February 26, 2025 • 57 mins
Caught in a whirlwind of systemic failures and neglect, Melissa Godoy brings her personal battle for better military housing to the forefront. Having once walked the halls of mold-ridden and poorly maintained military accommodations at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Melissa transforms her family's struggle into a relentless advocacy campaign. Join us as she dives deep into the heart of military living conditions, exposing the hidden truths about asbestos, rodent infestations, and more, calling for systemic reform.
Melissa's journey is a testament to the power of social media as a vehicle for change, showcasing her impactful use of platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. As she navigates this complex landscape, Melissa catalyzes a movement, drawing attention to the dire circumstances that military families endure and rallying support for their cause. Her drive highlights the essential role of advocacy in holding military housing accountable, and she provides invaluable insights for those wishing to step into the ring themselves.
The conversation takes a broader look at the challenges faced by military families, from the financial strain of high living costs to the educational impact of constant relocations. Through Melissa's experiences and stories, we uncover the persistent neglect within the military housing system, while exploring potential solutions and the significance of the Tenant's Bill of Rights. With unwavering determination, Melissa's journey underscores the urgent need for accountability and reminds us of the power of persistence in the pursuit of justice for our service members and their families.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
warriors fall in it's time for formation.
So today's guest I actually mether on tiktok live.
I tuned in and paid attentionfor a few minutes and quickly
realized I need to get this ladyon my podcast, mainly because
she was doing such a great jobwith answering so many questions
(00:23):
.
And today I have the honor ofspeaking with Melissa Godoy, a
dedicated advocate for improvedmilitary living conditions since
2019.
Through her active presence onplatforms like Instagram,
facebook and TikTok, melissa hasbeen a vocal supporter of
military families, helping toshed light on the challenges
many military families facetoday, and she's been working
(00:45):
tirelessly to help advocate fora lot of changes for our
military community.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
So, melissa, thank you for joining me.
Hi, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Quite the honor and I am so happy that you are on the
West Coast, because it's astruggle sometimes to fight that
three-hour difference betweenthe west and the east coast, and
it doesn't sound like a lot,yeah, but uh, you know, I'm sure
the world runs off the eastcoast, so it's uh, it's great to
join you this on this wonderfulfriday evening.
Thank you so, melissa, I justwant to start off and ask you
(01:21):
you know what inspired you toget started overall in
advocating for the betterment ofmilitary living conditions?
Speaker 2 (01:32):
To long story short because I could give you the
longer version, but for time'ssake, the shorter version we'll
have to do.
We lived in, you know, myhusband's active duty and we
lived in military housing foryears, you know, for years and
years and years.
And it wasn't up until we movedto JBLM that we saw what other
families were going through.
(01:53):
You know, I heard snippets hereand there, but it just seems so
outlandish to even considerthat the housing, you know,
could be unlivable or moldy orsome of the other rumors that I
was hearing, you know, withinthe military community, and it
was just so unbelievable and Iwas so naive I just was like,
(02:13):
well, that would just, it can'tbe that bad.
And then we moved to joint baseLewis-McChord and we experienced
that you know, we experiencedthe neglect from the military
housing company, their completedisregard for our well, you know
, our well-being and our safety,concerning all the complaints
(02:33):
we had.
And we ended up getting, youknow, we lived in that house for
pretty much exactly a year andthat year, you know, for lack of
better words, that year washell and I ended up getting us
displaced and while I was in thehotel, man that just lit a fire
, I got to see and experienceall of the injustice that so
(02:58):
many families were talking aboutand so many other families were
experiencing at that time inJoint Base Lewis-McChord and I
just I felt like I juststruggling for that one whole
year in the housing, withendless complaints, endless
maintenance issues gettingignored, and at the same time,
(03:21):
you know, my husband isselflessly serving his country
and we're just forking over allthis money to be treated that
way.
And so that just lit a fire andI thought I have to do
something.
So I started these socialmedias and it started out as
Lincoln Military Housing ToxicHomes, and then that turned into
(03:43):
Military Housing Slumlords, andthen that turned into military
housing slumlords, and then thatturned into military living
conditions.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Do you remember what were some of the top issues?
Were there any major healthissues?
That was wrong with themilitary housing.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
There was just a lot of things wrong all at the same
time.
There was massive, just I thinkthe biggest issue is
ventilation.
When you have poor ventilation,that leads to mold growth and
poor ventilation, no AC, nastywater, rodent and bug
(04:23):
infestations Just little thingshere and there falling apart.
Poor maintenance response, slowmaintenance response.
I remember we had a leakunderneath our kitchen sink and
there was water slowly poolingfrom underneath the kitchen sink
and I kept wiping it and Ithought, wow, that's a big deal.
There's water, you know.
(04:44):
And I called the maintenanceline and I said, hey, we have an
active leak and someone didn'tshow up to our house until 24
hours later.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Wow.
And you know what's interestingabout all this is, my father
was stationed at SchofieldBarracks back in 1990.
And I remember as a kid lookingat the base housing, thinking,
wow, this base housing is old.
Fast forward to 2003, 2004,.
I get stationed at SchofieldBarracks as a you know, as a
(05:16):
brand new commissioned officerand it was the same housing that
I thought in 1990 looked old.
And here we are in 2023, 2024.
And it was the same housing andI'm like, wow, this is like
super.
This is the same housing thatwe had back when I was 10 years
old, living here on this base.
It hasn't changed at all.
(05:37):
I do remember like a lot of whatyou're saying, where, like
trees were growing like into thehouse, there was like green,
like moss on the actual houseson the windows and I thought who
would live here?
And it was one of my decisionswhen I got stationed at
Schofield Barracks to not liveon base.
But shortly thereafter they didupdate the housing there on the
base, but it was never to adecent quality standard of
(06:00):
something I would want to livein.
So I had the option to live offbase.
But those are conditions thatare very substandard and should
never be offered to, especiallyfolks that are serving our
country Like I know that a lotof times you know those
contracts go out and it's thelowest bidder, I guess sometimes
, and that's still no excuse.
Overall, in your advocacyefforts, can you highlight some
(06:23):
of the most pressing issuesmilitary families encounter
regarding their livingconditions?
Is there anything else besideswhat you mentioned with the
ventilation and the slowmaintenance that you also can
highlight?
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Oh gosh, there's contaminated water, gas leaks,
asbestos, lead, what else?
I think the biggest issue isthe mold.
There's families that literallyhave mold growing all over
their house, on their belongings, on their clothing, their
bedding, their furniture, havingto throw out, you know, couches
(07:00):
and beds and bags of clothesand toys, a lot of health issues
, breathing issues.
They're just handing outalbuterol inhalers, just handing
them out.
So many families we hadalbuterol inhalers by the time
we left housing.
And there's families living incondemned homes, homes that were
(07:22):
condemned and then they wouldturn around and put families
back in and that's it, and it'snot just isolated to family
housing, the unaccompaniedhousing.
Unaccompanied, you know, the forthe single soldiers.
They're experiencing so worseissues If you could even believe
that, and they're not evenallowed to complain about it.
(07:42):
They don't have, you know,spouses like me to advocate for
them.
They're, they're in thosebarracks and they're stuck in
there and they can't complainand their complaints are ignored
.
You know, I'm sure there arevery responsive, caring commands
out there that are just besidethemselves with with.
They don't know what to do, youknow.
(08:02):
And then they go to DPW, thedirector of public works say,
hey, you know, these leaders arelike hey, I got soldiers in
here living in a moldy building,what can we do?
And they get ignored.
So there's multiple levels ofnegligence happening and it
starts from the top down.
You know, through through myadvocacy you know I've kind of
(08:24):
learned what the bigger pictureis.
And everything starts and endswith Congress.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Congress, they're the ones that allocate the funds.
They're the ones you know.
Senate Armed Service Committeethey're the ones that allocate
the funds.
They're the ones that you knowcall all the shots for our
military service members and ourcomplaints are falling on deaf
ears.
I've been complaining to theSenate Armed Service Committee
(08:51):
since the beginning,continuously send them emails
and speak to them and havemeetings, and they're like yeah,
yeah, we hear you, we hear you.
So this is happening, this ishappening, and all they do is
contact the command and and andit just it's like an endless
cycle.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah, it's a.
It's a lot of inefficiency anda lot of like a lot of nothing
happening.
Because I, even when I wasenlisted, I went to my advanced
individual training and we had atemporary set of barracks that
we stayed in prior to usstarting our AIT training and
during my time there I rememberlike sleeping on the bunks and
(09:31):
looking at how disgusting theywere, very unclean, like I ended
up getting bronchitis stayingin those barracks and I spent
the next like nine weeks justcoughing out my lungs and then
you go to sick call and theyjust told me to drink water and
run it off and that's all youreally can do when you have
bronchitis.
But you get that.
You get bronchitis from usuallyfrom like poor living, like
(09:51):
like unsanitary livingconditions, and I know that
that's what happened.
Was that staying in thosebarracks?
I I remember distinctly how,how dirty they were and they
were very disgusting and therewasn't a whole lot for us to do
to clean them up because it wasso bad.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
I just want to ask you overall, you know, since you
started your advocacy and theplatforms that you're using
Instagram, facebook, tiktok howhas that aided in your overall
efforts to advocate for thebetterment of our military
community?
Speaker 2 (10:26):
all efforts to advocate for the betterment of
our military community.
Well, I thought, since Congressyou know there's a slow
response with Congress what Iwanted to do is get the word out
.
The general public, you know,and there was a time in my life
I was the general public, I wasnot military affiliated, I was
not married to anyone in themilitary and I thought that the
military was a prestigiousorganization and it still is.
(10:48):
But there were a lot of thingsthat they don't talk about and
housing you know the defect, andthe medical care.
There were things that theyjust don't talk about and they
don't put out in the media.
I never saw headlinesreflecting such living
conditions related to themilitary, never read anything in
the news or saw anything in thenews that had to do with poor
(11:11):
living conditions.
So it was very unheard of, itwas a very hush-hush subject.
So I thought, wow, the generalpublic needs to know about this.
Because of the general public.
It's kind of I mean it's, youknow putting.
Because of the general public,it's kind of I mean it, you know
putting, putting them in thespotlight, putting, you know,
bad publicity.
(11:32):
It's kind of obnoxious, but youknow what it works putting,
putting bad publicity about themsaying hey, you know, if people
don't know about this, I'mgonna tell them'm going to let
them know.
So I joined as many platforms asI could and just started
(11:52):
putting content out there andfamilies.
Up to today, I've probablytalked to thousands of service
members and their family membersmarried service members, single
service members and they wouldtell me stories about their
living conditions, their defects, their medical malpractice,
sending me thousands of picturesof their living conditions just
(12:13):
full of mold and bugs and allthis stuff.
And I thought, wow, the generalpublic definitely needs to see
this.
And that has created, that hascaused quite a stir with the
powers that be that, hey, we, wecan't be letting people know
that you know we're not takingcare of our service members.
So that kind of generated aresponse and a domino effect.
(12:37):
You know, when some of my ticktalks went viral with over a
million views, I was gettingcontacted by different DPW
workers, different leaders, andit generated that response that
I wanted.
If you're not going to payattention to me and these issues
(13:01):
, I'm going to make you.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Right, yeah, and those social media platforms
have a way of doing that intoday's world, in 2025.
And it's great that folks likeyou are fighting for that
advocacy, because the one thingthat I've learned over the years
is you know, I served inOperation Iraqi Freedom in 2004,
2005.
They say less than like 5%served in that war.
5% of the US population sayless than like 5% served in that
(13:28):
war.
5% of the US population.
It bothers me now when I askfolks about things that I feel
like they should know somethingabout.
So when I ask about stop loss,the majority of Americans don't
know what that is.
And it bothers me because I'mthinking to myself why and a lot
of it has to do with the factthat less than 5% of the
population I think 6% of thepopulation ever served, and then
less than that even servedduring wartime.
(13:50):
So why would anyone care?
So you've got 95% of theAmerican population walking
around.
It's not in their backyard,it's not in their purview, so
why do they care?
And so what you're talkingabout is you're talking about
living conditions.
So less than five to 6% of theUS population.
They don't live in barracks,They've never experienced
military housing, so why wouldthey care?
(14:11):
So unless you're out theredoing what you're doing and
talking about it, they wouldnever ever know.
And just overall, like in yourefforts so far since you began
your journey in being anadvocate, you kind of led into
it a little bit, but whatchanges or improvements have you
witnessed so far with youradvocacy overall with military
(14:33):
housing?
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Well, when we first got displaced in 2019, I heard
about the Tenants' Bill ofRights and I think they were
just generating, they were juststarting the talks about the
Tenants Bill of Rights, but Iwas still in the middle of my
housing issues and it justseemed hopeless to me and I
(14:57):
didn't respond to those emails.
I thought, wow, I felt like itwas just a hopeless situation.
I thought, wow, I felt like itwas just a hopeless situation.
But as I started, when Icreated a wave of displacements
and I went all over the news andJBLM and just started
displacing families myself, likehey, this family is living in
(15:18):
mold, and I displaced over 30families myself in a span of two
weeks, over 30 families myselfin a span of two weeks.
Now, and I don't want to sayspecifically my actions, because
there are dozens of otheradvocates out there that are,
you know, going to the Hill andthey're doing a lot of
legislative work and I'd like tothink that I'm just a drop in
the bucket you know what I meanand that we're all working
(15:41):
together towards the same thingand we're all doing something
towards and working towards thatgoal.
But I know, in JBL, familieswere getting displaced, people's
homes were getting worked on.
Families that were fighting toleave their house because of the
living conditions got to leavetheir house and break their
lease.
But now, you know, with acombined effort of a lot of
(16:05):
advocates and a lot of movingparts, we now have the tenants
bill of rights.
Tenants can withhold bh, eventhough a lot of this is very
inconsistent there is no checksand balances, there is no
enforcement but it is stillthere.
There's still a lot ofimprovements that need to be
made, but at least when we werein housing, we didn't have
(16:28):
anything.
I complained and I wasliterally told if you don't like
it, you can leave.
We weren't told hey, you have amilitary housing advocate.
Hey, you have the Tenant's Billof Rights.
Hey, you can go to yourresidential communities
initiative rep.
You can go talk to this personor this person it was.
If you don't like it, you cango to your residential
communities initiative rep.
You can go talk to this personor this person it was.
If you don't like it, you canleave.
(16:49):
So, through a combined effort ofso many advocates and I'd like
to think I'm included in thatgroup there are now resources
changes happening and even asfar as the barracks.
Changes were happening there aswell.
I've helped fix AC units inbarracks.
(17:11):
I've helped fix certain thingsin barracks.
Somebody came to me with anissue with their AC unit and
their defect and I just sent aninquiry to the Senate Armed
Service Committee and said, hey,this defect they're blah, blah,
blah, they need their ACE.
And the soldier got back to methe next day and said somebody
(17:32):
came over and fixed it.
So that's kind of what I did.
I would just send inquiries andjust be that constant voice,
that constant reminder, like hey, I was that checks and balances
, because there is none, thereis not a team of people chasing
everybody around the militaryand in the Senate Armed Service
(17:55):
Committee reminding them thatthey have service members that
need help.
And it's not just me, there areso many other advocates that
are helping and posting about itand getting attention on it.
So the changes are happening,not as fast as we want them to
happen, of dollars they don'thave.
So I'm satisfied with any kindof change, no matter how small
(18:30):
it is.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Right, yeah, it's all about holding them accountable,
and folks like you are doingjust that, doing your part to
try to hold them accountable formaking conditions bearable and
livable and within standard.
And just for folks out therethat don't know, we've been
talking about it, but JBLMstands for what?
And then also too, can you walkme through the process of when
(18:54):
a military service member showsup to a base?
I know it goes off of rank twofrom what I understand, but how
does that work?
As far as whether or not you goin the barracks or you live on
base or you live off base, dofolks have options?
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Well, it depends on the installation, it depends on
the state, it depends on how bigthe installation is.
I know the bigger installationslike Fort Cavazos and Fort
Liberty.
You know the coupleinstallations in Georgia.
Then Joint Base Lewis-McChord,the bigger installations tenants
have a hard time getting intohousing.
(19:32):
There's long wait lists.
People are living in RVs andliving in hotels and stuff and
it also depends on the cost ofliving that.
So it varies close to threegrand a month and that exceeds,
(20:03):
you know.
And then you're talking aboutgas prices, you're talking about
utilities, you're talking aboutall the extra expenses that
come with living off post.
So it all depends.
You know where they're living,what the cost of living is in
that state.
I know a lot of families here inJoint Base Lewis-McChord are
struggling to live, you know,especially for you know the
(20:25):
junior enlisted E1 to E4, andyou know they don't make a lot
of money.
And so when you have rents thatare $2,500 and up and a lot of
them have, you know they needlike a three or four or five
bedroom house because they havelarge families the rent is just
unaffordable.
(20:46):
And of course there comes spouseunemployment and when you move
to a new installation, spousesdon't have that extra income to
put on that rental application.
So now you're basing everythingoff of that one income, which
most of the time will disqualifyyou from even renting, because
now you need three times therent amount to rent.
You need, you know, back, youneed you need a credit check,
(21:09):
and a lot of these youngfamilies, they don't have credit
.
So it's just so many thingsstacking against these families
and so many things that theyencounter.
And a lot of families are oneone vehicle families.
They only have one vehicle.
So that makes spouseunemployment even harder.
You know, spouse employmenteven harder to obtain when you
(21:30):
have a young family and theyhave kids and then one vehicle
and it's just a never endingjust piling it on these families
and before you know it they'reforced to live on posts where
they're encountering all thosehousing issues.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Right, and one of the things that you didn't mention
that I remember being a militarybrat myself was the schools.
So if you live off base andyour kids go to a school that
may not have a whole lot ofmilitary families there, it's a
huge difference when you moveevery four years and you go to a
(22:06):
new school.
Some schools are geared towardsthose types of kids that
literally just moved in.
You've got other kids therethat are not of that state
Hawaii, for example, where mydad was stationed there.
I originally was from there andwe lived far off base.
The school that I went to wasnot really geared towards kids
(22:27):
that move every four years whichmade education a little bit
harder too, whereas, like, theschools that are closer to the
base have teachers with thattype of I guess, understanding
and that type of educationtowards helping kids find that
gel a little bit better into thelearning atmosphere.
(22:48):
I think that can be a realchallenge sometimes to get that
assimilation.
When you're in a new classyou've got new teachers every
four years you're moving.
The schools, from what I'veseen, that are closer to the
base are a little bit moregeared towards kids that
transition like that, versus theones that are far away.
So you didn't even mention thatpart.
But like that is againsomething else that stacks
(23:09):
against all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
But overall, you know over time, since you're, you
know, on this journey ofadvocating for military service
members, have you partnered withany other organizations or
individuals, any collaborationsto help further your cause and,
if you have, can you share someof those experiences?
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Well, when I first started, it became kind of a
research.
I wanted to learn everythingthere was to know about military
housing and the contracts andwhat other people were
experiencing.
I wanted to talk to otheradvocates.
You know, other advocatesreached out to me and shared
some resources and I juststarted asking all the right
(23:55):
questions.
I wanted to know who, what,when, why, where, how, and it
just it turned into like a selfself-driven research and it just
it turned into like aself-driven research and I
encountered a lot of advocatesalong the way that were able to
(24:16):
give me some resources that Ihave now.
Part of it was just learning,learning who to go to.
People started reaching out tome and it was a lot of trial and
error.
I never ran social mediasbefore, so I made a lot of
mistakes.
I learned, I grew from thosemistakes.
I started learning how tohandle a crowd of people and
(24:40):
learn to interact with a crowdof people.
So when you run these socialmedias, you know you're you're
dealing with the public anddifferent walks of life.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Right.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
And before I knew it, you know, people like you
started reaching out to me like,hey, you know my posts would go
viral.
Or you know, word of mouth andslowly, and you know, and I
stayed consistent, that's thebiggest thing.
A lot of these advocates, youknow they get.
I stayed consistent.
That's the biggest thing.
A lot of these advocates, youknow, they get burnt out and
it's easy to get burnt out.
It's it's never ending.
(25:13):
But I, I was so committed tothe cause because what happened
to us was real and it wasserious and I knew how how bad
it was that I just stayedconsistent and that's the
biggest thing was consistency.
People think like, oh, I'mgoing to start a social media
and I'm just going to getthousands of followers overnight
(25:34):
.
I remember my Instagram hadlike 40 followers for like six
months, but I just stayedconsistent.
I knew in my heart that thisneeded attention and I didn't
care.
I didn't care if anyonefollowed me.
I knew I had to put this stuffout on social media and people
needed to see it.
And before I knew it, peoplestarted reaching out and
(25:55):
podcasters started reaching out.
Other pages started reachingout.
Leaders, you know, senior NCOs,housing officials, even
senators, their, theirsecretaries, were reaching out
like actual senators andgovernors.
There, you know, people werelike oh I'm, I'm in the office
of Senator blah blah blah and Isaw your social media and I
(26:18):
wanted to know if you had sometime to talk with me.
So, um, it was just, uh, really, I, I really had to depend on a
lot of those advocates and theyreally extended their arms and
said hey, welcome aboard.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Yeah, trust me, I know the ups and downs of doing
this and having to learn socialmedia and spending like 45
minutes doing like a video orsomething like that and then
just completely trashing it andhaving to start over again.
Yeah times where I did podcasts, where I forgot to hit record.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Thankfully, today I didn't do that.
But, like when I first started,I was so frustrated and I was
like you know, why am I doingthis?
I'm wasting so much time?
But you know, at the end of theday, something like this is
very soul fulfilling.
So I'm so thankful that thealgorithm brought me to you
because, trust me, I do knowfrom my own personal experiences
how bad the living conditionscan be on some of these bases.
But overall, is there apersonal story or experience
(27:17):
that you can think of thatdeeply influenced you and helped
with your commitment to thiscause?
Speaker 2 (27:25):
and helped with your commitment to this cause, just
hearing everyone's stories andhearing how hopeless and
helpless families felt andknowing and seeing.
You know my own husband, whohas been serving this year for
20 years and retiring this fall.
You know, knowing how much ourservice members sacrifice every
(27:45):
day and being away from homelong hours and sacrificing their
mental health.
You know, going on my myhusband went on four combat
tours and you know he's beenblown up and shot at and saw
things that he never wants totalk about.
And then him coming home andexperiencing those things by
these contractors who areliterally stealing their money,
(28:10):
and knowing how much each andevery service member all 4
million of them right nowserving active duty today are
sacrificing and knowing how much, how they're getting taken
advantage of getting takenadvantage of.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Yeah, when you're going downrange and you're
deploying, the last thing youshould worry about is the roof
over your head for your family.
That should be a no-brainer.
That should be taken care of.
So you're 1000% right and as aformer military leader myself, I
know how pressing it can bewhen you're serving in war,
serving in combat, and thenyou're reaching back home and
hearing about these things thatare happening to your family and
(28:50):
I've had to deal with it.
When I was a platoon leader,when I was in Iraq, there was
times where I'd have to.
I would hear from the soldiersoh, this is happening, that's
happening back home.
And here we are trying to focuson the mission, trying to stay
alive, trying to maintain oursurvivability, and we're having
to look back and handle stuff ingarrison.
(29:11):
That really should not even be.
It should be a no-brainer, itshould already be taken care of.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Yeah, when we got displaced, my husband, literally
the day before, flew to FortCavazos Back then it was Fort
Hood, so he was in Fort Hood,supposed to be there for a month
training.
And the very next day we getdisplaced and I don't want to
tell him because I'm already adecade into this marriage and I
(29:39):
know he can't just fly home.
It would just stress him out,it would ruin his training.
So I didn't tell him.
We were in the hotel for a weekbefore I told him and that's a
funny story in itself.
But yeah, he was training andhe finally, after finding out
that we were in a hotel and Iwas displacing people and just
(30:02):
raising all kinds of shenanigans, his commander was like man, we
got to send them home.
We were in the hotel for a monthand he had to be sent home
three weeks into his training.
So, yeah, it disrupted histraining.
And I know families, spouses,their service members deployed,
and then they get displaced andthey don't know what to do and
(30:23):
you guys don't want to call yeah, you're right, you don't want
to call home and then find outthat your spouse or your family
member is experiencing all thisstuff and then you're
continuously forking over allthis BAH just to experience all
this.
It's an absolute injustice.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
When you got displaced.
What exactly happened?
Speaker 2 (31:07):
When you got displaced, what exactly happened
?
Happy in my own little world,but after so many months of just
being ignored, I called thehousing company.
Well, I'm sitting therethinking why are we sick?
My lungs are full of fluid.
My daughter sounds like DarthVader she was three at the time.
You could hear fluid exchangein her lungs.
Months of rashes and headaches,and I couldn't eat.
I didn't eat a full meal forfour months.
I lost 17 pounds and I knewthere was something in that
(31:29):
house making us sick, but I justdidn't know what.
I've never lived in a housethat made me sick and we were in
and out of the hospital for ayear.
Medical records show us goingto the ERs and urgent cares at
least every two to three weekswith breathing issues and just
all kinds of stuff digestiveissues and I just knew it was
(31:50):
the house.
But where, how?
What do I look for?
So I'm sitting there at theedge of my bed and right in
front of me was the masterbathroom and the master bathroom
door and I'm just sitting therelike completely helpless.
My husband is gone, I'm sick, Idon't know what's going on and
my eyes just kind of trail tothe floor, to there's a, there's
(32:11):
a wall and then the door isright here and I look down at
the bottom of the wall and Ialways noticed that that corner
was always dark and I thought,is that the shadow or is that
the wall that's dark?
And I noticed I saw like littlelines like this right above the
wall trim.
(32:31):
There's that piece of trimright along the carpet and I saw
like dark shading, just uneven.
So I'm just staring at it andI'm like that looks really,
really weird.
So I got down and I I kind ofpicked at it with my finger and
I picked off a huge chunk likethe wall.
The paint just chipped rightoff and then I saw all this
(32:54):
black stuff in it.
And then I looked alongside thewall and that black stuff was
just thicker along the trim.
And so I got a screwdriver anda pry bar and I just pried off
that trim very carefully becauseI knew I would have to put it
back.
So I gently pried it off andthat does mold all underneath
(33:17):
that trim.
So then I followed that wallaround into the bathroom and
just days prior maintenance cameover, because I was in the
bathroom and just days priormaintenance came over Cause I,
you know, I was in the bathroomand I saw a piece of trim by the
, by the shower that had mildewon it and I was like, wow,
there's something going on.
And I was naive and I was justlike whatever.
So I called maintenance and Ishowed them and I was like I
(33:39):
think it might've gotten waterdamage on it.
So then they were in there forabout 15 minutes and they came
back out and said you're fine.
So I went in there and itlooked like he had painted.
Well, it looked white.
I was like, oh, okay, hemust've replaced it.
That's awesome.
Well, a couple of days later,which was the day before we were
displaced, I looked at thatsame piece of trim and I saw
(34:01):
brown stuff and I thought Ithought he just replaced that.
No, he had painted over it.
So then, as you know, fastforward to when I'm inspecting
and I go around and I'm like,wait a minute, let me look at
that piece of trim.
So I pried it off and the wallwas just non-existent.
The drywall was just crumblingand you could see right through
(34:24):
the wall.
You could see the metal liningpieces.
It was a nightmare and I justkept prying off wall and at that
point I didn't care.
I just took the pry bar.
I took the, the whatever, thecrowbar and I just stabbed it
into the wall and pulled it outand exposed inside the wall and
it was just black, black mold.
(34:47):
And then we also noticed that Iwould get black spots all over
my carpet and I thought, wow,are we dirty people?
And, thinking back on it, wehad mold literally growing on
our carpet and I would sit thereand shampoo my carpet because
I'm thinking, wow, we must bewearing our shoes.
So I was strict.
I was like you guys cannot wearyour shoes in the house anymore
(35:09):
.
I'm tired of cleaning thiscarpet.
But it wasn't dirt, it was moldgrowing on the carpet.
I could see just black spot allover.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
That's so unacceptable and so scary, but
what you're saying is so true.
That's so unacceptable and soscary, but what you're saying is
so true and I can tell you frommy own experiences and I'm sure
folks that are going to belistening to this can also tell
you some good horror stories.
This has been a problem that'sbeen going on for decades.
(35:41):
This isn't new.
To report this, further thanyour your command to where you
can get other folks to listenand actually make a difference.
So you know, god bless peoplelike you who are taking the time
to expose this, because blackmold should not be something
that I mean that'd be the lastthing on my mind for sure and
but that's so dangerous ingeneral.
Just even be living in thoseconditions.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
So you know, wow, that's that's.
That's a crazy story and I'mglad that you were able to find
find the problem.
But how many people out thereyou know don't find the problem
and live like that for theentirety of their so many you'd
be, surprised so many.
And the health issues right.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
So many it's.
You'd be surprised to know howmany people are having unknown
seizures in housing.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
You have no idea.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
People that have never had seizures in their life
all of a sudden move intohousing and have seizures.
Kids having seizures, that'sterrible.
Kids getting admitted to thehospital with lung problems.
One of my friends she washaving seizures.
She didn't have epilepsy.
They tested her.
I did all kinds of tests notepilepsy but she had quite a few
(36:52):
grand mal seizures while livingin housing and she happened to
be one of the families Idisplaced and who sued with me
and she was having seizures.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
That shouldn't.
That's completely it's, it'sbad it is.
People don't know that it's andthey think I'm being dramatic
or I just want attention, right,oh, it's bad, it is so bad I
know and I agree with you 100because I can tell you that from
my experiences I live in likeliving in barracks, like I
mentioned before.
I end up getting bronchitis,like in in my transitional
(37:24):
barracks, and then yeah so too.
When I was in hawaii, this wasback in like 1990.
From 1990 to 2004, the housingdidn't change, you know, and and
I can tell you, this has been aproblem that's been going on
for decades.
Overall, overall, with youradvocacy, mel Melissa, I want to
ask you what are your primaryobjectives, moving forward with
(37:50):
your work for military livingconditions?
Speaker 2 (38:07):
the military housing privatization, through my own
research and my own efforts intrying to find the answer, and
why these housing companies arebehaving the way that they do
and nobody is doing anything.
They know, congress knows,everybody knows, but why isn't
anything done and they're notbeing arrested?
Balfour Beatty was charged withfelonies for maintenance report
fraud.
There's dozens of lawsuits andnothing is being done.
(38:29):
So the legal part of me I was aparalegal student years ago, so
my legal oriented mind I'm like, wow, how are they protected?
Something is protecting them,but what so?
That only led me to believethat it's those contracts that's
protecting them.
But what so?
That only led me to believethat it's those contracts that's
protecting them, those MHPIcontracts from 1996.
(38:49):
So ultimately, if we really wantto see changes, we're going to
have to either buy back housing,like the UK did the British
military.
They bought back their housingfor 6 billion pounds or whatever
they did, they literally justwithin the last month bought
back their housing or we'regoing to have to amend those
contracts or cancel them, findthe military housing in breach
(39:12):
of their contract.
But there's a lot of roadblocksto that because I've heard that
military housing advocaterequested those contracts with
FOIA requests and they got themback almost fully redacted.
So nobody really knows what'sin those contracts and why those
(39:32):
companies are so protected fromfelony charges, from lawsuits.
Lendlease was recently sued forthey had to pay a military
family in Texas $10.4 million,so they ended up selling out.
And then another company movedinto their place and nobody's in
it.
So hush hush and the military.
Of course they're in jointventure with these, these
(39:55):
companies, so they can't reallydo anything to their partner and
it's just an endless cycle ofstraight BS, of straight red
tape BS.
And so I've moved my wholecampaign towards cancel or
buyback.
Cancel or buyback, that's it.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
So I don't want to get too much into politics, but
there's been a lot of changeslately, specifically with your
cause.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
Are you hopeful, optimistic or are you
pessimistic?
Speaker 2 (40:30):
No president has ever addressed the military issue,
not in a way that I would liketo see.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
Because less than 5% have to deal with it.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Yeah, and it's so strange, but I feel that, with
enough noise maybe you know, Idon't know I'm pessimistic.
It's been six years now thatI've been actively advocating,
every single day, running thesesocial medias, putting content
out there, contacting the SenateArmed Service Committee,
contacting all the powers thatbe, encouraging our state's
(41:04):
leaders to get involved withtheir installation, and
nothing's been happening.
So I don't know, maybe maybeyou know I'm always hopeful, but
I'm used to disappointment.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
This is I mean, this is seems, seems like a lot of
changes going on right now.
A lot of people are on notice.
A lot of people are on notice.
There's been a lot of there'sbeen a lot of tarps that have
been pulled over and been likewhat's this.
What's this?
So I don't know.
I mean, it's the jury's out, Idon't know.
(41:36):
But, like you're saying,something has to be done,
because this is something thathas been going on for decades
and decades and it's notsomething that's brand new For
anybody else out there.
Melissa, that's an aspiringadvocate for the trials and
tribulations that you've beenthrough so far.
What advice would you offer toindividuals who also wish to
(41:58):
advocate for military familiesor similar causes, such as
yourself?
Speaker 2 (42:15):
It doesn't matter if you've got six followers, if
you've got 600 followers, if youhave 1200 followers, I don't
care.
Don't worry about the numbers.
Make your social medias andkeep posting.
Keep putting that content outthere, spreading the word.
Keep talking to families,Hustle, go to these spouses
groups and make posts.
(42:36):
Hey, my name is this and thisis what I'm doing.
I started this social media.
Put yourself out there, bevulnerable, be willing to make
mistakes and correct yourselfSometimes.
Be willing to be wrong, bewrong sometimes but then correct
yourself.
But ultimately, stay consistent.
That was my whole thing.
I didn't care.
I just stayed consistent andkept posting.
(42:57):
And now here I am and I'vewritten articles for Pop Smoke
Media.
I've done a couple podcasts.
I've interviewed for countlessarticles Senate, armed Service
Committee, they know me.
So stay consistent and it'llhappen.
But ultimately, just stayconsistent.
Don't ever lose that fire.
(43:18):
Don't ever lose that, thatdrive.
Always keep in your mind ofwhat happened to me.
This is what happened.
What happened to me was wastrue, it, it really happened.
It was that bad and and justkeep, keep at it and don't ever
become discouraged.
Don't listen to naysayers.
If I listened to naysayers, Iwould have quit in within like
(43:39):
four days.
So never listen to naysayers.
Let them talk, let them havetheir opinions, let them run
their mouths, block them.
Whatever you have your truth,you have your truth.
I had my truth, I know whathappened and just hold on to
that.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
I love.
I love that advice is to beconsistent, because it's very
difficult to be consistent, butalso uh, would like to also add
to be bold and don't be afraid.
Get over your fears of gettingon camera.
Get over your fears of voicingwhat you, what needs to be said.
How do you, how do you dealwith the haters?
How do you deal with the peoplethat are calling you a Karen?
Speaker 2 (44:18):
I don't.
I don't deal with them.
I don't give them the time ofday they want my attention.
I don't give it to them.
They can form their groups,they can form their chats, they
can talk about me until theirlips fall off.
I don't care.
I have a path.
I have a purpose.
That's where I'm going and itdoesn't involve them.
I don't waste the time.
(44:39):
I've got things to do.
I've got grown up things to do.
I've got grown up things tohandle.
I'm here to create changes.
I'm not here to feed into thedrama.
I'm 46 years old.
I don't have time for that.
And I'm surprised they havetime for that.
You know, we have jobs, we havekids, we have families, we have
(45:00):
.
We have schools, we have kids,we have families, we have
schools, we have goals, andwhoever does not align with that
, I don't even know who they are.
They know who I am, though Idon't know who they are.
So that speaks volumes.
You know what I mean.
At least my name is getting outthere.
At least I'm in good publicity.
Bad publicity, it doesn'tmatter, it's still publicity.
Keep talking about me, becausethen it creates attention.
People are like well, who isthis?
Melissa Godoy?
(45:21):
Let me go see who she is, andthen they'll see my advocacy and
be like, oh hey, so noteveryone is a hater and if they
are, I don't know how to helpthem.
How can I help you?
How, how can I help the haters?
See, I'm trying to helpeverybody.
How can I help you?
What can I do for you?
You know what I mean.
That's the attitude I've gotten.
When I first started, oh my God, it was a wreck.
(45:42):
But through the years, you know, I've I've gotten a thick
internet skin.
I've got a thick internet skinLike people are are hating.
Let me join in on you.
I let me join in on theconversations.
I hate myself too.
Sometimes.
It just it doesn't phase me.
I don't care, I love yourattitude.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
I love your attitude.
It puts a big smile on my facebecause that's just how it is,
and even in real life.
Even in real life, not onsocial media, not on the
internet, even in real life.
That's how you should be withfriends, family.
You know, you, do you.
If you believe in what you'redoing, do it, you know and don't
(46:22):
don't worry about the judgmentand all the other garbage that
comes with it overall.
Speaker 2 (46:27):
It's always going to be there.
There's always going to bepeople saying something.
There's always going to bepeople giving opinions.
Oh yeah, the only thing, theonly opinion that matters is
what you think of yourself, andyou should think highly of
yourself.
Speaker 1 (46:40):
Yep, yep.
And you know that's the thing.
I've been doing this for acouple of years now and I've had
people say that I suck.
I've had people say you know,this is going nowhere.
But I really don't care, like,at the end of the day, and so I
you say what are they doing?
Speaker 2 (46:53):
What are they doing Typing on their little fake
profiles?
You suck, okay.
So do you Like?
What do you want me to do foryou?
I don't know how to help you.
Speaker 1 (47:01):
Exactly, and that's why you put a big smile on my
face when you said what you said.
Yeah, just overall.
How can the general publiccontribute to improving the
living conditions of militarypersonnel and their family?
Speaker 2 (47:16):
Call the senators, encourage them to help military
families.
Your votes matter.
Vote for the senators that careabout the military and,
ultimately, just share posts.
If you know a service memberand you find an advocacy page,
you can share their posts.
Get the word out.
Ultimately, what we need rightnow is legislative changes.
(47:38):
We need congressional changes.
Call your congressman, callTrump, say, hey, what about the
military?
We have men and women that aresacrificing themselves, their
lives and their mental healthand their well-being for the
betterment and the protection ofthis country.
Take care of them.
That's what we need.
(48:00):
We need Senate advocacy, andsenators are slowly jumping on
board slowly, so it's startingto go that way.
But if we have the generalpublic, you know all these votes
, because that's what thesenators want.
You know all these congressmen.
They want votes.
So now they have to work forthem.
(48:24):
We need our state's leaders,our country's leaders, to care
about their military again.
You know, you guys are justdisposable, your people.
We're not talking about asofter military, we're talking
about a better military.
So ultimately, the voters needto go out there and advocate for
the military.
Speaker 1 (48:44):
Right.
We need more than just flagwaving.
We need action to happen.
Speaker 2 (48:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:50):
And you know, unfortunately, like I say, five
to six percent of the USpopulation ever served.
So our voices need to be 95%loud.
And with that being said,melissa, was there anything that
I didn't mention during thispodcast that you'd like to
mention before we finish off?
Speaker 2 (49:12):
Non-combat deaths, non-combat deaths, most
definitely.
Non-combat deaths, mostdefinitely 95% of I'm not sure
about the numbers, I know it'shigh though there's a huge
percentage of service membersthat are dying at home from
(49:34):
non-combat deaths A hugepercentage.
And there's a couple of GoldStar family members and they
don't even consider themselvesGold Star family members,
because to be a Gold Star familymember, you know your service
member has to die in combat, andthese people are not dying in
combat, they're dying at homefrom medical malpractice, like a
(49:55):
PV2, caleb Smith I'm not surehow to say that ring but's pv2
caleb smith from what used to befort bragg.
They found him dead in hisbarracks and his body was
decomposing for six days in hisbarracks, to the point that
other people in the barracks wasspraying for breeze to cover up
the smell of his rotting fleshwhat was command?
Speaker 1 (50:18):
They just didn't check on him.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
They just didn't check on him, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (50:25):
Six days.
That's really weird, because ifsomebody's not at formation
that's why this is the morningformation At the end of the day,
if you're not at formation, foraccountability purposes and
disseminating information, we'resending somebody up to your
barracks.
That just sounds like freaking.
Some really piss.
Poor leadership.
Speaker 2 (50:43):
Six days.
Colonel Outtan was hisleadership and then they I mean
I can send his mom over to you,heather Heather Baker she
started a social media calledPV2 Caleb Smither Justice for
PV2, caleb Smither and she'sdone legislative stuff and I'll
give her your email so you cancontact her.
(51:05):
She's got a story for you andthere's so many other non-combat
deaths happening.
That is a huge, huge, hugesubject that needs more
attention.
Some of their stories are justheartbreaking.
And Caleb, he was only 19 yearsold and he fresh out of basic,
not even at his first dutystation for seven months.
He was at Fort Bragg for sevenmonths when they found him in
(51:26):
his barracks and it's justdevastating.
You know when somebodyvolunteers for this country and
then they get ignored.
And you know medicalmalpractice oh my gosh.
I could go on.
Medical malpractice is anotherthing.
We have service members.
You know getting maimed andhurt in these hospitals and you
can't complain about a militaryhospital like you can in a
(51:48):
civilian hospital.
These doctors in the militaryare not sanctioned, they're not
penalized their.
You know their doctor, you knowtheir certificates or licenses
or whatever allows them topractice medicine, aren't
controlled like they are offpost and it's a scary world to
be in the military and then goto a hospital, be sick or hurt
and then get ignored.
(52:08):
And that's what happened toCaleb.
He was turned away from WomackMedical Center three times with
symptoms consistent withmeningitis and he died in his
room of meningitis.
Speaker 1 (52:24):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (52:25):
Yeah, I came across his mom's social media in, I
think, march 2020.
He died January, was it 2021?
But yeah, I came across themom's social media and she just
started and his story.
Just, I just cannot believesomebody being left in their
(52:49):
barracks for six days.
Speaker 1 (52:51):
That's unbelievable.
Being a former army leadermyself, that's insane.
The fact that somebody in thatchain of command squad leader,
platoon sergeant, platoon leader, company commander, executive
officer, all the way up yeahthat nobody bothered to check.
That's that never.
(53:13):
I mean that for me, that thatnever happened with us.
I get.
So that's that's the crazything about that, and yeah, I'm
definitely interested in hearingmore about that.
Speaker 2 (53:25):
I'll definitely give her your email and I'll send her
over.
I said I would drop.
I would drop a couple lines forher.
Speaker 1 (53:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (53:33):
But yeah.
Speaker 1 (53:34):
I mean, at the end of the day, for me it's all about
spreading the awareness outthere for our military community
and making things better, andthat's what it's all about.
And you know, that's reallyheartbreaking to hear that
something like that would happenunder anybody's watch.
Speaker 2 (53:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (53:49):
That's insane.
Wow, yeah, no.
So I'm so grateful that thealgorithm brought me to you and
it's been absolutelyentertaining that the algorithm
brought me to you and it's beenabsolutely entertaining.
I'm not on TikTok all that much, but I probably will spend more
time on TikTok.
I didn't really want to investa lot of effort and energy into
(54:09):
it because I didn't know whatwas going to happen to it a year
ago, two years ago.
Speaker 2 (54:12):
They kept talking about.
Speaker 1 (54:14):
They kept talking about canceling it and
everything.
So I was like, man, why do Iwant to spend spend most of my
time on Instagram?
Tiktok is probably here to stay, along with all the other
social medias out there, and Iknow that you're on Facebook,
instagram, tiktok, twitter, nowknown as X, and I'll make sure I
(54:34):
put all those down in the shownotes.
If you're listening to this,click down there and follow
Melissa on her advocacy journeyand support her as well.
She's already got quite afollowing on TikTok and
Instagram just through hertireless efforts overall and her
consistency, and I'm very proudof you and I'm very
appreciative of everything thatyou've done and thank you.
(54:55):
It's an honor for me to sithere tonight and talk to you and
just hear your journey, and I'mreally interested to see where
you go with it and hope that wecan make some big changes for
our country's armed forces.
Speaker 2 (55:20):
You guys have a hard job and it's difficult and I
want to do anything that I canto help, so it's definitely my
honor.
Speaker 1 (55:26):
It bothers me that I spent so many years trying to
rub the military off my skinbecause I just wanted to be a
civilian, I just wanted to bejust another person.
And here I am, years later,back at the table again, because
this is truly like we are aspecial group of people to to
you know, your husband doing 20years and all the sacrifices
(55:46):
that you guys have made as afamily, um is something that
many families don't have toendure.
So God bless you and andeverything that you're doing for
our community.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (55:59):
You're welcome, thank you.
Speaker 1 (56:01):
And for everyone else out there, please follow
Melissa on any of the socialmedias.
She's also on YouTube.
I just followed you on there.
Thank you, so you can, you can,you can link up with her on on
anything that you're on anyplatform out there.
Speaker 2 (56:12):
So just make sure you follow her.
Speaker 1 (56:15):
For everyone else out there as, yeah.
For everyone else out there.
As always, I want you to staytuned, stay focused and stay
motivated.
Warriors, it's all out.
warriors fall in it's time for formation.
So today's guest I actually mether on tiktok live.
I tuned in and paid attentionfor a few minutes and quickly
realized I need to get this ladyon my podcast, mainly because
she was doing such a great jobwith answering so many questions
(00:23):
.
And today I have the honor ofspeaking with Melissa Godoy, a
dedicated advocate for improvedmilitary living conditions since
2019.
Through her active presence onplatforms like Instagram,
facebook and TikTok, melissa hasbeen a vocal supporter of
military families, helping toshed light on the challenges
many military families facetoday, and she's been working
(00:45):
tirelessly to help advocate fora lot of changes for our
military community.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
So, melissa, thank you for joining me.
Hi, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Quite the honor and I am so happy that you are on the
West Coast, because it's astruggle sometimes to fight that
three-hour difference betweenthe west and the east coast, and
it doesn't sound like a lot,yeah, but uh, you know, I'm sure
the world runs off the eastcoast, so it's uh, it's great to
join you this on this wonderfulfriday evening.
Thank you so, melissa, I justwant to start off and ask you
(01:21):
you know what inspired you toget started overall in
advocating for the betterment ofmilitary living conditions?
Speaker 2 (01:32):
To long story short because I could give you the
longer version, but for time'ssake, the shorter version we'll
have to do.
We lived in, you know, myhusband's active duty and we
lived in military housing foryears, you know, for years and
years and years.
And it wasn't up until we movedto JBLM that we saw what other
families were going through.
(01:53):
You know, I heard snippets hereand there, but it just seems so
outlandish to even considerthat the housing, you know,
could be unlivable or moldy orsome of the other rumors that I
was hearing, you know, withinthe military community, and it
was just so unbelievable and Iwas so naive I just was like,
(02:13):
well, that would just, it can'tbe that bad.
And then we moved to joint baseLewis-McChord and we experienced
that you know, we experiencedthe neglect from the military
housing company, their completedisregard for our well, you know
, our well-being and our safety,concerning all the complaints
(02:33):
we had.
And we ended up getting, youknow, we lived in that house for
pretty much exactly a year andthat year, you know, for lack of
better words, that year washell and I ended up getting us
displaced and while I was in thehotel, man that just lit a fire
, I got to see and experienceall of the injustice that so
(02:58):
many families were talking aboutand so many other families were
experiencing at that time inJoint Base Lewis-McChord and I
just I felt like I juststruggling for that one whole
year in the housing, withendless complaints, endless
maintenance issues gettingignored, and at the same time,
(03:21):
you know, my husband isselflessly serving his country
and we're just forking over allthis money to be treated that
way.
And so that just lit a fire andI thought I have to do
something.
So I started these socialmedias and it started out as
Lincoln Military Housing ToxicHomes, and then that turned into
(03:43):
Military Housing Slumlords, andthen that turned into military
housing slumlords, and then thatturned into military living
conditions.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Do you remember what were some of the top issues?
Were there any major healthissues?
That was wrong with themilitary housing.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
There was just a lot of things wrong all at the same
time.
There was massive, just I thinkthe biggest issue is
ventilation.
When you have poor ventilation,that leads to mold growth and
poor ventilation, no AC, nastywater, rodent and bug
(04:23):
infestations Just little thingshere and there falling apart.
Poor maintenance response, slowmaintenance response.
I remember we had a leakunderneath our kitchen sink and
there was water slowly poolingfrom underneath the kitchen sink
and I kept wiping it and Ithought, wow, that's a big deal.
There's water, you know.
(04:44):
And I called the maintenanceline and I said, hey, we have an
active leak and someone didn'tshow up to our house until 24
hours later.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Wow.
And you know what's interestingabout all this is, my father
was stationed at SchofieldBarracks back in 1990.
And I remember as a kid lookingat the base housing, thinking,
wow, this base housing is old.
Fast forward to 2003, 2004,.
I get stationed at SchofieldBarracks as a you know, as a
(05:16):
brand new commissioned officerand it was the same housing that
I thought in 1990 looked old.
And here we are in 2023, 2024.
And it was the same housing andI'm like, wow, this is like
super.
This is the same housing thatwe had back when I was 10 years
old, living here on this base.
It hasn't changed at all.
(05:37):
I do remember like a lot of whatyou're saying, where, like
trees were growing like into thehouse, there was like green,
like moss on the actual houseson the windows and I thought who
would live here?
And it was one of my decisionswhen I got stationed at
Schofield Barracks to not liveon base.
But shortly thereafter they didupdate the housing there on the
base, but it was never to adecent quality standard of
(06:00):
something I would want to livein.
So I had the option to live offbase.
But those are conditions thatare very substandard and should
never be offered to, especiallyfolks that are serving our
country Like I know that a lotof times you know those
contracts go out and it's thelowest bidder, I guess sometimes
, and that's still no excuse.
Overall, in your advocacyefforts, can you highlight some
(06:23):
of the most pressing issuesmilitary families encounter
regarding their livingconditions?
Is there anything else besideswhat you mentioned with the
ventilation and the slowmaintenance that you also can
highlight?
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Oh gosh, there's contaminated water, gas leaks,
asbestos, lead, what else?
I think the biggest issue isthe mold.
There's families that literallyhave mold growing all over
their house, on their belongings, on their clothing, their
bedding, their furniture, havingto throw out, you know, couches
(07:00):
and beds and bags of clothesand toys, a lot of health issues
, breathing issues.
They're just handing outalbuterol inhalers, just handing
them out.
So many families we hadalbuterol inhalers by the time
we left housing.
And there's families living incondemned homes, homes that were
(07:22):
condemned and then they wouldturn around and put families
back in and that's it, and it'snot just isolated to family
housing, the unaccompaniedhousing.
Unaccompanied, you know, the forthe single soldiers.
They're experiencing so worseissues If you could even believe
that, and they're not evenallowed to complain about it.
(07:42):
They don't have, you know,spouses like me to advocate for
them.
They're, they're in thosebarracks and they're stuck in
there and they can't complainand their complaints are ignored
.
You know, I'm sure there arevery responsive, caring commands
out there that are just besidethemselves with with.
They don't know what to do, youknow.
(08:02):
And then they go to DPW, thedirector of public works say,
hey, you know, these leaders arelike hey, I got soldiers in
here living in a moldy building,what can we do?
And they get ignored.
So there's multiple levels ofnegligence happening and it
starts from the top down.
You know, through through myadvocacy you know I've kind of
(08:24):
learned what the bigger pictureis.
And everything starts and endswith Congress.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Congress, they're the ones that allocate the funds.
They're the ones you know.
Senate Armed Service Committeethey're the ones that allocate
the funds.
They're the ones that you knowcall all the shots for our
military service members and ourcomplaints are falling on deaf
ears.
I've been complaining to theSenate Armed Service Committee
(08:51):
since the beginning,continuously send them emails
and speak to them and havemeetings, and they're like yeah,
yeah, we hear you, we hear you.
So this is happening, this ishappening, and all they do is
contact the command and and andit just it's like an endless
cycle.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah, it's a.
It's a lot of inefficiency anda lot of like a lot of nothing
happening.
Because I, even when I wasenlisted, I went to my advanced
individual training and we had atemporary set of barracks that
we stayed in prior to usstarting our AIT training and
during my time there I rememberlike sleeping on the bunks and
(09:31):
looking at how disgusting theywere, very unclean, like I ended
up getting bronchitis stayingin those barracks and I spent
the next like nine weeks justcoughing out my lungs and then
you go to sick call and theyjust told me to drink water and
run it off and that's all youreally can do when you have
bronchitis.
But you get that.
You get bronchitis from usuallyfrom like poor living, like
(09:51):
like unsanitary livingconditions, and I know that
that's what happened.
Was that staying in thosebarracks?
I I remember distinctly how,how dirty they were and they
were very disgusting and therewasn't a whole lot for us to do
to clean them up because it wasso bad.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
I just want to ask you overall, you know, since you
started your advocacy and theplatforms that you're using
Instagram, facebook, tiktok howhas that aided in your overall
efforts to advocate for thebetterment of our military
community?
Speaker 2 (10:26):
all efforts to advocate for the betterment of
our military community.
Well, I thought, since Congressyou know there's a slow
response with Congress what Iwanted to do is get the word out
.
The general public, you know,and there was a time in my life
I was the general public, I wasnot military affiliated, I was
not married to anyone in themilitary and I thought that the
military was a prestigiousorganization and it still is.
(10:48):
But there were a lot of thingsthat they don't talk about and
housing you know the defect, andthe medical care.
There were things that theyjust don't talk about and they
don't put out in the media.
I never saw headlinesreflecting such living
conditions related to themilitary, never read anything in
the news or saw anything in thenews that had to do with poor
(11:11):
living conditions.
So it was very unheard of, itwas a very hush-hush subject.
So I thought, wow, the generalpublic needs to know about this.
Because of the general public.
It's kind of I mean it's, youknow putting.
Because of the general public,it's kind of I mean it, you know
putting, putting them in thespotlight, putting, you know,
bad publicity.
(11:32):
It's kind of obnoxious, but youknow what it works putting,
putting bad publicity about themsaying hey, you know, if people
don't know about this, I'mgonna tell them'm going to let
them know.
So I joined as many platforms asI could and just started
(11:52):
putting content out there andfamilies.
Up to today, I've probablytalked to thousands of service
members and their family membersmarried service members, single
service members and they wouldtell me stories about their
living conditions, their defects, their medical malpractice,
sending me thousands of picturesof their living conditions just
(12:13):
full of mold and bugs and allthis stuff.
And I thought, wow, the generalpublic definitely needs to see
this.
And that has created, that hascaused quite a stir with the
powers that be that, hey, we, wecan't be letting people know
that you know we're not takingcare of our service members.
So that kind of generated aresponse and a domino effect.
(12:37):
You know, when some of my ticktalks went viral with over a
million views, I was gettingcontacted by different DPW
workers, different leaders, andit generated that response that
I wanted.
If you're not going to payattention to me and these issues
(13:01):
, I'm going to make you.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Right, yeah, and those social media platforms
have a way of doing that intoday's world, in 2025.
And it's great that folks likeyou are fighting for that
advocacy, because the one thingthat I've learned over the years
is you know, I served inOperation Iraqi Freedom in 2004,
2005.
They say less than like 5%served in that war.
5% of the US population sayless than like 5% served in that
(13:28):
war.
5% of the US population.
It bothers me now when I askfolks about things that I feel
like they should know somethingabout.
So when I ask about stop loss,the majority of Americans don't
know what that is.
And it bothers me because I'mthinking to myself why and a lot
of it has to do with the factthat less than 5% of the
population I think 6% of thepopulation ever served, and then
less than that even servedduring wartime.
(13:50):
So why would anyone care?
So you've got 95% of theAmerican population walking
around.
It's not in their backyard,it's not in their purview, so
why do they care?
And so what you're talkingabout is you're talking about
living conditions.
So less than five to 6% of theUS population.
They don't live in barracks,They've never experienced
military housing, so why wouldthey care?
(14:11):
So unless you're out theredoing what you're doing and
talking about it, they wouldnever ever know.
And just overall, like in yourefforts so far since you began
your journey in being anadvocate, you kind of led into
it a little bit, but whatchanges or improvements have you
witnessed so far with youradvocacy overall with military
(14:33):
housing?
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Well, when we first got displaced in 2019, I heard
about the Tenants' Bill ofRights and I think they were
just generating, they were juststarting the talks about the
Tenants Bill of Rights, but Iwas still in the middle of my
housing issues and it justseemed hopeless to me and I
(14:57):
didn't respond to those emails.
I thought, wow, I felt like itwas just a hopeless situation.
I thought, wow, I felt like itwas just a hopeless situation.
But as I started, when Icreated a wave of displacements
and I went all over the news andJBLM and just started
displacing families myself, likehey, this family is living in
(15:18):
mold, and I displaced over 30families myself in a span of two
weeks, over 30 families myselfin a span of two weeks.
Now, and I don't want to sayspecifically my actions, because
there are dozens of otheradvocates out there that are,
you know, going to the Hill andthey're doing a lot of
legislative work and I'd like tothink that I'm just a drop in
the bucket you know what I meanand that we're all working
(15:41):
together towards the same thingand we're all doing something
towards and working towards thatgoal.
But I know, in JBL, familieswere getting displaced, people's
homes were getting worked on.
Families that were fighting toleave their house because of the
living conditions got to leavetheir house and break their
lease.
But now, you know, with acombined effort of a lot of
(16:05):
advocates and a lot of movingparts, we now have the tenants
bill of rights.
Tenants can withhold bh, eventhough a lot of this is very
inconsistent there is no checksand balances, there is no
enforcement but it is stillthere.
There's still a lot ofimprovements that need to be
made, but at least when we werein housing, we didn't have
(16:28):
anything.
I complained and I wasliterally told if you don't like
it, you can leave.
We weren't told hey, you have amilitary housing advocate.
Hey, you have the Tenant's Billof Rights.
Hey, you can go to yourresidential communities
initiative rep.
You can go talk to this personor this person it was.
If you don't like it, you cango to your residential
communities initiative rep.
You can go talk to this personor this person it was.
If you don't like it, you canleave.
(16:49):
So, through a combined effort ofso many advocates and I'd like
to think I'm included in thatgroup there are now resources
changes happening and even asfar as the barracks.
Changes were happening there aswell.
I've helped fix AC units inbarracks.
(17:11):
I've helped fix certain thingsin barracks.
Somebody came to me with anissue with their AC unit and
their defect and I just sent aninquiry to the Senate Armed
Service Committee and said, hey,this defect they're blah, blah,
blah, they need their ACE.
And the soldier got back to methe next day and said somebody
(17:32):
came over and fixed it.
So that's kind of what I did.
I would just send inquiries andjust be that constant voice,
that constant reminder, like hey, I was that checks and balances
, because there is none, thereis not a team of people chasing
everybody around the militaryand in the Senate Armed Service
(17:55):
Committee reminding them thatthey have service members that
need help.
And it's not just me, there areso many other advocates that
are helping and posting about itand getting attention on it.
So the changes are happening,not as fast as we want them to
happen, of dollars they don'thave.
So I'm satisfied with any kindof change, no matter how small
(18:30):
it is.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Right, yeah, it's all about holding them accountable,
and folks like you are doingjust that, doing your part to
try to hold them accountable formaking conditions bearable and
livable and within standard.
And just for folks out therethat don't know, we've been
talking about it, but JBLMstands for what?
And then also too, can you walkme through the process of when
(18:54):
a military service member showsup to a base?
I know it goes off of rank twofrom what I understand, but how
does that work?
As far as whether or not you goin the barracks or you live on
base or you live off base, dofolks have options?
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Well, it depends on the installation, it depends on
the state, it depends on how bigthe installation is.
I know the bigger installationslike Fort Cavazos and Fort
Liberty.
You know the coupleinstallations in Georgia.
Then Joint Base Lewis-McChord,the bigger installations tenants
have a hard time getting intohousing.
(19:32):
There's long wait lists.
People are living in RVs andliving in hotels and stuff and
it also depends on the cost ofliving that.
So it varies close to threegrand a month and that exceeds,
(20:03):
you know.
And then you're talking aboutgas prices, you're talking about
utilities, you're talking aboutall the extra expenses that
come with living off post.
So it all depends.
You know where they're living,what the cost of living is in
that state.
I know a lot of families here inJoint Base Lewis-McChord are
struggling to live, you know,especially for you know the
(20:25):
junior enlisted E1 to E4, andyou know they don't make a lot
of money.
And so when you have rents thatare $2,500 and up and a lot of
them have, you know they needlike a three or four or five
bedroom house because they havelarge families the rent is just
unaffordable.
(20:46):
And of course there comes spouseunemployment and when you move
to a new installation, spousesdon't have that extra income to
put on that rental application.
So now you're basing everythingoff of that one income, which
most of the time will disqualifyyou from even renting, because
now you need three times therent amount to rent.
You need, you know, back, youneed you need a credit check,
(21:09):
and a lot of these youngfamilies, they don't have credit
.
So it's just so many thingsstacking against these families
and so many things that theyencounter.
And a lot of families are oneone vehicle families.
They only have one vehicle.
So that makes spouseunemployment even harder.
You know, spouse employmenteven harder to obtain when you
(21:30):
have a young family and theyhave kids and then one vehicle
and it's just a never endingjust piling it on these families
and before you know it they'reforced to live on posts where
they're encountering all thosehousing issues.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Right, and one of the things that you didn't mention
that I remember being a militarybrat myself was the schools.
So if you live off base andyour kids go to a school that
may not have a whole lot ofmilitary families there, it's a
huge difference when you moveevery four years and you go to a
(22:06):
new school.
Some schools are geared towardsthose types of kids that
literally just moved in.
You've got other kids therethat are not of that state
Hawaii, for example, where mydad was stationed there.
I originally was from there andwe lived far off base.
The school that I went to wasnot really geared towards kids
(22:27):
that move every four years whichmade education a little bit
harder too, whereas, like, theschools that are closer to the
base have teachers with thattype of I guess, understanding
and that type of educationtowards helping kids find that
gel a little bit better into thelearning atmosphere.
(22:48):
I think that can be a realchallenge sometimes to get that
assimilation.
When you're in a new classyou've got new teachers every
four years you're moving.
The schools, from what I'veseen, that are closer to the
base are a little bit moregeared towards kids that
transition like that, versus theones that are far away.
So you didn't even mention thatpart.
But like that is againsomething else that stacks
(23:09):
against all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
But overall, you know over time, since you're, you
know, on this journey ofadvocating for military service
members, have you partnered withany other organizations or
individuals, any collaborationsto help further your cause and,
if you have, can you share someof those experiences?
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Well, when I first started, it became kind of a
research.
I wanted to learn everythingthere was to know about military
housing and the contracts andwhat other people were
experiencing.
I wanted to talk to otheradvocates.
You know, other advocatesreached out to me and shared
some resources and I juststarted asking all the right
(23:55):
questions.
I wanted to know who, what,when, why, where, how, and it
just it turned into like a selfself-driven research and it just
it turned into like aself-driven research and I
encountered a lot of advocatesalong the way that were able to
(24:16):
give me some resources that Ihave now.
Part of it was just learning,learning who to go to.
People started reaching out tome and it was a lot of trial and
error.
I never ran social mediasbefore, so I made a lot of
mistakes.
I learned, I grew from thosemistakes.
I started learning how tohandle a crowd of people and
(24:40):
learn to interact with a crowdof people.
So when you run these socialmedias, you know you're you're
dealing with the public anddifferent walks of life.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Right.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
And before I knew it, you know, people like you
started reaching out to me like,hey, you know my posts would go
viral.
Or you know, word of mouth andslowly, and you know, and I
stayed consistent, that's thebiggest thing.
A lot of these advocates, youknow they get.
I stayed consistent.
That's the biggest thing.
A lot of these advocates, youknow, they get burnt out and
it's easy to get burnt out.
It's it's never ending.
(25:13):
But I, I was so committed tothe cause because what happened
to us was real and it wasserious and I knew how how bad
it was that I just stayedconsistent and that's the
biggest thing was consistency.
People think like, oh, I'mgoing to start a social media
and I'm just going to getthousands of followers overnight
(25:34):
.
I remember my Instagram hadlike 40 followers for like six
months, but I just stayedconsistent.
I knew in my heart that thisneeded attention and I didn't
care.
I didn't care if anyonefollowed me.
I knew I had to put this stuffout on social media and people
needed to see it.
And before I knew it, peoplestarted reaching out and
(25:55):
podcasters started reaching out.
Other pages started reachingout.
Leaders, you know, senior NCOs,housing officials, even
senators, their, theirsecretaries, were reaching out
like actual senators andgovernors.
There, you know, people werelike oh I'm, I'm in the office
of Senator blah blah blah and Isaw your social media and I
(26:18):
wanted to know if you had sometime to talk with me.
So, um, it was just, uh, really, I, I really had to depend on a
lot of those advocates and theyreally extended their arms and
said hey, welcome aboard.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Yeah, trust me, I know the ups and downs of doing
this and having to learn socialmedia and spending like 45
minutes doing like a video orsomething like that and then
just completely trashing it andhaving to start over again.
Yeah times where I did podcasts, where I forgot to hit record.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Thankfully, today I didn't do that.
But, like when I first started,I was so frustrated and I was
like you know, why am I doingthis?
I'm wasting so much time?
But you know, at the end of theday, something like this is
very soul fulfilling.
So I'm so thankful that thealgorithm brought me to you
because, trust me, I do knowfrom my own personal experiences
how bad the living conditionscan be on some of these bases.
But overall, is there apersonal story or experience
(27:17):
that you can think of thatdeeply influenced you and helped
with your commitment to thiscause?
Speaker 2 (27:25):
and helped with your commitment to this cause, just
hearing everyone's stories andhearing how hopeless and
helpless families felt andknowing and seeing.
You know my own husband, whohas been serving this year for
20 years and retiring this fall.
You know, knowing how much ourservice members sacrifice every
(27:45):
day and being away from homelong hours and sacrificing their
mental health.
You know, going on my myhusband went on four combat
tours and you know he's beenblown up and shot at and saw
things that he never wants totalk about.
And then him coming home andexperiencing those things by
these contractors who areliterally stealing their money,
(28:10):
and knowing how much each andevery service member all 4
million of them right nowserving active duty today are
sacrificing and knowing how much, how they're getting taken
advantage of getting takenadvantage of.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Yeah, when you're going downrange and you're
deploying, the last thing youshould worry about is the roof
over your head for your family.
That should be a no-brainer.
That should be taken care of.
So you're 1000% right and as aformer military leader myself, I
know how pressing it can bewhen you're serving in war,
serving in combat, and thenyou're reaching back home and
hearing about these things thatare happening to your family and
(28:50):
I've had to deal with it.
When I was a platoon leader,when I was in Iraq, there was
times where I'd have to.
I would hear from the soldiersoh, this is happening, that's
happening back home.
And here we are trying to focuson the mission, trying to stay
alive, trying to maintain oursurvivability, and we're having
to look back and handle stuff ingarrison.
(29:11):
That really should not even be.
It should be a no-brainer, itshould already be taken care of.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Yeah, when we got displaced, my husband, literally
the day before, flew to FortCavazos Back then it was Fort
Hood, so he was in Fort Hood,supposed to be there for a month
training.
And the very next day we getdisplaced and I don't want to
tell him because I'm already adecade into this marriage and I
(29:39):
know he can't just fly home.
It would just stress him out,it would ruin his training.
So I didn't tell him.
We were in the hotel for a weekbefore I told him and that's a
funny story in itself.
But yeah, he was training andhe finally, after finding out
that we were in a hotel and Iwas displacing people and just
(30:02):
raising all kinds of shenanigans, his commander was like man, we
got to send them home.
We were in the hotel for a monthand he had to be sent home
three weeks into his training.
So, yeah, it disrupted histraining.
And I know families, spouses,their service members deployed,
and then they get displaced andthey don't know what to do and
(30:23):
you guys don't want to call yeah, you're right, you don't want
to call home and then find outthat your spouse or your family
member is experiencing all thisstuff and then you're
continuously forking over allthis BAH just to experience all
this.
It's an absolute injustice.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
When you got displaced.
What exactly happened?
Speaker 2 (31:07):
When you got displaced, what exactly happened
?
Happy in my own little world,but after so many months of just
being ignored, I called thehousing company.
Well, I'm sitting therethinking why are we sick?
My lungs are full of fluid.
My daughter sounds like DarthVader she was three at the time.
You could hear fluid exchangein her lungs.
Months of rashes and headaches,and I couldn't eat.
I didn't eat a full meal forfour months.
I lost 17 pounds and I knewthere was something in that
(31:29):
house making us sick, but I justdidn't know what.
I've never lived in a housethat made me sick and we were in
and out of the hospital for ayear.
Medical records show us goingto the ERs and urgent cares at
least every two to three weekswith breathing issues and just
all kinds of stuff digestiveissues and I just knew it was
(31:50):
the house.
But where, how?
What do I look for?
So I'm sitting there at theedge of my bed and right in
front of me was the masterbathroom and the master bathroom
door and I'm just sitting therelike completely helpless.
My husband is gone, I'm sick, Idon't know what's going on and
my eyes just kind of trail tothe floor, to there's a, there's
(32:11):
a wall and then the door isright here and I look down at
the bottom of the wall and Ialways noticed that that corner
was always dark and I thought,is that the shadow or is that
the wall that's dark?
And I noticed I saw like littlelines like this right above the
wall trim.
(32:31):
There's that piece of trimright along the carpet and I saw
like dark shading, just uneven.
So I'm just staring at it andI'm like that looks really,
really weird.
So I got down and I I kind ofpicked at it with my finger and
I picked off a huge chunk likethe wall.
The paint just chipped rightoff and then I saw all this
(32:54):
black stuff in it.
And then I looked alongside thewall and that black stuff was
just thicker along the trim.
And so I got a screwdriver anda pry bar and I just pried off
that trim very carefully becauseI knew I would have to put it
back.
So I gently pried it off andthat does mold all underneath
(33:17):
that trim.
So then I followed that wallaround into the bathroom and
just days prior maintenance cameover, because I was in the
bathroom and just days priormaintenance came over Cause I,
you know, I was in the bathroomand I saw a piece of trim by the
, by the shower that had mildewon it and I was like, wow,
there's something going on.
And I was naive and I was justlike whatever.
So I called maintenance and Ishowed them and I was like I
(33:39):
think it might've gotten waterdamage on it.
So then they were in there forabout 15 minutes and they came
back out and said you're fine.
So I went in there and itlooked like he had painted.
Well, it looked white.
I was like, oh, okay, hemust've replaced it.
That's awesome.
Well, a couple of days later,which was the day before we were
displaced, I looked at thatsame piece of trim and I saw
(34:01):
brown stuff and I thought Ithought he just replaced that.
No, he had painted over it.
So then, as you know, fastforward to when I'm inspecting
and I go around and I'm like,wait a minute, let me look at
that piece of trim.
So I pried it off and the wallwas just non-existent.
The drywall was just crumblingand you could see right through
(34:24):
the wall.
You could see the metal liningpieces.
It was a nightmare and I justkept prying off wall and at that
point I didn't care.
I just took the pry bar.
I took the, the whatever, thecrowbar and I just stabbed it
into the wall and pulled it outand exposed inside the wall and
it was just black, black mold.
(34:47):
And then we also noticed that Iwould get black spots all over
my carpet and I thought, wow,are we dirty people?
And, thinking back on it, wehad mold literally growing on
our carpet and I would sit thereand shampoo my carpet because
I'm thinking, wow, we must bewearing our shoes.
So I was strict.
I was like you guys cannot wearyour shoes in the house anymore
(35:09):
.
I'm tired of cleaning thiscarpet.
But it wasn't dirt, it was moldgrowing on the carpet.
I could see just black spot allover.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
That's so unacceptable and so scary, but
what you're saying is so true.
That's so unacceptable and soscary, but what you're saying is
so true and I can tell you frommy own experiences and I'm sure
folks that are going to belistening to this can also tell
you some good horror stories.
This has been a problem that'sbeen going on for decades.
(35:41):
This isn't new.
To report this, further thanyour your command to where you
can get other folks to listenand actually make a difference.
So you know, god bless peoplelike you who are taking the time
to expose this, because blackmold should not be something
that I mean that'd be the lastthing on my mind for sure and
but that's so dangerous ingeneral.
Just even be living in thoseconditions.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
So you know, wow, that's that's.
That's a crazy story and I'mglad that you were able to find
find the problem.
But how many people out thereyou know don't find the problem
and live like that for theentirety of their so many you'd
be, surprised so many.
And the health issues right.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
So many it's.
You'd be surprised to know howmany people are having unknown
seizures in housing.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
You have no idea.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
People that have never had seizures in their life
all of a sudden move intohousing and have seizures.
Kids having seizures, that'sterrible.
Kids getting admitted to thehospital with lung problems.
One of my friends she washaving seizures.
She didn't have epilepsy.
They tested her.
I did all kinds of tests notepilepsy but she had quite a few
(36:52):
grand mal seizures while livingin housing and she happened to
be one of the families Idisplaced and who sued with me
and she was having seizures.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
That shouldn't.
That's completely it's, it'sbad it is.
People don't know that it's andthey think I'm being dramatic
or I just want attention, right,oh, it's bad, it is so bad I
know and I agree with you 100because I can tell you that from
my experiences I live in likeliving in barracks, like I
mentioned before.
I end up getting bronchitis,like in in my transitional
(37:24):
barracks, and then yeah so too.
When I was in hawaii, this wasback in like 1990.
From 1990 to 2004, the housingdidn't change, you know, and and
I can tell you, this has been aproblem that's been going on
for decades.
Overall, overall, with youradvocacy, mel Melissa, I want to
ask you what are your primaryobjectives, moving forward with
(37:50):
your work for military livingconditions?
Speaker 2 (38:07):
the military housing privatization, through my own
research and my own efforts intrying to find the answer, and
why these housing companies arebehaving the way that they do
and nobody is doing anything.
They know, congress knows,everybody knows, but why isn't
anything done and they're notbeing arrested?
Balfour Beatty was charged withfelonies for maintenance report
fraud.
There's dozens of lawsuits andnothing is being done.
(38:29):
So the legal part of me I was aparalegal student years ago, so
my legal oriented mind I'm like, wow, how are they protected?
Something is protecting them,but what so?
That only led me to believethat it's those contracts that's
protecting them.
But what so?
That only led me to believethat it's those contracts that's
protecting them, those MHPIcontracts from 1996.
(38:49):
So ultimately, if we really wantto see changes, we're going to
have to either buy back housing,like the UK did the British
military.
They bought back their housingfor 6 billion pounds or whatever
they did, they literally justwithin the last month bought
back their housing or we'regoing to have to amend those
contracts or cancel them, findthe military housing in breach
(39:12):
of their contract.
But there's a lot of roadblocksto that because I've heard that
military housing advocaterequested those contracts with
FOIA requests and they got themback almost fully redacted.
So nobody really knows what'sin those contracts and why those
(39:32):
companies are so protected fromfelony charges, from lawsuits.
Lendlease was recently sued forthey had to pay a military
family in Texas $10.4 million,so they ended up selling out.
And then another company movedinto their place and nobody's in
it.
So hush hush and the military.
Of course they're in jointventure with these, these
(39:55):
companies, so they can't reallydo anything to their partner and
it's just an endless cycle ofstraight BS, of straight red
tape BS.
And so I've moved my wholecampaign towards cancel or
buyback.
Cancel or buyback, that's it.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
So I don't want to get too much into politics, but
there's been a lot of changeslately, specifically with your
cause.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
Are you hopeful, optimistic or are you
pessimistic?
Speaker 2 (40:30):
No president has ever addressed the military issue,
not in a way that I would liketo see.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
Because less than 5% have to deal with it.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Yeah, and it's so strange, but I feel that, with
enough noise maybe you know, Idon't know I'm pessimistic.
It's been six years now thatI've been actively advocating,
every single day, running thesesocial medias, putting content
out there, contacting the SenateArmed Service Committee,
contacting all the powers thatbe, encouraging our state's
(41:04):
leaders to get involved withtheir installation, and
nothing's been happening.
So I don't know, maybe maybeyou know I'm always hopeful, but
I'm used to disappointment.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
This is I mean, this is seems, seems like a lot of
changes going on right now.
A lot of people are on notice.
A lot of people are on notice.
There's been a lot of there'sbeen a lot of tarps that have
been pulled over and been likewhat's this.
What's this?
So I don't know.
I mean, it's the jury's out, Idon't know.
(41:36):
But, like you're saying,something has to be done,
because this is something thathas been going on for decades
and decades and it's notsomething that's brand new For
anybody else out there.
Melissa, that's an aspiringadvocate for the trials and
tribulations that you've beenthrough so far.
What advice would you offer toindividuals who also wish to
(41:58):
advocate for military familiesor similar causes, such as
yourself?
Speaker 2 (42:15):
It doesn't matter if you've got six followers, if
you've got 600 followers, if youhave 1200 followers, I don't
care.
Don't worry about the numbers.
Make your social medias andkeep posting.
Keep putting that content outthere, spreading the word.
Keep talking to families,Hustle, go to these spouses
groups and make posts.
(42:36):
Hey, my name is this and thisis what I'm doing.
I started this social media.
Put yourself out there, bevulnerable, be willing to make
mistakes and correct yourselfSometimes.
Be willing to be wrong, bewrong sometimes but then correct
yourself.
But ultimately, stay consistent.
That was my whole thing.
I didn't care.
I just stayed consistent andkept posting.
(42:57):
And now here I am and I'vewritten articles for Pop Smoke
Media.
I've done a couple podcasts.
I've interviewed for countlessarticles Senate, armed Service
Committee, they know me.
So stay consistent and it'llhappen.
But ultimately, just stayconsistent.
Don't ever lose that fire.
(43:18):
Don't ever lose that, thatdrive.
Always keep in your mind ofwhat happened to me.
This is what happened.
What happened to me was wastrue, it, it really happened.
It was that bad and and justkeep, keep at it and don't ever
become discouraged.
Don't listen to naysayers.
If I listened to naysayers, Iwould have quit in within like
(43:39):
four days.
So never listen to naysayers.
Let them talk, let them havetheir opinions, let them run
their mouths, block them.
Whatever you have your truth,you have your truth.
I had my truth, I know whathappened and just hold on to
that.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
I love.
I love that advice is to beconsistent, because it's very
difficult to be consistent, butalso uh, would like to also add
to be bold and don't be afraid.
Get over your fears of gettingon camera.
Get over your fears of voicingwhat you, what needs to be said.
How do you, how do you dealwith the haters?
How do you deal with the peoplethat are calling you a Karen?
Speaker 2 (44:18):
I don't.
I don't deal with them.
I don't give them the time ofday they want my attention.
I don't give it to them.
They can form their groups,they can form their chats, they
can talk about me until theirlips fall off.
I don't care.
I have a path.
I have a purpose.
That's where I'm going and itdoesn't involve them.
I don't waste the time.
(44:39):
I've got things to do.
I've got grown up things to do.
I've got grown up things tohandle.
I'm here to create changes.
I'm not here to feed into thedrama.
I'm 46 years old.
I don't have time for that.
And I'm surprised they havetime for that.
You know, we have jobs, we havekids, we have families, we have
(45:00):
.
We have schools, we have kids,we have families, we have
schools, we have goals, andwhoever does not align with that
, I don't even know who they are.
They know who I am, though Idon't know who they are.
So that speaks volumes.
You know what I mean.
At least my name is getting outthere.
At least I'm in good publicity.
Bad publicity, it doesn'tmatter, it's still publicity.
Keep talking about me, becausethen it creates attention.
People are like well, who isthis?
Melissa Godoy?
(45:21):
Let me go see who she is, andthen they'll see my advocacy and
be like, oh hey, so noteveryone is a hater and if they
are, I don't know how to helpthem.
How can I help you?
How, how can I help the haters?
See, I'm trying to helpeverybody.
How can I help you?
What can I do for you?
You know what I mean.
That's the attitude I've gotten.
When I first started, oh my God, it was a wreck.
(45:42):
But through the years, you know, I've I've gotten a thick
internet skin.
I've got a thick internet skinLike people are are hating.
Let me join in on you.
I let me join in on theconversations.
I hate myself too.
Sometimes.
It just it doesn't phase me.
I don't care, I love yourattitude.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
I love your attitude.
It puts a big smile on my facebecause that's just how it is,
and even in real life.
Even in real life, not onsocial media, not on the
internet, even in real life.
That's how you should be withfriends, family.
You know, you, do you.
If you believe in what you'redoing, do it, you know and don't
(46:22):
don't worry about the judgmentand all the other garbage that
comes with it overall.
Speaker 2 (46:27):
It's always going to be there.
There's always going to bepeople saying something.
There's always going to bepeople giving opinions.
Oh yeah, the only thing, theonly opinion that matters is
what you think of yourself, andyou should think highly of
yourself.
Speaker 1 (46:40):
Yep, yep.
And you know that's the thing.
I've been doing this for acouple of years now and I've had
people say that I suck.
I've had people say you know,this is going nowhere.
But I really don't care, like,at the end of the day, and so I
you say what are they doing?
Speaker 2 (46:53):
What are they doing Typing on their little fake
profiles?
You suck, okay.
So do you Like?
What do you want me to do foryou?
I don't know how to help you.
Speaker 1 (47:01):
Exactly, and that's why you put a big smile on my
face when you said what you said.
Yeah, just overall.
How can the general publiccontribute to improving the
living conditions of militarypersonnel and their family?
Speaker 2 (47:16):
Call the senators, encourage them to help military
families.
Your votes matter.
Vote for the senators that careabout the military and,
ultimately, just share posts.
If you know a service memberand you find an advocacy page,
you can share their posts.
Get the word out.
Ultimately, what we need rightnow is legislative changes.
(47:38):
We need congressional changes.
Call your congressman, callTrump, say, hey, what about the
military?
We have men and women that aresacrificing themselves, their
lives and their mental healthand their well-being for the
betterment and the protection ofthis country.
Take care of them.
That's what we need.
(48:00):
We need Senate advocacy, andsenators are slowly jumping on
board slowly, so it's startingto go that way.
But if we have the generalpublic, you know all these votes
, because that's what thesenators want.
You know all these congressmen.
They want votes.
So now they have to work forthem.
(48:24):
We need our state's leaders,our country's leaders, to care
about their military again.
You know, you guys are justdisposable, your people.
We're not talking about asofter military, we're talking
about a better military.
So ultimately, the voters needto go out there and advocate for
the military.
Speaker 1 (48:44):
Right.
We need more than just flagwaving.
We need action to happen.
Speaker 2 (48:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:50):
And you know, unfortunately, like I say, five
to six percent of the USpopulation ever served.
So our voices need to be 95%loud.
And with that being said,melissa, was there anything that
I didn't mention during thispodcast that you'd like to
mention before we finish off?
Speaker 2 (49:12):
Non-combat deaths, non-combat deaths, most
definitely.
Non-combat deaths, mostdefinitely 95% of I'm not sure
about the numbers, I know it'shigh though there's a huge
percentage of service membersthat are dying at home from
(49:34):
non-combat deaths A hugepercentage.
And there's a couple of GoldStar family members and they
don't even consider themselvesGold Star family members,
because to be a Gold Star familymember, you know your service
member has to die in combat, andthese people are not dying in
combat, they're dying at homefrom medical malpractice, like a
(49:55):
PV2, caleb Smith I'm not surehow to say that ring but's pv2
caleb smith from what used to befort bragg.
They found him dead in hisbarracks and his body was
decomposing for six days in hisbarracks, to the point that
other people in the barracks wasspraying for breeze to cover up
the smell of his rotting fleshwhat was command?
Speaker 1 (50:18):
They just didn't check on him.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
They just didn't check on him, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (50:25):
Six days.
That's really weird, because ifsomebody's not at formation
that's why this is the morningformation At the end of the day,
if you're not at formation, foraccountability purposes and
disseminating information, we'resending somebody up to your
barracks.
That just sounds like freaking.
Some really piss.
Poor leadership.
Speaker 2 (50:43):
Six days.
Colonel Outtan was hisleadership and then they I mean
I can send his mom over to you,heather Heather Baker she
started a social media calledPV2 Caleb Smither Justice for
PV2, caleb Smither and she'sdone legislative stuff and I'll
give her your email so you cancontact her.
(51:05):
She's got a story for you andthere's so many other non-combat
deaths happening.
That is a huge, huge, hugesubject that needs more
attention.
Some of their stories are justheartbreaking.
And Caleb, he was only 19 yearsold and he fresh out of basic,
not even at his first dutystation for seven months.
He was at Fort Bragg for sevenmonths when they found him in
(51:26):
his barracks and it's justdevastating.
You know when somebodyvolunteers for this country and
then they get ignored.
And you know medicalmalpractice oh my gosh.
I could go on.
Medical malpractice is anotherthing.
We have service members.
You know getting maimed andhurt in these hospitals and you
can't complain about a militaryhospital like you can in a
(51:48):
civilian hospital.
These doctors in the militaryare not sanctioned, they're not
penalized their.
You know their doctor, you knowtheir certificates or licenses
or whatever allows them topractice medicine, aren't
controlled like they are offpost and it's a scary world to
be in the military and then goto a hospital, be sick or hurt
and then get ignored.
(52:08):
And that's what happened toCaleb.
He was turned away from WomackMedical Center three times with
symptoms consistent withmeningitis and he died in his
room of meningitis.
Speaker 1 (52:24):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (52:25):
Yeah, I came across his mom's social media in, I
think, march 2020.
He died January, was it 2021?
But yeah, I came across themom's social media and she just
started and his story.
Just, I just cannot believesomebody being left in their
(52:49):
barracks for six days.
Speaker 1 (52:51):
That's unbelievable.
Being a former army leadermyself, that's insane.
The fact that somebody in thatchain of command squad leader,
platoon sergeant, platoon leader, company commander, executive
officer, all the way up yeahthat nobody bothered to check.
That's that never.
(53:13):
I mean that for me, that thatnever happened with us.
I get.
So that's that's the crazything about that, and yeah, I'm
definitely interested in hearingmore about that.
Speaker 2 (53:25):
I'll definitely give her your email and I'll send her
over.
I said I would drop.
I would drop a couple lines forher.
Speaker 1 (53:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (53:33):
But yeah.
Speaker 1 (53:34):
I mean, at the end of the day, for me it's all about
spreading the awareness outthere for our military community
and making things better, andthat's what it's all about.
And you know, that's reallyheartbreaking to hear that
something like that would happenunder anybody's watch.
Speaker 2 (53:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (53:49):
That's insane.
Wow, yeah, no.
So I'm so grateful that thealgorithm brought me to you and
it's been absolutelyentertaining that the algorithm
brought me to you and it's beenabsolutely entertaining.
I'm not on TikTok all that much, but I probably will spend more
time on TikTok.
I didn't really want to investa lot of effort and energy into
(54:09):
it because I didn't know whatwas going to happen to it a year
ago, two years ago.
Speaker 2 (54:12):
They kept talking about.
Speaker 1 (54:14):
They kept talking about canceling it and
everything.
So I was like, man, why do Iwant to spend spend most of my
time on Instagram?
Tiktok is probably here to stay, along with all the other
social medias out there, and Iknow that you're on Facebook,
instagram, tiktok, twitter, nowknown as X, and I'll make sure I
(54:34):
put all those down in the shownotes.
If you're listening to this,click down there and follow
Melissa on her advocacy journeyand support her as well.
She's already got quite afollowing on TikTok and
Instagram just through hertireless efforts overall and her
consistency, and I'm very proudof you and I'm very
appreciative of everything thatyou've done and thank you.
(54:55):
It's an honor for me to sithere tonight and talk to you and
just hear your journey, and I'mreally interested to see where
you go with it and hope that wecan make some big changes for
our country's armed forces.
Speaker 2 (55:20):
You guys have a hard job and it's difficult and I
want to do anything that I canto help, so it's definitely my
honor.
Speaker 1 (55:26):
It bothers me that I spent so many years trying to
rub the military off my skinbecause I just wanted to be a
civilian, I just wanted to bejust another person.
And here I am, years later,back at the table again, because
this is truly like we are aspecial group of people to to
you know, your husband doing 20years and all the sacrifices
(55:46):
that you guys have made as afamily, um is something that
many families don't have toendure.
So God bless you and andeverything that you're doing for
our community.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (55:59):
You're welcome, thank you.
Speaker 1 (56:01):
And for everyone else out there, please follow
Melissa on any of the socialmedias.
She's also on YouTube.
I just followed you on there.
Thank you, so you can, you can,you can link up with her on on
anything that you're on anyplatform out there.
Speaker 2 (56:12):
So just make sure you follow her.
Speaker 1 (56:15):
For everyone else out there as, yeah.
For everyone else out there.
As always, I want you to staytuned, stay focused and stay
motivated.
Warriors, it's all out.
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