November 11, 2020 • 31 mins
US Army Captain Kynnie Martin defines a life of service for host Bobby Bones, and explains how she continues to serve others in her community -- and the entire country -- throughout her civilian life. Kynnie also details the more traumatic events of her adolescence, how the army helped her find her voice, and the story of how she and her husband got married to one another without being on the same continent.
Additional resources and organizations for veterans:
- Team Rubicon
- Women Warriors: A Vision of Valor - Documentary part of the Library of Congress' Veterans History Project
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Please be advised the following episode contains references to violence
and may not be suitable for all listeners. This is
BETS You Should Know, a podcast from My Heart Radio
celebrating the many who have selflessly put their lives on
the line to serve their country and the armed forces.
(00:21):
Every Veterans Day, we as a country honor and commemorate
the people who fight for our freedom and defend our country.
And in this four part series, you'll hear from these
individuals as they share their unique experiences in the military
and the lessons they learned that carried them into their
new roles in civilian life. Former U. S Army Captain
Kenny Martin has a story unlike any other. The daughter
(00:42):
of a single mother, Kenny spent her teen years living
with her grandparents after a tragic event befell their family
and left her mom serving a twenty eight year prison sentence.
During the trial, Kenny was told her voice and story
didn't matter. Thankfully, it wasn't long after joining the Army
that Kenny found her voice again. Today, she uses her
voice to lift up and support the voices of others
(01:03):
by working with nonprofit organizations that serve veterans I had
a chance to speak with Kenny about the incredible work
she did in military intelligence and the hopes she has
for her own daughters. Hi. Hi, how are you good
to talk to you? Get to talk to you? Well,
I mean, I don't talk to you on the radio
when I hear your voice, but good to hear your voice.
(01:25):
But for real, it's kind of weird. It's like an
interactive radio show. Now. Usually just yell and I wouldn't hear.
But now you can say whatever you want any time,
and I have to acknowledge it. I know. Well, I'm
very honored that you'd spent some time with me, So again,
thank you very much. Yeah, thanks for doing this. Let's
start from the beginning. I kind of like to get
to know what what folks are about before we even
(01:46):
talk about the military service. And so tell me where
you grew up and what home was like for you
early on. Sure. So. I born and raised in Colorado,
originally from Colorado Springs, but currently live in Denver with
my husband and my two kids. I was raised by
a single parent, my mom My father Quasi in the
(02:08):
picture when I was little, but they got divorced when
I was pretty young. My mom and my grandparents raised
myself and my two younger brothers in Colorado Springs. Growing
up with a single mom, Do you feel like that
in any way or anything from that, because I grew
up with a single mom too, and it had a
lot to do with the decisions I made in life. Yeah,
for sure. So speaking of life decisions, tell me about
(02:30):
your decision to listen the army. How did that come about?
It was actually a spur of the moment decision for
me to go into the army. I think being raised
by a single parent and then my grandparents. My grandfather
was a West Point class of nineteen thirty two and
served thirty two years in the army, and his side
of the family has very long history of service in
(02:53):
the military, dating all the way back to you know, England,
the Civil War and everything. So yeah, I think the tenacity,
the grit, the resiliency that single parents have to have
and that they have to instill in their kids to
be able to function in life. You know, I think
having two kids in my own even with a great
(03:16):
supportive partner, was really hard to do. And so having
a single parent being able to raise three kids with
my grandparents, you know, it definitely teaches you a lot differently.
I think you you rely on each other, you get
really close to your family, I think. And there's just
a lot to be said about single parents for sure.
(03:38):
When you were a teenager, your mom got remarried to someone,
Is that right? Yeah? So, you know, as a kid,
I grew up an incredibly supportive family, a really good
school system, and I always had that support system to
to build up my confidence. You know. I was in
Gift and Talented Student Council president and my mom, being
(03:59):
a single parent, went with low income. We were also
a free and reduced lunch program. Kid like me and
my brothers were right, but we were never taught that
we were victims of anything. We were never taught to
take advantage of any of the programs, but to be
thankful for them and of all the things that we
(04:19):
can be thankful for. To continue giving to our community.
So we always did volunteering with our church, with our neighborhood,
with other groups, and so we've always just been taught
to give back in that kind of way. So seven
were juniors in high school and my mom had gotten
(04:41):
remarried to this guy and they had met because she
actually was going to school to get her pH d
in criminology and sociology, and after a few years, the
marriage started to deteriorate pretty quickly, and he became pretty abusive,
mostly mentally to my mother and then also to me
(05:04):
and my brothers. So there would be multiple days where
we would come home from school and the house would
be trashed. We would come home and you know, they
would be arguing, and my mom would tell us, you know,
go to youth church and come back and I'll make
sure he's gone out of the house and you guys
can sleep here and go to school the next day.
(05:27):
As the relationship became more toxic and abusive, Keeney's mother
filed a permanent restraining order against him, which required he
moved out of their home in Boulder, Colorado. He was
scheduled to come over to our home to pick up
the rest of his belongings, and this was in May
of He came over and while they were in the
(05:49):
house and he was escorted by a member of the
Boulder Police Department. He told my mom that she couldn't
watch me all the time, and she couldn't take care
of me all the time, and he was going to
do whatever it took to either bring harm to me
or take me and my brothers away from her. So
that really scared her, and it scared her to the
(06:11):
point where she had purchased a handgun unbeknownst to me
and my brothers, and she had kept it in her house.
She had taken lessons on how to use it in
self defense, and in that moment when he told her
he was going to take us away from her and
(06:32):
possibly hurt me, she decided in that moment to pull
out that gun and she shot him six times. He
didn't survive. And so through the court trials and everything,
it was determined that because she had purchased that handgun
(06:54):
at advance, it was premeditated murder and not self defense
since he had physically never done anything to her. So
in October of which was twenty three years ago, my
mom was sentenced to twenty eight years in prison. She
obviously missed high school graduation, college graduation, all of that stuff,
(07:18):
but she was here in Colorado and we still got
to see her. And that kind of was like the
first watershed moment of my life that brought me into
this military service. I'm so appreciative of you being completely
vulnerable with your story because I think a lot of
people in different ways relate. I think you and I
have very similar stories growing up with just the parental situation,
(07:40):
how vulnerable we were as kids, but how protective my
grandma was from for me or even you know, my
mom when when she was raising me. So so I
really appreciate you sharing that. You know, and as as
you're getting into the first stage of your life in
the Army and you go into basic training, like, that's
where I want to start with you and I talking
about this. Tell me what going into basic training was
like for you. I got a letter in the mail
(08:03):
from our r O t C unit saying they were
looking for students who would be interested in joining our
O t C and possibly commit to being in the
military afterwards. And that summer I was like, you know,
I'm not doing anything. So I went to basic camp
in June of two thousand to my first ever military
(08:26):
experience activity. That basic camp is really what changed my life.
Um it was four weeks. It was the hardest mentally,
the most grueling physically, and the most fun thing I
had ever done. And it was the first time ever
(08:47):
that I had actually touched a weapon before in my life,
and I remember being so nervous about handling live rounds,
especially given my situation with my mom. Had no idea,
you know, how I was going to do one drill.
Sergeant took an interest in me, and I think just
saw the leadership potential that I had, and he knew
(09:09):
how nervous I was, and so he took me aside
and helped me feel comfortable with my weapon, and then
we went to the life fire range. I hit thirty
eight out of my forty targets and actually was in
the top three at the range. So so that was
pretty awesome. I was pretty proud of myself for, you know,
overcoming this big fear and for kind of being a
(09:32):
badass at the time. So I came back from this
basic camp experience in Fort Knox with this whole renewed
sense of confidence. It was then in that moment that
I realized I had this voice and that I had
lost it during the trials when my mom was sent
to prison, the judge overseeing the case didn't allow me
(09:56):
to take the stand to talk about my experience living
in that home with my mom and her husband, and
so essentially I told me that my voice didn't matter.
So when I went to that basic camp for the Army,
I was told that my voice did matter and that
I needed to use it. From that day on, I
had to rebuild myself really, and it was those members
(10:21):
of the military, my friends, the drill sergeants, all of
those people that were involved in that camp and then
later on in r O t C who really helped
me regain my voice and regain my confidence so that
I could be a voice for others going forward. That's
when I decided, like, I'm going to join the Army.
(10:42):
As soon as I got back, I signed my contract
and started r OTC for the last two years of
my college experience, and then graduated in December of two
thousand two and became an active duty Army officer. From
that point on, your first year in the Army, if
you were to put into a minute nutshell, what would
(11:05):
you describe it as the first year in the Army man,
I would say it teaches you a lot about yourself
about what you're capable of doing, because you are put
into school and you are tested mentally and physically beyond
like anything that you ever thought you could imagine. It
(11:26):
really either breaks you down, quite honestly, or it helps
break you down and then builds you right back up.
Kenny found her voice and trusted a support system of
friends and mentors during our first few months in the army,
and eventually she would also find someone to love for
the rest of her life. I met my husband in
(11:49):
September of two thousand four. We deployed to Iraq in
February of two thousand five, so we didn't really have
much of a dating history before deployment. We had no
clue if we were going to see each other again.
We didn't know what communications were going to be like
at that time. So we're like, well, I guess I'll
(12:10):
keep my cell phone number, and if we come back
at the end of this twelve months and make it
back alive, let's call each other and kind of start
all over. I was just reading about your wedding day.
How did it happen? Is it true? Because what I
read was you were not even on the same continent. Yes,
(12:32):
that's true. So on October, my grandfather, who again had
helped to raise me and my two brothers, he actually
passed away. I was able to get a Red Cross
message and was home within twenty four hours of his passing.
Because my husband and I were not married yet, the
army still considered us single soldiers even though we were
engaged but not legally married. He was not able to
(12:55):
come with me to go home to attend my grandfather's funeral,
so I went home by myself. He decided to start
looking into how we could get married. Turns out Colorado
is one of four states that allows a marriage by proxy,
so we looked into how that was possible because that
(13:16):
sounded really weird. And in Colorado, if one person is present,
the other person can fill out an affidavit and a
power of attorney and have another person mary their person
by proxy. So I had my best friend marry me
in proxy for my husband on November four, Colorado time
(13:39):
zone and November five, Iraq time zone. But we did
have a real wedding, mostly because he's always grown up
in the church and had always just pictured having an
actual wedding, so he wanted that. And then he also
wanted his signature on our marriage license, so I have
to marriage licenses. Is that legal? I don't know, let's hope.
(14:01):
So you know, I love it. I think it's a
fantastic story. Can you tell me about the work that
your husband was doing as you guys were over there
at the same place. Yes. So with the third Infantry Division,
he was stationed in Baghdad within the Green Zone or
the International Zone as it's known. He was in charge
(14:22):
of force protection for the entire divisions areas of operations,
so that was all of Baghdad and some of the
surrounding areas as well. He had a pretty unique role
with forced protection because he was in charge of physical security,
so all the checkpoints and those kind of things that
(14:43):
our division was in charge of the security for the
polling sites during the first national Iraqi elections in two
thousand five. That was a little bit scary, but a
great opportunity for him again because he was just on
the road all the time. One of the reasons why
we are adamant about voting and talking to these younger
(15:05):
generations about why it's so important to vote and use
their voice when they're voting is in Iraq, people were
waiting in line to vote to make their voice heard
for the first time ever. And there were suicide bombers.
There was vehicle bombs, there is roadside bombs, there were
attacks on polling places to silence those voices. After my
(15:28):
husband and his teams would go out to clean up
these polling sites, people would be their waiting in line
again to make their voices heard. So it's it was
that important to them that despite these attacks, they would
go to the polling sites. And while you're there, what
type of work are you doing in Iraq? So when
(15:48):
I was over there, I had two different jobs. So
the first half of the deployment, I was in charge
of these drones by planes. They were the shadow tactical
unmanned aerial vehicles. I was a first person with a
third infortuted division to have that type of equipment. Myself,
my company commander, and our first sergeant. We received our
(16:10):
equipment and we also welcomed our first soldiers into that
unit in July of two thousand and four and then
had to train and prepare for deployment by February of
two thousand five. So that was a really unique experience
because there was only one other unit in the army
who had been doing it, and they had just done
(16:31):
it the year prior to us arriving, So it's a
really steep learning curve. One of the things I think
I learned out of that deployment and out of that
experience of being a platoon leader is you know, you
get your soldiers, it's a really wide age range of
people that you are thrown in together with all varying backgrounds,
(16:52):
and then me as a platoon leader, I had the
least experience among all of them, but I was looked
at as a leader. So so really, I think for
for me, one of the things that I've always tried
to do as a good leader, a good manager, or
even just a friend is just making sure that you
take care of your people, you know, making sure that
when we got over to Iraq, they were calling their
(17:15):
families and they had been in touch with their families
to let them know they had gotten there, making sure
that they needed what they needed to be able to
do their jobs well and to be able to make
it home. And so, my guys, we had a laundren
recovery site located out of Taji, which is just north
of Baghdad. It was our responsibility to make sure that
(17:37):
these drones were conducting two seven operations on reconnaissance to
ensure the safety of our coalition and US multinational forces.
My guys saved a lot of lives from the work
that they did, and it was work that that couldn't
go without a break. So we literally had birds up
twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, the
(17:59):
entire year. I want to talk now about your life
after the military, starting with your retirement from the Army.
When did you know it was the right time to
leave and what was that transition into civilian life like.
So after my deployment to Iraq in two thousand five
to two thousand six UM and obviously meeting my husband
and then getting married and all of that stuff, the
(18:21):
Army at the time was doing these extended deployments where
they were going to be deployed for eighteen months sometimes more,
and we decided at that time that maybe being dual
military wasn't the right fit for us. At the time,
just starting a family and everything that we wanted to do.
The situation with my mother was improving and she had
(18:43):
an opportunity as well to be released from prison, and
so it was at that point in time that we
decided that leaving the military was going to be the
right decision for us. So in two thousand seven is
when we got out and we moved to Colorado where
I was born and raised, and we were able to
(19:03):
be with my grandmother, my brothers, and then also helped
support my mom as she transitioned out from the prison
system and then helped her with her transition into civilian
life as well. What drew you to volunteering and working
with nonprofits during this time? In two thousand and eight,
(19:25):
the Medal of Honor convention came to Colorado, and that
is when I met all these veterans who had received
the Medal of Honor, and the Medal of Honor is
the highest award bestowed upon any military service member, and
these true real life heroes were just so humble and
(19:46):
many of them had their own stories that they were
willing to share with us. And it was in that
point that I realized that I wanted to do more
for veterans. Being a veteran myself, I think for a
lot of veter ends leaving the military, that's one of
the things that we all miss the most is that
we have this higher purpose and greater mission that we
(20:07):
are all going towards. With volunteering, I was looking for
something to contribute to and to just better myself and
better the community that I was living in and so
using my post nine eleven g I Bill, I decided
to go to school to get my master's degree and
start working in the nonprofit sector. So the first nonprofit
organization that I worked for was called Veterans Green Jobs.
(20:31):
They were interested in helping veterans who are transitioning out
of the military to get jobs in the green energy sector,
and so it was a really great organization to be
part of. I was surrounded by other veterans who wanted
to just help our fellow brothers and sisters and arms,
and I'm still again very good friends with many of them,
(20:53):
just because of that common interest and the common path
that we took together. Working at Veterans Green Jobs really
helped me to refine how I wanted to help veterans,
and it was in employment. It was helping them discover
what they wanted to do post military, the skills that
they had learned, and the leadership that they had been taught,
(21:17):
and how all of that can transition into a successful
civilian career where they can work for companies that they're
proud of, where they can have jobs that are well
paying and support their families and just be out in
their communities again, So where did things go from there?
What was the next tour for you in your career
after Veterans Green Jobs. So I started working with many
(21:41):
companies across the country and helping them to recruit veterans,
essentially like a headhunter almost, but again we were a
nonprofit organization and helping veterans achieve employment. And so with
with that came a lot of connections into companies that
were interest in hiring veterans. Xcel Energy was one of
(22:03):
the companies that I partnered with. They operate out of Minnesota,
and then they also have corporate headquarters in Colorado and Texas,
and so being in Colorado, it was a really great
opportunity for me to work with this company, this utility
company that had so many great jobs and were interested
in hiring veterans. Again, it was just really great timing
(22:27):
where after I had graduated from Regis in two thousand
and ten, and then the CEO of Xcel Energy in
two thousand and twelve actually testified in front of the
joint chiefs about why it's smart to hire veterans, why
it was a good business case to hire veterans. With
that came internally the interest and intentionality of Xcel Energy
(22:54):
wanting to hire veterans and create a veteran hiring program
internal to the company, and I was brought in to
launch their internal veteran hiring program, which to this day
we still hire ten percent military veterans. External to the company,
we have a fantastic internal employee Veterans Affinity group, and
(23:16):
there's just a lot of people who do a lot
of good for veterans in the communities where we work,
live and play. Now I am an account manager working
with large customers and communities to help them achieve their
energy goals and sustainability goals, but I'm still very involved
in that employee affinity group. I'm actually the chair of
(23:38):
the Military Veterans Employee Group at XL and we do
a lot as far as supporting our employees who are
currently serving in the National Garden Reserve, who may be
going on active training or deployments, supporting them and their families.
We do a lot of volunteering in the communities, helping
(23:59):
homeless veterans, building care packages, renovating homes, writing letters to
veterans who are in our nursing centers and community living centers.
So we do a lot in the community through that
Veterans program, and so it's in that way that I'm
still able to give back to the veteran community and
to help my brothers and sisters in arms. What are
(24:21):
some of the biggest obstacles or misconceptions around employment for veterans,
both from an employer and a veterans perspective. I think
for a lot of transitioning veterans coming out of the
military and directly into civilian life is we don't understand
the full breadth and scope of everything that we achieved
in the military being really attractive to the employers and
(24:44):
to the companies who want to hire us. The average
soldier is in charge of millions of dollars of equipment,
they're in charge of each other, They're taught so many
leadership skills, but you don't really realize all of that
because it's just part of your day to day while
you're serving in the military. It's nothing really special, it's
(25:05):
nothing really that stands out. But to the civilian mindset
and to corporate America, it does stand out, and I
think people need to understand that sounds almost like you
were teaching veterans how to remarket their skill sets. Yes,
that's exactly right, is remarketing the skills that you've acquired
in the military. You're you're given a job, and you're
(25:27):
given an MS or a designation for what your job is,
and that's really all you think that you're doing. But
as one of my mentors put it perfectly is veterans,
you're more than your MS. You are the leadership that
you've learned from. You are the people and the culture
(25:47):
and the diversity that you've surrounded yourselves with, and you're
the experiences that came with your MOS. And so it's
really unique experience being a veteran coming out into the workplace.
You know, the biggest misconception, unfortunately with veterans is the
stigma around PTSD. PTSD isn't just a veteran issue, it
(26:11):
is it is a human issue. Um. Anybody can suffer
from PTSD, and and while it's true many veterans UM
have big diagnosed with PTSD, it doesn't mean they're not employable.
Many who are diagnosed know what the triggers are and
they avoid them or they have ways of dealing with them,
(26:32):
and they can function just as fine in the civilian
workplace as anybody else, What are some of the causes
and organizations that you really care about and that you
continue to work with today. The causes that I care
about really kind of run the gamut, and they have changed,
I would say over the last decade that I've lived
in Colorado. I would say one Veterans obviously is still
(26:57):
probably one of the top priority of causes for me,
and so just volunteering and working with a number of
the veterans serving organizations is still there. I've also been
on the board for Women Veterans of Colorado, which is
a organization that just brings together women veterans in Colorado.
(27:17):
It gives us a platform and a space to come
together as women who have served in the military, who
have served in the Armed forces, and have this unique
experience for us to come together and support each other
through the emotional, the physical, the mental kind of all
the challenges that came with being a woman in the military.
(27:40):
One of the cool things that I got to do
was actually part of this documentary called Women Warriors, and
the production team was from a local community college out
of Front Range Community College, and these students put together
this awesome documentary of women veterans from Colorado from all
(28:00):
different eras of service from World War Two all the
way to post nine eleven, and it was a great
opportunity to tell our stories of service and talk about
our experiences, whether they were good, whether they were bad,
and how that helped to shape who we are today.
And that team actually won an Emmy for their work.
(28:21):
I have a Congressional Record of Service sitting at the
Library of Congress now um for my contributions to that documentary.
So just really unique opportunities through women veterans of Colorado
and really special relationships with with all the ladies that
I've come to know through that as well. It was
(28:43):
really an empowering thing for me to join the Army,
even more empowering now post military service to use the
voice that I was given back to help others in
the community, whether it's building the future for my kids,
whether it's for homeless veterans who are suffering and dealing
(29:04):
with mental health issues, whether it's helping to lay a
path for other girls like my daughters to follow in
my footsteps and join the military. My husband and I
have grand dreams of both of them serving their country.
I will try to build them up as much as
I can so that they are they are army strong
(29:28):
and army ready. But really it'll be up to them. Well,
I appreciate your openness so much on so many levels. Um.
I think you have a tremendous story and also just
a will that is giving back constantly. So thank you
(29:48):
for your message, thank you for your story, thank you
for your time, and most importantly, thank you for your service. Yeah.
Thank you. Hopefully I'll see around sometime. I'm in Colorado
quite a bit, so maybe one day I'll see out
and about for sure. Thanks Bobby. It is inspiring to
see veterans like Keeney not only volunteer to serve their country,
(30:10):
but find new ways to continue a life of service
as civilians too. Thanks for listening to Vets you should
know check out our other episodes from more great stories
from inspiring vets who continue to work selflessly and tirelessly
in civilian life to make positive change. If you like
what you heard, please rate and review the podcast. We
want to hear from you, and don't forget to subscribe
for free or follow the show on the I Heart
(30:32):
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Vets You Should Know is a special four part series
podcast from I Heart Radio hosted by me Bobby Bones.
Our show has written and produced by Molly Sosha, Andy Kelly,
Ethan Fixel in partnership with Haley Ericson and Garrett Shannon
of Banter, edit sound design and mixed by Matt Stillo
and my personal producer and hero is Mike d an
(31:01):
Turn
Please be advised the following episode contains references to violence
and may not be suitable for all listeners. This is
BETS You Should Know, a podcast from My Heart Radio
celebrating the many who have selflessly put their lives on
the line to serve their country and the armed forces.
(00:21):
Every Veterans Day, we as a country honor and commemorate
the people who fight for our freedom and defend our country.
And in this four part series, you'll hear from these
individuals as they share their unique experiences in the military
and the lessons they learned that carried them into their
new roles in civilian life. Former U. S Army Captain
Kenny Martin has a story unlike any other. The daughter
(00:42):
of a single mother, Kenny spent her teen years living
with her grandparents after a tragic event befell their family
and left her mom serving a twenty eight year prison sentence.
During the trial, Kenny was told her voice and story
didn't matter. Thankfully, it wasn't long after joining the Army
that Kenny found her voice again. Today, she uses her
voice to lift up and support the voices of others
(01:03):
by working with nonprofit organizations that serve veterans I had
a chance to speak with Kenny about the incredible work
she did in military intelligence and the hopes she has
for her own daughters. Hi. Hi, how are you good
to talk to you? Get to talk to you? Well,
I mean, I don't talk to you on the radio
when I hear your voice, but good to hear your voice.
(01:25):
But for real, it's kind of weird. It's like an
interactive radio show. Now. Usually just yell and I wouldn't hear.
But now you can say whatever you want any time,
and I have to acknowledge it. I know. Well, I'm
very honored that you'd spent some time with me, So again,
thank you very much. Yeah, thanks for doing this. Let's
start from the beginning. I kind of like to get
to know what what folks are about before we even
(01:46):
talk about the military service. And so tell me where
you grew up and what home was like for you
early on. Sure. So. I born and raised in Colorado,
originally from Colorado Springs, but currently live in Denver with
my husband and my two kids. I was raised by
a single parent, my mom My father Quasi in the
(02:08):
picture when I was little, but they got divorced when
I was pretty young. My mom and my grandparents raised
myself and my two younger brothers in Colorado Springs. Growing
up with a single mom, Do you feel like that
in any way or anything from that, because I grew
up with a single mom too, and it had a
lot to do with the decisions I made in life. Yeah,
for sure. So speaking of life decisions, tell me about
(02:30):
your decision to listen the army. How did that come about?
It was actually a spur of the moment decision for
me to go into the army. I think being raised
by a single parent and then my grandparents. My grandfather
was a West Point class of nineteen thirty two and
served thirty two years in the army, and his side
of the family has very long history of service in
(02:53):
the military, dating all the way back to you know, England,
the Civil War and everything. So yeah, I think the tenacity,
the grit, the resiliency that single parents have to have
and that they have to instill in their kids to
be able to function in life. You know, I think
having two kids in my own even with a great
(03:16):
supportive partner, was really hard to do. And so having
a single parent being able to raise three kids with
my grandparents, you know, it definitely teaches you a lot differently.
I think you you rely on each other, you get
really close to your family, I think. And there's just
a lot to be said about single parents for sure.
(03:38):
When you were a teenager, your mom got remarried to someone,
Is that right? Yeah? So, you know, as a kid,
I grew up an incredibly supportive family, a really good
school system, and I always had that support system to
to build up my confidence. You know. I was in
Gift and Talented Student Council president and my mom, being
(03:59):
a single parent, went with low income. We were also
a free and reduced lunch program. Kid like me and
my brothers were right, but we were never taught that
we were victims of anything. We were never taught to
take advantage of any of the programs, but to be
thankful for them and of all the things that we
(04:19):
can be thankful for. To continue giving to our community.
So we always did volunteering with our church, with our neighborhood,
with other groups, and so we've always just been taught
to give back in that kind of way. So seven
were juniors in high school and my mom had gotten
(04:41):
remarried to this guy and they had met because she
actually was going to school to get her pH d
in criminology and sociology, and after a few years, the
marriage started to deteriorate pretty quickly, and he became pretty abusive,
mostly mentally to my mother and then also to me
(05:04):
and my brothers. So there would be multiple days where
we would come home from school and the house would
be trashed. We would come home and you know, they
would be arguing, and my mom would tell us, you know,
go to youth church and come back and I'll make
sure he's gone out of the house and you guys
can sleep here and go to school the next day.
(05:27):
As the relationship became more toxic and abusive, Keeney's mother
filed a permanent restraining order against him, which required he
moved out of their home in Boulder, Colorado. He was
scheduled to come over to our home to pick up
the rest of his belongings, and this was in May
of He came over and while they were in the
(05:49):
house and he was escorted by a member of the
Boulder Police Department. He told my mom that she couldn't
watch me all the time, and she couldn't take care
of me all the time, and he was going to
do whatever it took to either bring harm to me
or take me and my brothers away from her. So
that really scared her, and it scared her to the
(06:11):
point where she had purchased a handgun unbeknownst to me
and my brothers, and she had kept it in her house.
She had taken lessons on how to use it in
self defense, and in that moment when he told her
he was going to take us away from her and
(06:32):
possibly hurt me, she decided in that moment to pull
out that gun and she shot him six times. He
didn't survive. And so through the court trials and everything,
it was determined that because she had purchased that handgun
(06:54):
at advance, it was premeditated murder and not self defense
since he had physically never done anything to her. So
in October of which was twenty three years ago, my
mom was sentenced to twenty eight years in prison. She
obviously missed high school graduation, college graduation, all of that stuff,
(07:18):
but she was here in Colorado and we still got
to see her. And that kind of was like the
first watershed moment of my life that brought me into
this military service. I'm so appreciative of you being completely
vulnerable with your story because I think a lot of
people in different ways relate. I think you and I
have very similar stories growing up with just the parental situation,
(07:40):
how vulnerable we were as kids, but how protective my
grandma was from for me or even you know, my
mom when when she was raising me. So so I
really appreciate you sharing that. You know, and as as
you're getting into the first stage of your life in
the Army and you go into basic training, like, that's
where I want to start with you and I talking
about this. Tell me what going into basic training was
like for you. I got a letter in the mail
(08:03):
from our r O t C unit saying they were
looking for students who would be interested in joining our
O t C and possibly commit to being in the
military afterwards. And that summer I was like, you know,
I'm not doing anything. So I went to basic camp
in June of two thousand to my first ever military
(08:26):
experience activity. That basic camp is really what changed my life.
Um it was four weeks. It was the hardest mentally,
the most grueling physically, and the most fun thing I
had ever done. And it was the first time ever
(08:47):
that I had actually touched a weapon before in my life,
and I remember being so nervous about handling live rounds,
especially given my situation with my mom. Had no idea,
you know, how I was going to do one drill.
Sergeant took an interest in me, and I think just
saw the leadership potential that I had, and he knew
(09:09):
how nervous I was, and so he took me aside
and helped me feel comfortable with my weapon, and then
we went to the life fire range. I hit thirty
eight out of my forty targets and actually was in
the top three at the range. So so that was
pretty awesome. I was pretty proud of myself for, you know,
overcoming this big fear and for kind of being a
(09:32):
badass at the time. So I came back from this
basic camp experience in Fort Knox with this whole renewed
sense of confidence. It was then in that moment that
I realized I had this voice and that I had
lost it during the trials when my mom was sent
to prison, the judge overseeing the case didn't allow me
(09:56):
to take the stand to talk about my experience living
in that home with my mom and her husband, and
so essentially I told me that my voice didn't matter.
So when I went to that basic camp for the Army,
I was told that my voice did matter and that
I needed to use it. From that day on, I
had to rebuild myself really, and it was those members
(10:21):
of the military, my friends, the drill sergeants, all of
those people that were involved in that camp and then
later on in r O t C who really helped
me regain my voice and regain my confidence so that
I could be a voice for others going forward. That's
when I decided, like, I'm going to join the Army.
(10:42):
As soon as I got back, I signed my contract
and started r OTC for the last two years of
my college experience, and then graduated in December of two
thousand two and became an active duty Army officer. From
that point on, your first year in the Army, if
you were to put into a minute nutshell, what would
(11:05):
you describe it as the first year in the Army man,
I would say it teaches you a lot about yourself
about what you're capable of doing, because you are put
into school and you are tested mentally and physically beyond
like anything that you ever thought you could imagine. It
(11:26):
really either breaks you down, quite honestly, or it helps
break you down and then builds you right back up.
Kenny found her voice and trusted a support system of
friends and mentors during our first few months in the army,
and eventually she would also find someone to love for
the rest of her life. I met my husband in
(11:49):
September of two thousand four. We deployed to Iraq in
February of two thousand five, so we didn't really have
much of a dating history before deployment. We had no
clue if we were going to see each other again.
We didn't know what communications were going to be like
at that time. So we're like, well, I guess I'll
(12:10):
keep my cell phone number, and if we come back
at the end of this twelve months and make it
back alive, let's call each other and kind of start
all over. I was just reading about your wedding day.
How did it happen? Is it true? Because what I
read was you were not even on the same continent. Yes,
(12:32):
that's true. So on October, my grandfather, who again had
helped to raise me and my two brothers, he actually
passed away. I was able to get a Red Cross
message and was home within twenty four hours of his passing.
Because my husband and I were not married yet, the
army still considered us single soldiers even though we were
engaged but not legally married. He was not able to
(12:55):
come with me to go home to attend my grandfather's funeral,
so I went home by myself. He decided to start
looking into how we could get married. Turns out Colorado
is one of four states that allows a marriage by proxy,
so we looked into how that was possible because that
(13:16):
sounded really weird. And in Colorado, if one person is present,
the other person can fill out an affidavit and a
power of attorney and have another person mary their person
by proxy. So I had my best friend marry me
in proxy for my husband on November four, Colorado time
(13:39):
zone and November five, Iraq time zone. But we did
have a real wedding, mostly because he's always grown up
in the church and had always just pictured having an
actual wedding, so he wanted that. And then he also
wanted his signature on our marriage license, so I have
to marriage licenses. Is that legal? I don't know, let's hope.
(14:01):
So you know, I love it. I think it's a
fantastic story. Can you tell me about the work that
your husband was doing as you guys were over there
at the same place. Yes. So with the third Infantry Division,
he was stationed in Baghdad within the Green Zone or
the International Zone as it's known. He was in charge
(14:22):
of force protection for the entire divisions areas of operations,
so that was all of Baghdad and some of the
surrounding areas as well. He had a pretty unique role
with forced protection because he was in charge of physical security,
so all the checkpoints and those kind of things that
(14:43):
our division was in charge of the security for the
polling sites during the first national Iraqi elections in two
thousand five. That was a little bit scary, but a
great opportunity for him again because he was just on
the road all the time. One of the reasons why
we are adamant about voting and talking to these younger
(15:05):
generations about why it's so important to vote and use
their voice when they're voting is in Iraq, people were
waiting in line to vote to make their voice heard
for the first time ever. And there were suicide bombers.
There was vehicle bombs, there is roadside bombs, there were
attacks on polling places to silence those voices. After my
(15:28):
husband and his teams would go out to clean up
these polling sites, people would be their waiting in line
again to make their voices heard. So it's it was
that important to them that despite these attacks, they would
go to the polling sites. And while you're there, what
type of work are you doing in Iraq? So when
(15:48):
I was over there, I had two different jobs. So
the first half of the deployment, I was in charge
of these drones by planes. They were the shadow tactical
unmanned aerial vehicles. I was a first person with a
third infortuted division to have that type of equipment. Myself,
my company commander, and our first sergeant. We received our
(16:10):
equipment and we also welcomed our first soldiers into that
unit in July of two thousand and four and then
had to train and prepare for deployment by February of
two thousand five. So that was a really unique experience
because there was only one other unit in the army
who had been doing it, and they had just done
(16:31):
it the year prior to us arriving, So it's a
really steep learning curve. One of the things I think
I learned out of that deployment and out of that
experience of being a platoon leader is you know, you
get your soldiers, it's a really wide age range of
people that you are thrown in together with all varying backgrounds,
(16:52):
and then me as a platoon leader, I had the
least experience among all of them, but I was looked
at as a leader. So so really, I think for
for me, one of the things that I've always tried
to do as a good leader, a good manager, or
even just a friend is just making sure that you
take care of your people, you know, making sure that
when we got over to Iraq, they were calling their
(17:15):
families and they had been in touch with their families
to let them know they had gotten there, making sure
that they needed what they needed to be able to
do their jobs well and to be able to make
it home. And so, my guys, we had a laundren
recovery site located out of Taji, which is just north
of Baghdad. It was our responsibility to make sure that
(17:37):
these drones were conducting two seven operations on reconnaissance to
ensure the safety of our coalition and US multinational forces.
My guys saved a lot of lives from the work
that they did, and it was work that that couldn't
go without a break. So we literally had birds up
twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, the
(17:59):
entire year. I want to talk now about your life
after the military, starting with your retirement from the Army.
When did you know it was the right time to
leave and what was that transition into civilian life like.
So after my deployment to Iraq in two thousand five
to two thousand six UM and obviously meeting my husband
and then getting married and all of that stuff, the
(18:21):
Army at the time was doing these extended deployments where
they were going to be deployed for eighteen months sometimes more,
and we decided at that time that maybe being dual
military wasn't the right fit for us. At the time,
just starting a family and everything that we wanted to do.
The situation with my mother was improving and she had
(18:43):
an opportunity as well to be released from prison, and
so it was at that point in time that we
decided that leaving the military was going to be the
right decision for us. So in two thousand seven is
when we got out and we moved to Colorado where
I was born and raised, and we were able to
(19:03):
be with my grandmother, my brothers, and then also helped
support my mom as she transitioned out from the prison
system and then helped her with her transition into civilian
life as well. What drew you to volunteering and working
with nonprofits during this time? In two thousand and eight,
(19:25):
the Medal of Honor convention came to Colorado, and that
is when I met all these veterans who had received
the Medal of Honor, and the Medal of Honor is
the highest award bestowed upon any military service member, and
these true real life heroes were just so humble and
(19:46):
many of them had their own stories that they were
willing to share with us. And it was in that
point that I realized that I wanted to do more
for veterans. Being a veteran myself, I think for a
lot of veter ends leaving the military, that's one of
the things that we all miss the most is that
we have this higher purpose and greater mission that we
(20:07):
are all going towards. With volunteering, I was looking for
something to contribute to and to just better myself and
better the community that I was living in and so
using my post nine eleven g I Bill, I decided
to go to school to get my master's degree and
start working in the nonprofit sector. So the first nonprofit
organization that I worked for was called Veterans Green Jobs.
(20:31):
They were interested in helping veterans who are transitioning out
of the military to get jobs in the green energy sector,
and so it was a really great organization to be
part of. I was surrounded by other veterans who wanted
to just help our fellow brothers and sisters and arms,
and I'm still again very good friends with many of them,
(20:53):
just because of that common interest and the common path
that we took together. Working at Veterans Green Jobs really
helped me to refine how I wanted to help veterans,
and it was in employment. It was helping them discover
what they wanted to do post military, the skills that
they had learned, and the leadership that they had been taught,
(21:17):
and how all of that can transition into a successful
civilian career where they can work for companies that they're
proud of, where they can have jobs that are well
paying and support their families and just be out in
their communities again, So where did things go from there?
What was the next tour for you in your career
after Veterans Green Jobs. So I started working with many
(21:41):
companies across the country and helping them to recruit veterans,
essentially like a headhunter almost, but again we were a
nonprofit organization and helping veterans achieve employment. And so with
with that came a lot of connections into companies that
were interest in hiring veterans. Xcel Energy was one of
(22:03):
the companies that I partnered with. They operate out of Minnesota,
and then they also have corporate headquarters in Colorado and Texas,
and so being in Colorado, it was a really great
opportunity for me to work with this company, this utility
company that had so many great jobs and were interested
in hiring veterans. Again, it was just really great timing
(22:27):
where after I had graduated from Regis in two thousand
and ten, and then the CEO of Xcel Energy in
two thousand and twelve actually testified in front of the
joint chiefs about why it's smart to hire veterans, why
it was a good business case to hire veterans. With
that came internally the interest and intentionality of Xcel Energy
(22:54):
wanting to hire veterans and create a veteran hiring program
internal to the company, and I was brought in to
launch their internal veteran hiring program, which to this day
we still hire ten percent military veterans. External to the company,
we have a fantastic internal employee Veterans Affinity group, and
(23:16):
there's just a lot of people who do a lot
of good for veterans in the communities where we work,
live and play. Now I am an account manager working
with large customers and communities to help them achieve their
energy goals and sustainability goals, but I'm still very involved
in that employee affinity group. I'm actually the chair of
(23:38):
the Military Veterans Employee Group at XL and we do
a lot as far as supporting our employees who are
currently serving in the National Garden Reserve, who may be
going on active training or deployments, supporting them and their families.
We do a lot of volunteering in the communities, helping
(23:59):
homeless veterans, building care packages, renovating homes, writing letters to
veterans who are in our nursing centers and community living centers.
So we do a lot in the community through that
Veterans program, and so it's in that way that I'm
still able to give back to the veteran community and
to help my brothers and sisters in arms. What are
(24:21):
some of the biggest obstacles or misconceptions around employment for veterans,
both from an employer and a veterans perspective. I think
for a lot of transitioning veterans coming out of the
military and directly into civilian life is we don't understand
the full breadth and scope of everything that we achieved
in the military being really attractive to the employers and
(24:44):
to the companies who want to hire us. The average
soldier is in charge of millions of dollars of equipment,
they're in charge of each other, They're taught so many
leadership skills, but you don't really realize all of that
because it's just part of your day to day while
you're serving in the military. It's nothing really special, it's
(25:05):
nothing really that stands out. But to the civilian mindset
and to corporate America, it does stand out, and I
think people need to understand that sounds almost like you
were teaching veterans how to remarket their skill sets. Yes,
that's exactly right, is remarketing the skills that you've acquired
in the military. You're you're given a job, and you're
(25:27):
given an MS or a designation for what your job is,
and that's really all you think that you're doing. But
as one of my mentors put it perfectly is veterans,
you're more than your MS. You are the leadership that
you've learned from. You are the people and the culture
(25:47):
and the diversity that you've surrounded yourselves with, and you're
the experiences that came with your MOS. And so it's
really unique experience being a veteran coming out into the workplace.
You know, the biggest misconception, unfortunately with veterans is the
stigma around PTSD. PTSD isn't just a veteran issue, it
(26:11):
is it is a human issue. Um. Anybody can suffer
from PTSD, and and while it's true many veterans UM
have big diagnosed with PTSD, it doesn't mean they're not employable.
Many who are diagnosed know what the triggers are and
they avoid them or they have ways of dealing with them,
(26:32):
and they can function just as fine in the civilian
workplace as anybody else, What are some of the causes
and organizations that you really care about and that you
continue to work with today. The causes that I care
about really kind of run the gamut, and they have changed,
I would say over the last decade that I've lived
in Colorado. I would say one Veterans obviously is still
(26:57):
probably one of the top priority of causes for me,
and so just volunteering and working with a number of
the veterans serving organizations is still there. I've also been
on the board for Women Veterans of Colorado, which is
a organization that just brings together women veterans in Colorado.
(27:17):
It gives us a platform and a space to come
together as women who have served in the military, who
have served in the Armed forces, and have this unique
experience for us to come together and support each other
through the emotional, the physical, the mental kind of all
the challenges that came with being a woman in the military.
(27:40):
One of the cool things that I got to do
was actually part of this documentary called Women Warriors, and
the production team was from a local community college out
of Front Range Community College, and these students put together
this awesome documentary of women veterans from Colorado from all
(28:00):
different eras of service from World War Two all the
way to post nine eleven, and it was a great
opportunity to tell our stories of service and talk about
our experiences, whether they were good, whether they were bad,
and how that helped to shape who we are today.
And that team actually won an Emmy for their work.
(28:21):
I have a Congressional Record of Service sitting at the
Library of Congress now um for my contributions to that documentary.
So just really unique opportunities through women veterans of Colorado
and really special relationships with with all the ladies that
I've come to know through that as well. It was
(28:43):
really an empowering thing for me to join the Army,
even more empowering now post military service to use the
voice that I was given back to help others in
the community, whether it's building the future for my kids,
whether it's for homeless veterans who are suffering and dealing
(29:04):
with mental health issues, whether it's helping to lay a
path for other girls like my daughters to follow in
my footsteps and join the military. My husband and I
have grand dreams of both of them serving their country.
I will try to build them up as much as
I can so that they are they are army strong
(29:28):
and army ready. But really it'll be up to them. Well,
I appreciate your openness so much on so many levels. Um.
I think you have a tremendous story and also just
a will that is giving back constantly. So thank you
(29:48):
for your message, thank you for your story, thank you
for your time, and most importantly, thank you for your service. Yeah.
Thank you. Hopefully I'll see around sometime. I'm in Colorado
quite a bit, so maybe one day I'll see out
and about for sure. Thanks Bobby. It is inspiring to
see veterans like Keeney not only volunteer to serve their country,
(30:10):
but find new ways to continue a life of service
as civilians too. Thanks for listening to Vets you should
know check out our other episodes from more great stories
from inspiring vets who continue to work selflessly and tirelessly
in civilian life to make positive change. If you like
what you heard, please rate and review the podcast. We
want to hear from you, and don't forget to subscribe
for free or follow the show on the I Heart
(30:32):
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Vets You Should Know is a special four part series
podcast from I Heart Radio hosted by me Bobby Bones.
Our show has written and produced by Molly Sosha, Andy Kelly,
Ethan Fixel in partnership with Haley Ericson and Garrett Shannon
of Banter, edit sound design and mixed by Matt Stillo
and my personal producer and hero is Mike d an
(31:01):
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