I am a retired female Veteran and because of that I have felt it was/is my responsibility to help Female Veterans.
Female veterans are the fastest growing demographic among the homeless population in the United States and face a double hurdle of distance and invisibility in getting the health services they need from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, according to research conducted by Penn State graduate student and U.S. Air Force veteran Elizabeth Elsea. link . Black Female Veterans are probably more so because shame keeps them from using the system.
So let’s start at the beginning ladies with what you need before you get out:
So you’re getting out of the military? Now What? This is the now what this is the big question for all veterans believe me whether you were in four or 20 years. Now you have to decide what you’re going to do with your life how you going to take care of your family how are you going to pay your bills if you are asking yourself these questions then this is for you one of the first things you should do when preparing to leave the military is get your finances in order, understand that while you’re in the military all of your bills basically more affordable because you were getting a check every two weeks as long as you are living within your means once you get out of the military you have to understand that you need to balance your budget so have make a financial assessment what you need and what it will take for you to sustain your livelihood. There are 6 things that you must have when leaving the military:
- All your financial documents in order
- take care of your medical and dental issues immediately make sure you get that final dental and final medical assessment
- Get your paperwork together get your valuations your awards your training history register for TAP and I’m going to come back and talk about tab TAP transition assistance program war
- if you have a GI bill make sure you get all that information about your educational benefits if you’re going to use your GI bill there’s a couple of things you can do play colleges now that you’re interested in if you have to take the clap you can take the clip for free priority getting out college level entrance program CLEP
- So you have your DD214 DD214 it is probably one of the most important forms you need if you’re going to the VA or dealing with anything with the government or DoD for that matter get multiple copies at the base because it has to have that stamp on it exactly this probably 6 and one that most people don’t tell you #6 probably the most important as it concerns you your family and if something occurs
- Number 6 ensure you have life insurance besides medical is probably one of the most important things you will need. that you’re going to need.
difficult thing to be married and then end up divorced and your spouse who’s also maybe a veteran is not helping you they’re taking care of their selves they have their benefits but they’ve left you outside the loop so one of the things first thing I always say do you have your DD214 ?
Do you have your medical records ?
Do you have your transcripts in school? nine times out of 10 the only thing they have is their DD214 so that’s why I outlined at the very beginning the things that you need prior to getting out you have to have your transcripts your educational transcripts (VMET)
Dou have to have your DD214?You have to have and I cannot say this enough your medical records all of them!!! and you can get these things prior to getting discharged you can get a copy of them they they do it on CD ROM now you can apply for them it’s best that you have them because when filing a claim at the VA you have to show proof of your disability.
Military.com wrote an article in 2018 saying that female veterans have the hardest time because they don’t have the adequate paperwork they are the least likely to use the veterans program until something critical happens and then then they have a much more difficult time because they don’t have all of their records a lot of times if you have a male doctor they don’t believe that you served in the same arena that’s why you have to have your DD214 that’s why you have to have your medical records that’s why you have to show where you been and what occur in those zones it is so important you must advocate for yourself. In the military you were always ready . This should be no different.
What am I going to do?
I think that’s the existential question also this is also a question that we all have to figure out. I was in the military for over 20 years I did a lot of jobs in tech and communications I was also an instructor. When you’re an instructor in the military you can teach anything, when you are a counselor in the military you can you can manage people military personnel have a unique talent we are trained to assess and control situations outside of normal parameters, we are trained to enforce we are trained to discipline we are trained to manage, so there’s a lot of jobs that you can do, but ,you must ask yourself. Do you want to work for someone? Or do you want to work for yourself? Regardless of which you want I strongly suggest you start networking. One of the thing you must do make sure you get tied into Linkedin. Linkedin because entrepreneur networking is done through this site it is not Facebook or Snapchat this is a professional site for professional people. they also offer educational courses, as a Veteran they offer some specials so check it out.
Get your resume in order and submit to sites like Indeed.com
If you’re in to Tech Like I am I suggest you check out this site
Best Tech Jobs 2021: The Most In-Demand Coding Jobs | Career Karma
I’m Not Sure What I want to Do!!
That’s Ok stay Tuned…