WEBVTT 00:03.000 --> 00:07.050 My name is Chief Master Sergeant Dana Capaldi, I'm the command chief here at 00:07.050 --> 00:11.969 the 514th Air Mobility Wing and I wanted to bring and talk to you 00:11.969 --> 00:18.240 about the #ShareYourStory. When my Public Affairs Office brought it to 00:18.240 --> 00:24.210 my attention. I wondered what...what will this do to you 00:24.210 --> 00:30.150 what's...what is this...what does it bring? What can I bring? 00:30.150 --> 00:38.300 And I thought: everybody has a story. I have a story and if I tell my story 00:38.300 --> 00:45.980 maybe you'll tell your story and we can start having open honest dialogue on 00:45.980 --> 00:54.210 where we are as an Air Force and as a culture and where do we go after we 00:54.210 --> 01:02.249 start talking. My first duty station, I was an excited Airman. I had all this 01:02.249 --> 01:08.280 anticipation and excitement of what the Air Force was gonna be and what I could 01:08.280 --> 01:15.630 bring to it and I met with my in NCOIC the first day--so he was a technical sergeant-- 01:15.630 --> 01:21.630 and he sat me down and said, "Airman Bates, you have two strikes against you and you 01:21.630 --> 01:25.790 haven't even started." "You're an Airman and you're a female." 01:25.790 --> 01:33.540 Most aircraft had full-length centerfolds; having explicit 01:33.540 --> 01:41.700 magazines, you know, on the aircraft in a work center was common and I think we 01:41.700 --> 01:48.004 are much better today than where we were...then. 01:48.004 --> 01:52.470 So I was in Airman First Class, the 01:52.470 --> 02:01.010 first time that a coworker cornered me on mid-shift by myself and 02:01.010 --> 02:08.009 decided to put his hands on me and I did not say anything because I didn't want 02:08.009 --> 02:14.010 to be that girl. As I PCD'd to other bases, another incident... 02:14.010 --> 02:21.180 I was a Technical Sergeant and had an officer throw me against the wall and put 02:21.180 --> 02:30.330 his hands on me and my reaction was freeze...wasn't fight. 02:30.330 --> 02:37.080 It wasn't flee. It was freeze. What do you do? So you have 02:37.080 --> 02:44.130 to remember the culture back then, we didn't talk about these things...but what 02:44.130 --> 02:49.950 I found out a few weeks later--talking to another female in the building--was he 02:49.950 --> 02:55.200 had done the same thing to her that we had been singled out we both went and 02:55.200 --> 03:00.330 talked to the squadron commander and nothing was done and we both had to face 03:00.330 --> 03:09.930 this officer every day with him knowing that we went to the commander and that 03:09.930 --> 03:16.110 now everybody in the squadron--who was all men except for us two--knew that we 03:16.110 --> 03:20.750 had said something and now they didn't want to talk to us or be around us so it... 03:20.750 --> 03:28.140 it was very hard. In telling you this story, what I don't want you to take from it is: 03:28.140 --> 03:36.120 I had a horrible career. I have an amazing career and those moments...they 03:36.120 --> 03:44.130 don't define who I am and they don't define my career. I define my career just 03:44.130 --> 03:50.610 like you define your career but not everybody bounces back through the 03:50.610 --> 03:55.530 experiences that that I'm sharing with you or your own experiences and that 03:55.530 --> 04:02.130 doesn't...that doesn't mean you're less, it just means it's different. So, what I 04:02.130 --> 04:08.609 would share with you is: when you're going through these these issues...or...or 04:08.609 --> 04:13.830 experiences that you reach out. We have a lot of great resources. 04:13.830 --> 04:19.680 Whether that be Military One Source or the chaplains office...or...or so we're 04:19.680 --> 04:25.410 blessed to have a Director of Psychological Health but your friends 04:25.410 --> 04:29.910 and your wingmen, your supervisors, your first sergeants. 04:29.910 --> 04:40.160 We are all here to help you. I was lucky. I was lucky. I don't know what pushed me 04:40.160 --> 04:47.160 to muscle through it. There were times where I felt completely 04:47.160 --> 04:53.610 alone. So I was a single mom for a long time. There were times that I was not 04:53.610 --> 05:04.730 sure how I was gonna feed my children. There were times that I was asked to 05:04.730 --> 05:15.690 stay late and if I didn't, right, I was not a team player but yet the CDC was 05:15.690 --> 05:20.910 closing. So, you know...what do you do? You know, how am I going to...If I can't...I 05:20.910 --> 05:26.760 can't make it in the Air Force...where am I gonna make it? How am I gonna make ends 05:26.760 --> 05:31.110 meet? How I'm gonna put food on the table? How am I going to clothe my...you know... 05:31.110 --> 05:38.720 clothe my children? So when I say I muscled through, that really 05:38.720 --> 05:46.470 oversimplifies it. What I did do is I fought for myself. As far as...in my job 05:46.470 --> 05:54.630 and in professional development, I always made sure that I exceeded any standard 05:54.630 --> 06:03.210 that was put out there. I wanted to be the very best at everything because I 06:03.210 --> 06:08.430 wanted somebody...if I applied for something or when I was up for a 06:08.430 --> 06:15.440 promotion, I wanted them to tell me: "No." Not eliminate myself from the beginning. 06:15.440 --> 06:19.720 So why share our stories? Why are we doing this? 06:19.720 --> 06:27.660 So, in in my humble opinion. One Airman's opinion: the more we share our 06:27.660 --> 06:34.840 experiences the more that we learn from each other and my hope is that by doing 06:34.840 --> 06:42.040 that we start leveling the playing field. That we're all looked at as Airmen here. 06:42.040 --> 06:50.320 To do a job. It doesn't matter what gender; what color your skin is; what your 06:50.320 --> 06:56.440 sexual preference is. It doesn't matter. We're all here as Airman. So we need to 06:56.440 --> 07:03.120 start the conversation, so we can learn from each other. I think we all have 07:03.630 --> 07:10.570 biases that were not...we may not consciously know and as you start having 07:10.570 --> 07:15.940 conversations with somebody that you wouldn't normally bring into your inner 07:15.940 --> 07:20.290 circle and that's what I challenge you to do: is reach out and start talking to 07:20.290 --> 07:27.490 somebody that you you wouldn't normally have that personal conversation with, 07:27.490 --> 07:32.169 getting down to the nitty-gritty because we're never gonna learn from each other 07:32.169 --> 07:40.450 and bust down these barriers until we start having honest communication. So we 07:40.450 --> 07:49.240 can then move forward and make it more of a...of an equal playing field that we 07:49.240 --> 07:56.200 are all the same. Doing the job having, the same opportunities as everybody else 07:56.200 --> 08:02.710 and so I hope that with this you will share your story with somebody else and 08:02.710 --> 08:06.270 we get after it.