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Coming Into Their Own Interviews With The Women Who Serve

photo by Photo Provided Representing the Vermont Department of the American Legion at the 2015 Oratorical Competition in Indianapolis, IN.

photo by Photo Provided R&R during a military training in Korea, 1989

photo by Photo Provided Greeting students arriving at Indianapolis International Airport for the 2015 Oratorical Competition.

Monday May 25, 2015

By Cookie Steponaitis

Karlene DeVine was twenty-nine years old in 1979 when she joined the U.S. Air Force Reserves Nurse Corps. She comes from a family with both parents serving; Karlene’s mother was a nurse in the Women’s Army Corps in World War Two and her father served in supply and returned to join the Vermont National Guard until his retirement. Service and commitment are an integral part of DeVine’s life.
    DeVine was already a nurse, focused on her career and was not really thinking of a career change. “I didn’t consider the military until I was twenty-nine years old and seeking another job to supplement my income,” reflected DeVine. “I wanted work in nursing but wanted to do something different from the hospital and critical care nursing that I was doing.  A nurse that I worked with in the White River Jct. VA medical intensive care unit was in the Reserves as a Flight Nurse.  He would return to work after the monthly weekend duty and talk about the unique training and travel he was doing.  It finally ‘took’ and I signed on the line.”
    DeVine was stationed at Westover Air Reserves Base in Massachusetts, served in Korea, Alaska and Germany for military training and Germany during Desert Storm/Desert Shield. DeVine found herself at the advent of change for women in the military when her military service was beginning in the seventies. She served in about a 50-50 male/female ratio as a part of a medical unit and found the situation comparable to working for the Veteran’s Administration. DeVine and her crews, with a mission to remove the injured from forward operating areas of a war zone, worked to receive stabilized injured and get them onto a C123 Provider or  C130 Hercules aircraft.  The planes provided food and ammunition to the front lines as well as an aeromedical evacuation crew for patients. DeVine was trained as an officer to be a leader through progressive planned trainings and experiences. “I had role models in the chain of command that were accessible and supported my growth as a leader,” shared DeVine. “I believe I have carried those lessons into my civilian world where I work with staff and residents at a local residential care and in my volunteer situations.”
    DeVine is bonded with the others in her unit and learned how to work together, survive and share experiences and reflected on what her time in the military taught her. “I had been in the Reserves eleven years without a brush with war when Saddam Hussein attacked Kuwait. My unit had a war time mission. We knew we would be called.  The question was when.  I became addicted to TV news.  It was a very nerve wracking time.  Finally on January 21, 1991 we were called up for duty.  My unit, the 74th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron spent two weeks at Westover refreshing on all our survival and weapons training with much emphasis on chemical warfare training. Many of us also availed ourselves of the Judge Advocate Corps and wrote our first will. On the day of departure my parents, brother and sister came to see me off.”  At that point DeVine connected with the experiences of her parents who served in World War Two and especially with her mother who had seen battle injuries on D-Day.
    The second reality of her military medical career hit at Torrejon Air Base in Spain. “It was our first stop after leaving Westover,” recollected DeVine. “We walked into an airplane hangar set up for transiting military personnel—showers, phones, food and made-up cots—lots of cots—five hundred cots.  That is when I began to think that anyone of the soldiers sleeping in those cots could be my patient.  We were staffed to carry varying numbers of patients on an aircraft depending on whether they were walking or on a litter, but no more than seventy four souls on board. I could well be taking care of chemical attack patients or be a victim myself and have to administer care. Each of those cots represented a patient to me. The thought of it was overwhelming.”
    DeVine retired in 1999 from full time military service as a Lieutenant Colonel, but continues missions today under the auspice of a volunteer. DeVine is currently entering her sixth year of service as the Chairperson of the American Legion Oratorical, serves on her local neighborhood water user’s association, the Rogers and Hazard Relief Society, is president of the Friends of Bixby Library and a member of the Board of Directors of the Champlain Valley Agency on the Aging.  
    DeVine represents the women and men who serve in the military. It is not about gender but commitment and service and for DeVine and the generation that is currently serving military life is an honor and one of choice with great rewards and sacrifices.

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