“I’m born and raised in Georgia and very proud of all things Atlanta. I would say for the first ten years of my life, there was a lot of uncertainty; a lot of police calls at the house, living in shelters, living in my mother’s car, and my mother working multiple jobs to take care of me and my younger brother. But the one thing that was constant is that my mom taught us to believe in the value of education. Despite growing up in the projects and being surrounded by drugs and dysfunction, I buried myself in books and allowed my mind and my imagination to take me beyond my circumstances. I think I was also blessed because I had a ton of amazing people who just decided to invest in me and my potential. One person that I’ll mention, of course besides my mother, is a gentleman by the name of Lieutenant Colonel Nicolas J. Burke. He was a Vietnam veteran who retired and decided to go back and work in urban schools because he said they produced the best soldiers he ever served with. This man literally dedicated the rest of his professional life to helping black kids understand the opportunities beyond their neighborhoods. Every morning I would get up and run five miles with him. He made me read the Washington Post and the New York Times and then report it back to him. He would check on me in my regular classes and when my SAT scores sucked, he paid for a tutor and for me to retake the test. I am confident that this guy and my mother are the reasons I am the person I am today. To this day, he’s the reason why I’m not disheartened by what I’m seeing with race relations and the reason I have hope. Between the kindness and belief of my mother, and this unwavering commitment to my success by Lieutenant Colonel Burke, I had a pretty solid start. I did not receive a direct appointment into West Point and was offered a Prep School appointment instead. I was very disappointed and channeled that energy into making my mom and Colonel Burke proud, but also showing everybody that a black woman from the southwest side of Atlanta could do anything she put her mind to. …

I grew up in Brooklyn; eight kids in a two bedroom apartment in Sunset Park. My father was a cop and he’s one of seven brothers and sisters with all of the brothers going on to serve. I joined the Marine Corps because it was the best option for me at that time. I did two years of school and then went right to Guantanamo Bay. I was attached to minefield maintenance and mine detectors were my life. I like to say we were Cold War Marines because we were under Reagan in Guantanamo. At the time, It was the only active NATO minefield being maintained besides the one between South and North Korea. It was an interesting place to be in the early 80s. We were dealing with the minefield and everything attached to that, base security, and we were in a communist country so that in itself presented challenges. The way it worked was Guantanamo Bay was leased from the Cuban government and the stipulation of the lease is that both sides have to agree to break the lease. They wanted us out of there as soon as Castro took over but they couldn’t throw us out because of the way the “no expiration” lease was set-up. Everyone thinks of Guantanamo as a prisoner of war camp, but it was actually a holding facility starting with the “Muriel Boatlift” and during the AIDS outbreak as well. Guantanamo Bay was known as a holding facility because we were holding all of the AIDs patients that were getting thrown out of Cuba, Haiti, and Jamaica. They were being put on boats and sent adrift and then we’d find them and bring them in. Guantanamo was really the extent of my military career because I did four years in the Marine Corps before transitioning out and into the Army Reserve for a year. I struggled coming out of the military and tried to cope with alcohol and drugs. A lot of it was losing my identity in the military and coming out and trying to fit into corporate America. I was blessed that the guy who ran technology at the New York Stock Exchange was former military and he thought that if I could survive Parris Island, he could train me. …

“I grew up just outside of Seattle in a rather economically depressed community. The military offered a unique vehicle out of that situation and I knew college wasn’t in the cards for me. I joined the Navy in 1999 at 17 years old. As an Aviation Boatswains Mate, I was responsible for the safe movement, launch, and recovery of aircraft. In September 2001, my aircraft responded to New York on 9/11. We watched the second tower crumble from our satellite television and then were called back to the flight deck to prepare to head north. We woke up in the morning in New York Harbor and you could really smell and see everything that was going on. We stayed there for two or three days before taking a posture off the East Coast helping security air space. In 2002, we deployed for the Afghanistan campaign. We were tasked with launching bombers and aircrafts to protect ground force operations. After that we were gearing up to be deployed again in 2004 to Iraq when a critical incident happened on September 11, 2003. We had an arresting gear break on the flight deck which is the worst thing that can really happen up there. That’s the first time something like that had happened in decades in the Navy. Essentially there’s a large cable with a hook and when an aircraft lands at 180 mph, the hook attaches and brings the aircraft to a halt. On this particular day, when the cable snapped, it took out everything in its way and caused significant mass casualties. The military was different back then and we weren’t used to dealing with stuff like that in the Navy so there was no stopping or assessing anything before deploying again in 2004. We were tasked with supporting ground operations again from the Persian Gulf. I actually ended up losing another friend on that deployment that was killed in a mishap by an aircraft. I was involved in life saving efforts, but once he passed, we had to move his remains and go back to work. …

“After graduating college, I enlisted in the Navy because I’m from a long line of service members stretching back to the Revolutionary War. Almost every generation of my family served in all of the major wars of their era. I joined as an Intel Specialist and my first assignment was overseas. I got to Spain and was sent to Kosovo to help on missions over there. In 2000, I decided to crossover to OCS (Officer Candidate School) and do things from more of a leadership perspective. Ironically I was in a counter terrorism class when 9/11 happened so all the events around that day I remember very vividly. We started prepping after that and my unit got deployed in 2002; unfortunately, I wasn’t able to join them after a couple of drinking incidents led to a non-judicial punishment. Missing out on that deployment was really heartbreaking and caused a lot of guilt on my end. It really weighed on me and that was then compounded on top of later deployments. I did finally get the opportunity to deploy to Iraq twice. One was during the surge in 2006–2007 and that was easily the most stressful deployment because we were out on patrol 2–3 times a week. We had quite a few run-ins, but one in particular was really disturbing. One night the local Mosul police — who were very corrupt in their own right — pulled us over and started harassing us. The officer screamed for us to get out of the car and then put a gun to my head until our translator was able to deescalate the situation. …

This Veterans Day, Starbucks is honoring those who have served with a free tall (12-ounce) hot brewed coffee for veterans, military service members and military spouses at participating U.S. Starbucks stores on Nov. 11. Starbucks is also donating 25 cents for every cup of hot brewed coffee sold nationwide on Nov. 11 to be divided evenly between Team Red, White & Blue and Headstrong to support the mental health and the wellbeing of military communities.

“COVID brings a whole new host of stresses and challenges, especially for veterans and military families,” said Matt Kress, senior manager of Veteran and Military Affairs for Starbucks who served more than 20 years in the U.S. Marine Corps. “Seeking mental health treatment and providing opportunities through organizations like Headstrong and Team Red, White & Blue are an important way to help veterans meet the challenges that are happening this year.” …

“I grew up in a pretty poor environment in Kentucky and had to raise myself for the most part. My mother was into drugs and a lot of the men that she brought in and out of my life were abusive in one way or another. There weren’t a lot of options in a farming community so I decided to join the military. I graduated high school early and enlisted with Army infantry in 2002 at 17 years old. It was nice to do something I felt like I could control and allowed me to be my own man. After going through basic training, I ended up breaking my ankle and missed our unit’s first deployment; however, I ended up deploying to Iraq in 2004. I was attached to the 1st Cavalry Division and we were sent to Baghdad and all the surrounding areas. We saw quite a bit of combat over there, even for an infantry unit. We were tasked with clearing out the insurgency threats and securing their first voting site which obviously wasn’t a popular thing amongst the insurgency. We experienced a lot of death and destruction like many other infantry units. There were times where we’d hear bombs and then have to go collect body parts and over time that really wears on you. It got to the point where mentally I went numb and wasn’t able to be myself. Things only got worse as the deployment extended into the next year. I couldn’t understand the reason we were doing a lot of things we were doing or how I fit into the bigger picture. I separated from the Army after that deployment and was naive enough to think I could transition into the civilian world and be fine. I came home and stayed with some friends for a while, but ended up applying to the police department and becoming a cop. I was already dealing with pretty severe PTS, but after becoming a police officer I was involved in some incidents that made everything worse. I got into an altercation with an attempted murder suspect and tore my ACL in half. …

“When I signed up for the Marines I had to get a parental waiver because I was only 17. I left for boot camp in September 2000 hoping to get my life started and unknowingly about what was to come. I went in as an airframe mechanic and was stationed in North Carolina when the towers got hit on 9/11. After working the night shift, I was woken up and got to the hanger just in time to see the second tower get hit and the buildings collapse. Two months later we were deployed to Saudi Arabia in what would later be known as Operation Enduring Freedom. For 6 months our job was to patrol the airspace above Iraq to make sure they weren’t operating in any other air space or no fly zones that they weren’t designated to be. When I got back I had an NCO recommend me for the Marine Security Guard Program which is a force protection assignment at embassies around the world. I was sent to Quantico, VA for training and graduated in 2003. I was assigned to my first embassy in New Delhi, India shortly after that. Your main function and duty at the embassy is to be a mini SWAT team in case something like Benghazi happens. If there were an attack on the embassy, we’re the first and hopefully last line of defense. I worked in India for 18 months before rotating down to Sri Lanka in 2004 for disaster relief for four months. I came back and got assigned to my next embassy in London and I was there for about a year from 2004 to 2005. I dealt with a lot of stuff while I was there and I was involved in a rather significant incident. I sat on the edge of the roof of the embassy, contemplating suicide while on duty. I was having a hard time dealing with that incident which inevitably swayed my decision to get out of the Marine Corps. …

“I grew up in a rough part of Atlanta. I had gotten into some trouble while driving on a suspended license, getting a few tickets, etc. Unlike most, I was given a second chance to do good. I was encouraged to sign-up with a Marine recruiter in the back of a courtroom. Although I was encouraged to go that route, I was involved in a near death car accident in which I ended up with my left lung being collapsed shortly after that. I waited to sign-up, but by that point some friends and family had been killed, and signing up for the military seemed like the best bet to make it out; especially after watching my sister find success by joining the Army. I went in as communications but I worked closely with the infantry so I ended up doing a lot of grunt work. I got to my first duty station in September and was deployed by November. We went to Okinawa from late November to February and from there we pushed to Iraq. I ended up in Fallujah for Operation Phantom Fury. It was the hotspot of Iraq. I was actually there with my sister who was in Baghdad and we spent close to four months over there together but separated obviously. I think I internalized everything my mom was feeling at that time having both of us in Iraq and not knowing what’s going on. I was with 3rd battalion 4th Marines which at that time was the most combat deployed battalion in the Marine Corps. Between work, regular Marine Corps duties, and husband life, there isn’t any time to breathe and reset especially with your kids. I started having trouble sleeping and having nightmares. I knew something had changed but I couldn’t pinpoint it so I ended up just going through the motions. There’s never any time to stop or assess what’s going on internally because the mission always comes first. I knew something was really wrong though after I separated from the military. I took my terminal leave and I was just at home playing video games, smoking and drinking, and acting like I was going to school so I could collect my BAH. …