department and sister nurses who they help care, doctors taking care of, you know, people. And when, when you see them at their most vulnerable, it's, it's horrifying, but it's wonderful that you can help them get through that. So helping them, uh, humans in general, young people, old people, doesn't matter. I think, I think what I did learn is I have a strong desire to serve. I even thought about maybe I should be a police, police officer or something that's too physical for me. I'm done with the physical stuff. nonprofit organizations to help vets, I, I would love to say that I would wanna stay active duty, but the reason why I retired is, is I was, I was, it was time. you get to a point where you're like, the, the day in, day out, you're just over it and it's time for a change. And so I'm changing to kind of try to help civilians. And I know that there's a lot of, events out there who retired, who have suffered a lot of things, and sometimes it just takes some of it to listen. So it could be something like that. I don't have a hundred percent path, but I do know that it will be giving back to the military community what I've been given and, and providing people with information, take advantage of all things they available to them too. and then whatever the nursing program throws at me, that's kind, know, kind self. We're not as, as fantastic as everybody thinks it is, but I am enjoying retirement. I love it. It has been 105 pretty much for like a month straight here in, in San Antonio, and I have gone outside long enough to let my dogs eat and I am enjoying not having to be in the heat right now. So, um, yeah, enjoying retirement. So,

James: 34:53

so I guess we need to just make sure, and we usually do this, sorry, we haven't done it earlier. was there anything else, Felicia, that you may wanted to make sure listeners took away or heard or understood? You did a, a really good job describing, over the course of our conversation, many aspects of what you've done, but just in case there's something we missed that you wanted to get out as a message, please, here's your chance.

Felicia: 35:15

Okay. Yes. When it comes to, sex assault, what I would say is that, It's really a tough time for people when they experience something like that. Now, it doesn't matter if you're the military surrounding sector. There are resources out there, there's untapped resources that people just don't know about. And this is exactly, there is grants, loans, monies to help victims of sex assault kind of recover in whatever situation it is, is the first step is just ask them for the help. And, and there are resources available. So call the, the, the sex assault help line. I think RAIN is another, major, resource available. But don't suffer. Don't suffer. don't do this alone. There are people out there that know what you're talking about. They're survivors. groups everywhere. I wanna speak in general to the masses because it doesn't matter what country you're in, there are people there to help you. And rain, I think, is international as well. if there's anybody out there that needs help, There's resources available. Don't suffer in silence. Don't live through the law. It's, it's really traumatic. And there's something, especially previous about sexual trauma and sex assault. there's help. Just get it. Just go get it. Don't wait. It won't get better with time. save any forensics you can and, just take care of yourself in those resources. So it's not as eloquent as I'd like to say it, but it is there.

James: 36:36

All right. That's a good message. We'll make sure to include in the show notes, links to some resources as well. but it's, a good reminder to people that the way to get better is to start asking for help and there is help available. Sure. Super. So thanks so much for coming on, Felicia. You have, provided us some great insights today about, what you've been doing and how you've helped move the military ahead a significant amount. And so that's a, a fine thing to have done and to have contributed to. And thanks everybody for listening. Subscribe to the show and we hope you come back for more.

Felicia: 37:13

Thank you, James. Thank you, Randy.

Randy: 37:16

Thank you, Felicia. Thanks guys. We'd love to hear what you think, so please comment on the show with your thoughts. We read all of your comments.

James: 37:23

Thanks for joining us, and thanks for subscribing. See you next time.