Annette Whittenberger spent 17 years in the US Army. After getting out, she felt lost as if her identity was ripped away from her.
Fortunately she has found ways to cope with that feeling and has even gone on to help others in similar situations.
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Scott DeLuzio: 00:03 Thanks for tuning in to the Drive On Podcast where we talk about issues affecting Veterans after they get out of the military. Before we get started, I’d like to ask a favor. If you haven’t done so already, please rate and review the show on Apple podcasts. If you’ve already done that, thank you. These ratings help the show get discovered so it can reach a wider audience and while you’re there, click the subscribe button so that you get notified of new episodes as soon as they come out. If you don’t use Apple podcasts, you can visit DriveOnPodcasts.com/subscribe to find other ways of subscribing, including our email list. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio, and now let’s get on with the show.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:44 Today my guest is Army Veteran, Annette Wittenberger, who’s here to talk about her time overseas, Annette spent 17 years in the Army and now helps fellow Veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder as a motivational speaker by reminding them that they’re not alone. Annette, welcome to the show and why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself.
Annette Wittenberger: 01:04 Hi, thank you very much for having me on. So, I was raised in California, a small town called SUNY Valley. That’s where all the fires were happening until three weeks ago, unfortunately. I was raised by my mom. My parents were divorced at six years old, so it was my mom and I and my brother and I lived in California until I was 21 and that’s where I decided to go to college in Arizona. And that’s when I decided to try out the ROTC program, the Reserve Officer Training Corps, because I wasn’t really sure how the military was going to be for me. I was scared to enlist at 17 so I said, let me try it out in college. I told myself, I’ll try it out for a few years and see where it goes. And then I met my husband and then 17 years later, it’s like, what happened?
Annette Wittenberger: 01:55 And so, I enjoyed it. I ended up 17. I was given the option to retire because I did not, this is always hard for me, but I did not make the promotion list to a Lieutenant Colonel. And so, that really crushed me. I think that’s when everything, all the emotions started to come in. Everything that happened to me started pouring out and it was just like all of the depression hit. It was just really a bad time. That’s when it all started.
Scott DeLuzio: 02:32 So, 17 years is still a nice long career in the military. That’s nothing to be ashamed about. Hats off to you for that, that is definitely an accomplishment. A lot of people don’t make it nearly that long in the military. It’s not an easy life to live especially with moving back and forth and all these other things that you might have to experience through the military with deployments and everything like that. It’s definitely not an easy thing. Speaking of deployments, so you deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan, is that correct?
Annette Wittenberger: 03:16 Yes.
Scott DeLuzio: 03:17 Okay. Would you be able to tell us a little bit about what you did over there?
Annette Wittenberger: 03:22 Yeah, so in 2005, 2006, when I dep...
