Camo and Bibs
Every Wednesday, I will share a resident of the South Bay contributing to making our community a better place.
Today’s #WCW title belongs to South Bay resident, Gricelda Vasquez, 24, who juggles her role as a 92Y in the military, work, school, and her recent and most rewarding job, as Noah’s mom.
In, 2008, at a young age of 17, during her junior year, Vasquez enlisted in the military. Vasquez decided to join the Army National Guard mainly to do her part in keeping this country, a great country for future generations to come.
In 2011-2012, Vasquez deployed to Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. In addition to her deployment, Vasquez spent a month away with the fire mission to help manage fires that broke out in Northern California with the national guard.
Vasquez’s role in the military is called the 92Y, more commonly known as unit Supply Specialist. Her duties include maintenance and accountability of supplies used such as office supplies, weapons, tactical vehicles, and more. Her main duty is to ensure that her unit is always prepared for deployment at any point in time.
Since joining the military, Vasquez has realized there are negative connotations about the military she wishes others knew. “People like to generalize the military by a bad action done by a few and think that is how everyone is. Just like in anything in life there are certain few that mess up and do things they shouldn’t do but we don’t say everyone else is like those certain few,” Vasquez explains.
Despite what others may think, Vasquez explains that while deployed and on missions, she would give water, food, or even something as simple as pen to the children. She explains that, “Just as we don’t label all the Natives there as terrorist we should not label all military with negative connotation. Another thing I would like people to know about the military and I’m quoting an officer while I was deployed, ‘In combat there is no males or females. Combat doesn’t care if you’re white, black or even yellow. In combat there are only soldiers.”
Fortunately for Vasquez, she has never felt any discrimination from her male colleagues for being a woman. “Most of the males treat me as one of them. They don’t say that because I am a female I can’t do certain things or lift heavy objects. There is no segregation in anything we do except the barracks we sleep in and the bathrooms and that is all. We don’t get special treatment for other things and nor do we expect them. We are a military of one regardless of what branch and sex because ultimately we are all fighting for the same goal.”
Although not currently deployed, Vasquez meets with her unit once a month and 2-3 weeks during the summer. Vasquez plans to complete 20 years with the military and retire as a Veteran.
Today, Vasquez is working fulltime at Marcone Supply and is also a part-time student, majoring in Sports and Exercise Psychology. When Vasquez is not juggling school and work, she is taking care of her 7 month old son, Noah.
On her free time, Vasquez enjoys working out, taking Noah out for a run with her since he love the outdoors, and spending time with Noah any chance she gets. Vasquez explains that her greatest accomplishment thus far is not giving up for her son. With school, work, military and now a new baby, Vasquez has felt like giving up many times. “I like giving 100% to everything I do and I felt like I was being a bad mother for not being with him all the time. I would stress myself out so many times during the day that I would break down at times,” Vasquez states.
Despite the struggle, Vasquez has found the most rewarding part of her job is knowing that even in a small way I am helping make this nation safer for not only her son for all the future generations to come. She has received two AAMs, an Army Achievement Medal, 1 ARCOM Army Commendation Medal, a Combat Badge and soldier of the month to name a few. Despite all the rewards, Vasquez says the most difficult part of her job is being away from her family.
Vasquez has been with her unit since 2010 and wants to stay with the unit as long as she can. “When people say we are a family, it’s 100% true. We look out for one another, go out of our way for one another. Our unit takes care of us in all aspects of our lives and we all come together if someone is in need of help,” she explains.
Even with all the joys of loving what she does, Vasquez simply explains that,
“Being a soldier is hard enough but being a female soldier is even harder. We are always in need to prove ourselves and show that we too deserve the right to wear the uniform.”
Thank you, Gricelda, for allowing us to live in a country free of worry and most importantly, reminding us why women rule! Keep up all the hard work.