Kim Petters is an Air Force Veteran, who has turned into a Veteran Advocate after overcoming her own struggles with PTSD. I wanted to have Kim on the show to talk about how she became an advocate for veteran issues.
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Scott 00:00 Hey everybody. This is the Drive on Podcast where we talk about issues affecting veterans after they get out of the military. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio. And now let’s get on with the show.
Scott 00:15 Hey everyone, thanks for joining us on the Drive on Podcast. Today we have, a friend from high school. Actually we went, we graduated high school together and, I don’t really know about you, but I don’t really want to think about how long ago that was. I start feeling old when I start thinking about how long it will go. That was but anyways Kim is an air force vet who has been involved with a lot of different causes since getting out of the air force and she’s here today to, talk a little bit about her story and, and all the things she’s been up to. So, Kim, welcome to the show. And, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Kim 00:57 Yeah, sure. So first, thanks for having me. Um, let’s see. So I grew up in Glastonbury, Connecticut and I joined the Air Force and I was in for 10 years. I had one deployment. I always liked to start off with, I am not a combat veteran. You know, and a lot of people are like, you know, well, how did you end up with PTSD? And, it was while I was deployed, I worked with the Human Remains missions and I kinda took that home with me and, I dunno, I, I, you know, I did everything that I was supposed to do. You know, I joined the, the military to go to school. I ended up finishing my degree in knees before I got out. You know, I had a job lined up, an amazing job. I was working with a child savings institute in Omaha, Nebraska. I transitioned right into that job day one out of the military. But you know, life threw me a few curve balls and just things got difficult. And my transition going from 10 years in the military to the civilian worlds was a rocky one to start for a few years. Actually.
Scott 02:13 Okay. Okay. And, and so tell us a little bit about the kind of, the, that, that transition kind of the some of the struggles that you kind of went through during, during that time when you were transitioning between your, your military career and, you know, trying to get into reintegrate back into the civilian world.
Kim 02:37 Yeah. So, okay. So reintegration, so I had a job and I was working as a teacher at the Child Saving’s Institute and you know, I, I got along with everyone pretty well. There was a few girls that I met that I’m still friends with to this day. But I noticed right away that I had a hard time fitting in with the other girls. I was just, my personality I guess was, hm. I don’t know how, how do you describe it? I guess too much. I don’t know how to like, you know, I guess in the military when we talk to each other, we skip the fluff. We get straight to the point and no one’s offended by it. But in the civilian world, it’s not quite the same. And so just even that was different for me.
Scott 03:30 It’s a bit more intense when you’re dealing with a military like a veteran, you know, where like you said, you skip the fluff, you kind of just get right to the point. You don’t, you know, beat around the bush at all. You’re just going straight to whatever it is that you, you’re trying to talk about or whatever.
Kim 03:47 Right, right. And then the way I noticed a few other small differences, you know, you know, if say we had a meeting at the end of the day and everyone had to stay 15 minutes later, you know, some of the women, I don’t mean to offend anyone, but so...
