Crazy Little Thing Called Love Subtitles

[Consuela Ellett]

SPRAGUEToday is March 20th, 2023. This is an interview with Jessica Garza, whoserved in the United States Army from October 8th to September 2016. Theinterview is being conducted by Luke Sprague at the Tippecanoe branch of theMilwaukee Public Library for the I Am Not Invisible project as part of theWisconsin Veterans Museum Oral History Program. No one else is present in theroom. Okay, Jessica, if you could tell us a little bit about where you grew up.

GARZA: Okay. Well, my name is Jessica Garza. I was born in Altus, Oklahoma onAir Force Base because my father was in the Air Force. So, I'm a military brat.From Oklahoma, we did live in Portugal for a little bit and then got stationedin Valdosta, Georgia. So, that's where I basically say I grew up at, is in SouthGeorgia. From there, my dad retired out of the Air Force and we stayed there in00:01:00Berrien County and I always looked up to my dad for being in the military,providing for us, watching him being able to travel for different countries andall these cool little gifts he'd have for us. So, I looked up to that anddecided I wanted to join. I originally was going to join the Air Force, but theyturned me down and then I got recruited by the Army and signed up for there. Andit was really fast going from there.

GARZA: The town I grew up in was like a small, little hick town, and I didn't00:02:00want to be stuck there, honestly. I didn't think I fitted in very well. Backthen, it was a little bit more racism going on between, like, Mexicans. I'mHispanic, Latina, and there wasn't many of us there. So, I wanted to get out andadventure and, you know, explore everything, the world. And that's what I did.And it was scary, but I did it.

GARZA: Let's see, probably around the fall of 2008, right after high school. Igraduated when I was seventeen, went to college for a semester, didn't like00:03:00college too much, so I wanted to join military, and I did just do somethingdifferent. Joined October 8th and then got sent out October 16th. And from thereI traveled from bus to Fort Jackson, South Carolina for basic training. And thatwas fun. [laughs]

GARZA: My dad was happy for me. Of course, you know, military. My mom was reallysad. I'm her only daughter. It's just me and my brother. So, to leave the nestright away was something big for us. But it's something I needed to do. Butafter a little bit, they were very proud of me, especially after basic training.You know, the graduation. Just seeing how proud they were of me was, I don't00:04:00know, it's a good feeling. And my brother being proud of me, too. So, it was good.

GARZA: I didn't know anybody. I was scared. I was a little-- see, seventeen. Iwas eighteen, just turned eighteen and with a lot of other females and therewere males there, too. So, it was a cross males and females. Just hearing thedrill sergeants scream at you and telling us to pick up our duffel bags and fitthem over our head and then dumping them is just something I've neverexperienced. Like, oh my God, it was just crazy. I don't hear of it now. I hearthey've gotten a lot softer, but I don't know because I haven't been in in a00:05:00long time. But back then, it was a lot of yelling and a lot of PT because if oneperson got in trouble then we all had to do stuff, pushups, a lot of pushups, ohmy God. So, yeah.

GARZA: Drill Sergeant Hughes and Drill Sergeant Martinez were my first evermilitary experience with drill sergeants. And they were awesome. Drill SergeantHughes was a short African American man, but he was really tough. And I thinkI'll always remember him and Martinez. Martinez, he was a Hispanic male, too.So, it was good being able to be led by someone who is Hispanic in the field.And then both of them being males, you know, training the females, I thought wasdifferent at the time, too. But it was good experience pushing us for the betterof ourselves.

GARZA: I think my best experience at basic was the people I met and the lifelongfriendship I have with them. I'm still best friends with one of them that I met.Her name was Ball, but she just changed it. But that was probably the best ismeeting the people and experiencing stuff that I didn't think I could do. Ithink the worst experience out of basic would probably have to be getting into acycle of going to sleep at nighttime, you know, between a certain lights outtime and then waking up super early, having to crease the sheets on your bed tomake sure everything is right, them doing inspections and going through all yourpersonal stuff. I'm not used to someone going through my drawers, looking at my,you know, everything. You got your underwear and bras and shower stuff, lookingfor anything that's contraband. Cell phones at the time weren't allowed in00:07:00basic, so I felt like it was invasion of privacy. But it helped me understand alot of the military stuff. But there's some other stuff that wasn't too fun, thetwelve-mile ruck marches and every day PT. But it makes you a better person andmade me stronger and made me get fit. So, overall, I think it was a really good experience.

GARZA: That I can do a lot of stuff, even though I don't think-- or I didn'tthink I could. Like, there's nothing that you really can't do. You're justmentally telling yourself that you can't do it. You just got to mentally prepareyourself and tell yourself, okay, you got this. If you're scared of heights,you're going off that huge tower rappelling off of it. You're going to do it.So, you learn to face your fears in there.

GARZA: Oh, graduation was fun and emotional. I'm a very emotional person. Wepracticed a couple of days before and up to that day, marching in sync witheverybody else, parade dress and attention and all that fun stuff that you do inthe military when you're waiting in line or in formation. But I thinkafterwards, after they did the smoke bombs of all these wonderful colors andrepresented our units. Just seeing my mom and dad and brother, I think like, weall cried because it was a big milestone for me. It's like the first thing I'veever done on my own. I've always had my mom and dad for me, helping me do stuff.So, seeing that I accomplished boot camp was a big deal for us. And then, ofcourse, my dad being proud because his little girl joined the military at that,00:09:00and it was the Army. So, it was a good experience. I think that's the-- that wasprobably the proudest and happiest I've ever seen my family all together.Besides when I deployed, before I deployed. So, yeah, it was good.

GARZA: I did. I had maybe like, a week or two of leave, and I spent it with myfamily, I believe, if I'm thinking right. Then I went to AIT. I did sign up tobe a 68 [inaudible], which was a pharmacy specialist or technician. I thoughtthat's what I wanted to do. But I got to Fort Sam Houston, where usually themedical field is, and I did a couple weeks of that and I ended up failing out,honestly. It's not that I chose something different. I wasn't good with math andall the numbers, so they said they'd figure out something else for me to do, and00:10:00I decided to go 42 alpha route, which is Human Resources. And they got me inthat program. And from Fort Sam, I went back to Fort Jackson [laughs], back towhere it all started to start my career there. And that was a fun time. But FortSam was also good, too. A good learning experience, meeting many people therealso. They're lifelong friends again. That happens a lot in military. You meetthese people who end up being like family to you and the bond you have with themis just lifelong.

GARZA: Oh, a lot of computer training. [Laughs] Lots of computer training. And Ithink the number one thing that sticks out in my head for that is just oneparticular soldier who ended up being a really good friend of mine. But he00:11:00passed away more than a couple of years ago. So, that's really the only topthing that comes to mind right now from school, just studying and being on topof my game, not worrying about failing. So, trying to make sure I don't fail outagain. And I was more paid attention to my work there than I was about havingfun or meeting anybody.

GARZA: You couldn't go off post at all. There was like, levels to it. If youfirst get there, you have to abide by some rules, strict areas you can and can'tgo to, after a couple of months and if you're doing good, of course, you don'tget in trouble, you're allowed to go to other places. I know there's a couple offriends and me, we went to restaurants in The Hacienda is what it was called, it00:12:00was a local hangout for all of us. So, that was fun. It was like a reward. Like,after so many weeks, if you're doing good, you get an award and you get toexpand your boundary of where you get to go. So, that was always something tolook forward to, the phases. And then at the end, the end phase, you'rebasically able to go wherever off post and still come to class as long as you'redoing well and not getting in trouble. So, yeah.

GARZA: Oh, my God, I love my first duty station. I really did. It was in CampHumphreys, South Korea. They were building it up at the time back in 2009 Ithink is when I got there. And it was awesome. From there I got to experienceKorea. We went to the DMV to right where the border is, the DMV? DMZ?

GARZA: The DMZ. [Laughs] So, we went there. We got to be right there at theborder where you could see North Korea. I was told from friends that they don'tallow that anymore. So, being able to experience that at the time didn't meanmuch. But now looking back, it's like, wow, I really got to experience thingsthat soldiers don't get experience nowadays because of how bad it is right nowwith all these other countries. So, seeing that, being at Camp Humphreys, CampCasey, Seoul was awesome and very high tech. So that, Osan Air Force Base wasreally nice, for the Air Force there. My unit, I was with the 2 [Cav??] CombatAviation Brigade, was really good. I worked for the S-1 over there and everybodywas nice to me. And I went through some stuff while I was in Korea with some00:14:00higher ups. Basically, some higher ups, they do take advantage of you if you arefemale and being in my shoes, not wanting to get in trouble or afraid to say noto someone, that they're going to demote you or make your life a living hell.So, I dealt with some of that stuff there in Korea. But at the same time, it'slike, I was good at hiding, hiding it, too, just to basically get on with theday. And then in the end, my shop was amazing. Lifelong friends again. They'redoing the in and out processing for other soldiers, helping them, just seeingwhat kind of impact you have on them was overall an accomplishment for me,00:15:00helping people with their paperwork, their SGLI and updating their records tomake sure that they are good, just in case anything does happen, or just forpromotions, statuses, like they have to have everything in order. That's what wedid in there and it was good to do that. But there was also, you know, a goodside to it and the bad side to it.

3a8082e126