Gulf War Air Force Veteran Fights for Neglected Female Veterans

Female vets offer help to neglected comrades
Women give a voice to overlooked female troops
Gainesville Times
By Chelsey Abercrombie
POSTED: December 7, 2014

“A man walks around and he’s wearing a veteran’s hat and that’s OK,” she said. “But if a women does it, she’s just wanting attention.”

Teresa Lambert, of Women Veteran Social Justice, discusses veteran’s issues Wednesday morning in the studios of Decibel Radio at the University of North Georgia Gainesville campus.
By SCOTT ROGERS (The Times)

When Teresa Lambert graduated high school in 1988, she found herself on a more unique path than most of her fellow female classmates.

Lambert joined the U.S. Air Force at 17 and began a career in air transportation. In the overwhelmingly male-dominated field, she relished the challenge.

“It’s considered a man’s career field, so it was a perfect fit for me because I grew up as a tomboy and there was nothing a man could do that I couldn’t do,” Lambert said.

However, her life in the military was not idyllic. She faced several obstacles during her tenure in the Air Force.

But each obstacle she overcame led her to helping others through their own journeys as active service members and veterans.

Now, the University of North Georgia student serves as the Northeast Georgia ambassador for Women Veteran Social Justice, an organization that advocates for female veterans and their needs.

A big part of Lambert’s job is reaching out to female veterans via social media, as many of them are disabled and can’t leave their homes. WVSJ also connects female veterans with job skills training and counsels them on how to get the Veterans Administration benefits to which they are entitled.

But Lambert’s journey with the military started years earlier.

Lambert’s tale During the Michigan native’s military career, she oversaw air transportation of cargo. And she served in Operation Desert Storm in Iraq and Kuwait in 1991.

But a decade of service in a physically demanding job took its toll. Her marriage to a civilian became embroiled in domestic abuse.

It was then Lambert discovered the military’s resources fell short of helping her cope.

“The Air Force’s way of handling (my husband’s abuse) was just to always send him back to the States, just basically to get rid of the problem,” said Lambert, who was stationed overseas at the time. “They got rid of him, but I didn’t get any of the support or the recognition from my command that I was in a domestically abusive marriage.”
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