All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio.
This is Veterans Radio.
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I am Jim Fausone.
I'm the officer of the deck today.
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We want to welcome to VeteransRadio now, Randy Howard.
She's a Navy veteran originally from Chicago.
But we're going to hand her on to talk about her work at the Warhorse.
But let's talk a little bit about Randy before we get there.
Randy, welcome to VeteransRadio.
Hello, thank you.
Thanks so much for having me.
Now, I'm going to ask you, as I did earlier,
how did a nice girl like you from Chicago end up at the United States Navy?
Yes.
So I was actually the first person in my family to join the military.
My mother is an immigrant from Belize.
And I really felt a great sense of responsibility to really pursue opportunities
and different avenues that just aren't afforded in other countries that are as developed as America.
And also, during that time, I also felt that I was in a very stagnant place in my life.
I was just going to school part-time because I couldn't afford a full-time education.
And I was working part-time as well at a grocery store as a general collecting cart.
And I just wanted to change.
I wanted to change.
I wanted to make my mother proud.
And I didn't want her move from her home country to be in vain.
So I decided to enlist in the United States Navy.
Well, it's one of those things.
We're having a military recruiting slump at the moment because not enough people,
not enough young people getting out of high school or looking at the military as a,
you know, maybe a short-term stop.
As you say, things were kind of stagnant.
You really didn't have the funding to go to college.
You wanted to.
You were a high school graduate.
And you were able to put four years in to the United States Navy.
And from there, kind of springboard your life and your career.
Let's talk a little bit about those four years in the Navy.
What, what rating did you go in as?
Yeah, when I enlisted, I was an aircraft electrician on helicopters.
And that's because you had such a desire to do so?
Yeah.
No, actually, when I was reviewing the different rates that were,
that are available in the military, I actually wanted to do intel.
And I expressed in my recruiter my interest to join in the intel community.
And my recruiter is not the individual or the recruiter is not the individual that,
that presents you with the job.
So she told me that, because she couldn't be in the room with me.
So she told me when I went in there to speak to someone else about the different jobs
that are available in the Navy, do not tell them that I'm ready to leave
immediately because they're going to offer me a job that they need filled for whatever
purposes that they need filled for today.
And I completely did not listen to my recruiter.
And because I was the job available was the job available with aviation, electrician.
And because I told them, oh, I'm ready to go immediately.
And when I say, this is it, this is it.
This is the only thing available they say yet.
And they told me I couldn't leave without picking a job.
So that's how I ended up in maintenance.
Well, it's, it's not all bad.
There's more to the story here, folks continue to listen to Randy Howard of the war wars.
But I think almost everybody who's been in the military has had one of those assignments
like I didn't ask for that.
So, so, so it wasn't all bad, as I say, because you got to spend a good deal of your time
in the San Diego, California.
Yes, I love California.
Absolutely love California.
It's just very.
Well, the part of this is again for our listeners, you know, this is a young woman who came out
of Chicago.
The winners in Chicago, my friends are brutal.
So cold and windy.
San Diego's was a pleasant surprise, I suspect.
Yes, it was my first time on the West Coast as well.
I absolutely fell in love with California.
But you didn't spend all of your time in California, Daxite, if you will.
You deployed.
Tell us about your deployment.
Yes.
Yes, making an island, which is an amphibious assault ship that holds Navy and Marines.
And I deployed with the 11th Mew.
And the deployment was about a year long.
And you got to go through the Southeast Asia and Middle East.
Tell us some of the spots you got to put into port.
Oh, yes.
Yes.
So our area of responsibility during that time was mostly Yemen and Djibouti Africa.
But on deployment, on the way there, we did spend some time in 7th Fleet.
We went to Hong Kong and Singapore.
And then when we got to 5th Fleet, which was more Yemen and Djibouti Africa, we did get
to port in Bahrain and Dubai.
And then our last stop was Hawaii.
This is the quintessential advertisement for the Navy, which is to join the Navy, see the
world.
And you really got a good look of very interesting cities and locations all over the world from
a lot different than Chicago, Illinois.
But tell us a little bit, for those who haven't spent time on ship, tell us a little bit about
maybe the best thing and maybe the toughest challenges.
Yes.
That is a good question.
So I would say the best time, the best time definitely were the port.
When we ported to Singapore, I got a fish pedicure.
And I don't even know how I knew to get a fish pedicure in Singapore.
I don't know how I knew that.
But when I heard we were going to Singapore, I said, oh, I'm going to get a fish pedicure.
That was in like 2016.
And I still go back and I look at that video.
And then also like the people that I deployed with overall was a good group.
And opposed to, but we snuck a George Fortman on to the ship.
And we would cook, spam and rice and we will all eat together when the ship crew was not
as advertising as we wanted it to be.
Absolutely.
And one of the other things you learn having been on ship myself is when you get in the
middle of the ocean, it is big and dark and at times pretty scary.
Yes.
I would definitely say that that was one of the most challenging parts of deployment for
me, especially because I worked the overnight shift.
So it was just pitch black and it was a lot more windy too in the night as well.
And you really had to, they like to say keep your head on a swivel and really pay attention
to what's happening on the flight deck, especially when flight ops are still happening late into
the night.
And you just have to pay attention to your surroundings and the edges, everything came.
So you really just have to make sure that you're just really paying attention because
things can go left pretty quickly.
Yeah.
And you used those experiences as an aviation electrician.
When you got out, you had a technical writer job for General Atomic Serenity and Autical
Systems for a little bit before going in San Diego area, before going to Columbia University
Urban Studies where you picked up your master, I'm sorry, your bachelor's degree.
Tell us about that migration from the West Coast over to Columbia University.
Oh my gosh.
That was really hard because New York City and California are completely night and day.
And I was not expecting that.
Or I wasn't prepared for that at all, but that was tough because New York, the weather
is not the same.
It's nice in the summer.
Very more culture.
A lot more culture in New York.
But I really appreciated that, but it gets pretty cold there as well.
And it's just a lot, a quicker pace, a more quicker pace than California.
Like California is very slow and chill and relaxed.
And New York is very, very busy.
And so I had to adjust to that and the parking and the rest.
Yeah, both.
Well you participated in the military veterans association at the university, but one of
the interesting things that you did, and it's going to tie into what we're going to talk
about here shortly, is you participated in tutoring women in a nonfiction writing program.
Tell us a little bit about that.
Yes.
That was actually one of my most rewarding experiences during my time at Columbia.
I, how that came about, I was actually trying to start my own prison book program.
I was volunteering at one in Brooklyn.
Columbia is in Manhattan and Brooklyn is not closed.
And I was, the commute was longer than the volunteer time at the prison book program
in Brooklyn.
And so I was trying to start my own and my guidance counselor recommended me to the
Center for Justice at Columbia.
And they actually presented me with this opportunity saying that I know you were trying
to start a prison book program, but this is already established and you can work with
books.
And you can still serve the same population that you were previously intended to serve.
And that was how I got involved and I would go to Rikers every Friday evening and tutor
the women at Rosie's that participated in the course.
And it was definitely a very rewarding experience that I won't forget.
And unfortunately COVID cut the program short, but it was very, very.
There must have been something that was sort of non-attitude to say this is a, this is
a valuable tool for folks here.
What was it?
Did you have a lot of writing or in your background or where did, where did this seed germinate
from?
That is a great question.
I just, well how the prison book program, I was just looking for somewhere to volunteer
and I just so happened to come across that and then when I started getting more involved
in the Center for Justice, a lot of the staff there are formerly incarcerated and just,
I just had some of the most productive conversations that I've had since I got out of service
and I just really delved deep into that space.
And then one of my professors, Professor Geraldine Downey, she, a lot of, I took a lot of her
courses that also incorporated risk factors and incarceration restorative justice practices
that also contributed to that experience.
Well it's really interesting because if you open yourself up to a new experience, right,
going to Columbia, well first off, joining the Navy was this new experience.
Going to Columbia was this new experience saying I want to help this particular population
through, through a writing course is sort of a new experience.
And that kind of I suspect led you to the War Horse News where you're at now.
Tell us about the War Horse.
Yes, the War Horse, amazing.
We are a nonprofit newsroom that focuses on military and veteran issues.
And so we have two components of the War Horse.
We have the newsroom side where we do a lot of investigative journalism and then the side
that I'm most involved in are our writing seminars.
And so my main responsibility with the War Horse is I plan writing seminars that help
produce stories that relate to different topics that we want to highlight to bridge the military
and civilian gap.
So I'm going to focus on that in a moment, but I want to go back and let our veteran
radio listeners know we're talking to Randy Howard who is the operations associate for
the War Horse.
And if you're not familiar with that website, go to thewarhorse.org.
There's always interesting information there.
It will go way beyond what you see in the general press.
And I think that's the real value of having somebody concentrate in this area particularly
at this time.
So talk to us a little bit about the writing seminars and experiences that you're particularly
focusing on, Randy.
Yes.
So when I joined the War Horse, we were on our, I think our fifth writing seminar.
And so that seminar was for military spouses.
And my manager, Samantha Davis, she really guided me that first seminar and really trained
me on finding a venue location, doing all of the logistics around planning the writing
seminars.
We have an instructor that comes in.
His name is David Christinger, who's also a professor at the University of Chicago's
Policy School that designed this curriculum to help individuals tell their stories.
And then we also have journalists and editors and different individuals from the journalism
industry come in and volunteer their time and work with the fellows to really help them
craft their stories and put their thoughts onto the paper on the story that they're trying
to tell about military surveys.
And so that was my first seminar that I first had experience with.
And then the one after that was for Gold Star Children and Siblings, which for those that
don't know that it's for individuals that lost a parent or a sibling to war or war-related
health issues.
And that was the first seminar that I actually planned, majority on my own and fully led that
seminar.
And as you've watched a couple of these now, and we're going to talk about one that's
coming up, but as you focus or watch the couple of these, what did you get out of it and what
do you see the participants of the seminars getting out of it?
Yes, absolutely.
I think that the most rewarding part for me is just seeing the growth of the fellows.
A lot of them, when they come, they're very nervous.
A lot of them, we try to have different writing experience levels to make it more inclusive.
And even the ones that have writing experience levels, they're still a little nervous, but
a lot of them just come very scared and just very closed.
And by the end of the week, they're so relaxed and they're just a completely different person
and the piece that they write in such a short amount of time is so moving and so thoughtful
and just so informative to the specific cohort about how military and service can impact
an individual, whether they directly served or indirectly served.
It's really kind of an extension of there's a lot of veteran writing programs therapeutically.
Hey, the best way to express your feelings maybe is for some people is to write it down.
Some of it's to say out loud, but writing allows you to capture it and refine it and
choose the right word.
I mean, do you see folks go through that process?
Yes, yes, they go through that process with the instructor in a group setting and they
also have one-on-one settings as well with the mid-force that volunteer their time.
And these writing seminars seem to be sort of have a focus.
So I see one that was for medics and corpsmen.
You mentioned the military spouses and the Gold Star children.
There's been one for just women veterans, veteran families.
Is that the idea is to always have some sort of theme or natural relationship among those
participating?
Yes.
So the main goal for the writing seminar, we like to say that we're giving the underserved
and the underrepresented an opportunity to tell their stories.
So to just avoid just like a very general seminar, we really sit down as a team and discuss cohort
themes.
And so I'm very excited for 2024 because we have one coming up this spring in April for
incarcerated veterans at San Quentin.
And we're doing that in partnership with San Quentin News and the Marshall Project.
And then this fall, which I'm also very excited about as well, will be specifically a writing
seminar for black veterans.
Yeah, I think that's what caught my eye when it was notice of the upcoming program in the
fall for black veterans to participate in a writing seminar and try to capture some of
the history that they have through their service.
Is somebody's interested in that?
How do they let you know and kind of what's it cost and what are the logistics?
Oh, all of our seminars are free.
We cover lodging, travel, and expenses for the week.
So they don't have to pay anything to participate in our seminars.
And in order to apply, you just go to thewarhors.org and we do have a writing seminar tab.
And you can subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on when the application opens.
We have a formal application process that you can apply online.
And then we go through our criteria in our selection process.
We notify all of the individuals that apply with our goal is to receive more applications
than available spots.
And then once we make the selections, we announce the cohort.
On the website, we announce the mentors.
We announce the venue.
And then we take care of everything for everyone that participates in our seminars.
So for example, when you're planning the seminar in the fall of 2024 for Black veterans to
come in and participate in this writing seminar, how many folks can you take into the program?
Yes, that's actually a good question.
So it really varies by the venue because most of the time we try to find a venue that can
at least accommodate all of the fellows.
So it really varies by the venue size and also funding as well.
So we've had cohorts.
Normally like the average is 12.
Normally we have 12 fellows in the past.
We've had eight.
But then this cohort in the spring for incarcerated veterans is a little different.
But we're actually going to have our largest cohort.
We expect to have 25 veterans.
Yeah, that's a little different, they've already got housing arranged and location arranged.
No one from outside is applying to get in.
So yeah, that's a different group.
But a very worthwhile project.
Now, does the materials that they write, does War Horse then take some of them and post
them online if they achieve that quality you're looking for?
Yes.
So the goal is for them to publish with us, but there's no obligation for fellows to
publish with us.
And they can choose to publish with whoever they would like to publish with or they can
choose to not publish at all.
But the goal of the writing seminars is for them to write a piece that they can publish
with us.
And we pay for them to publish their piece with us.
And then we add it to our collection of writing that's helping to bridge the military and
civilians divide and bring more awareness about what's happening in the military state.
Well, I gotta say it's a great program.
I'm a big fan of the War Horse.
I encourage veteran radio listeners to go to thewarhorse.org.
If you're interested in the writing seminar, click on that.
There's been over 70 War Horse fellows in the writing program.
Now most of them have been female, 75, 76% have been female.
Come on, guys.
Don't be afraid of expressing your feelings here.
And naturally, the Army's been leading that charge, but the Navy's in there with a solid
6%.
And the Marines had 12 and the Air Force had 23.
So I need to see some more Navy guys get involved here.
But we're talking to Randy Howard.
She's the operation associate for the War Horse who's explaining not only her military
career, but this great program by the War Horse, this Writers' Program.
When does the application process start for the fall?
Yes, so applications for the fall will open in late August, possibly early September.
We're still finalizing the dates because the spring seminar is quickly approaching.
But definitely by early September, the applications will be open.
Okay, folks.
Mark it on your calendar.
Randy Howard, US Navy veteran, we really appreciate you spending some time with Veterans Radio
today to tell us about this great program and about your service.
So we appreciate this, the time you have for us today.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much for having me.
This is the first time I've ever done anything like this.
And it was such a great experience.
And I want to thank everybody for listening to Veterans Radio today.
I am Jim Fausone.
It's been a pleasure to be your host.
I'm a Veterans Disability Lawyer at Legal Help for Veterans.
And you can reach us at 800-693-4800 or legalhelpforveterans.com on the web.
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