When she received a medical discharge in 1994 to end her career in the U.S. Navy, Amy Stevens felt like many other military veterans.
Feeling disconnected after years of structure, routine and a close-knit system of support, she struggled to make the transition to civilian life.
But for Stevens, a current East Cobb resident, her challenges went beyond learning how buy a home and other basics of everyday living that were new to her.
A single mother, she had a special-needs son to raise.
Above all, the invisibility of female veterans was a bracing reminder of the historic limitations placed on them during their time in the service.
“The typical woman veteran—you would not imagine that they served in the military,” said Stevens, who was an educational and training specialist in the Navy for 15 years, rising to the rank of lieutenant.
While many male veterans proudly wear hats and t-shirts signifying their military service, Stevens said women veterans quite often do not.
In fact, she’s noticed that many of her fellow women veterans don’t even mention their military background.
Recognition for women veterans is starting to increase. Last weekend, Cobb County and state and federal veterans services agencies paid tribute to women veterans in an observance at Jim Miller Park.
Stevens is the organizer of a Facebook group, Georgia Military Women, and weather permitting, will appear on Thursday in the Marietta Veterans Day parade on a float for the Disabled American Veterans association.
While she’s proud of those and other broader veterans organizations that she belongs to, Stevens has become an ardent supporter of other females who’ve left the service.
“I’m a connector person,” said Stevens, now 68, who earned master’s and doctorate degrees post-Navy and has been a licensed therapist.
She formerly was a mental health specialist with the Georgia National Guard, a role that launched her volunteerism for women veterans.
When Stevens signed up for Officer Candidate School in 1979, the U.S. armed services were changing for women.
Through the Vietnam War, most women in the military were nurses or served in other strictly support roles.
When they left the military, Stevens said, “they couldn’t just jump into the higher-paid jobs” in the civilian world.
Stevens was an outlier during that time, with a degree in broadcast television, and she served in a variety of communications, education and training positions in the Navy.
By the time she left, she noticed that “there was a different type of woman in the military.” It’s estimated that 20 percent of the nation’s current veterans are women.
The Georgia Military Women Facebook group, which was started in 2012, has more than 4,000 members and is strictly about making connections and referrals.
“We’re not a therapy group,” Stevens said. “We’re a girlfriend group. It’s great just to have friends who know what it’s like to serve.”
Stevens said there are an estimated 93,000 female veterans in Georgia, the fifth-highest total in the U.S., and around 38,000 in metro Atlanta alone.
Of that latter total, she said around 20,000 receive regular services from the Veterans Administration.
The women’s veterans groups she’s a part of tend to be younger than her, many of them with families and careers. But they still face similar challenges as their older mentors.
While many of the women come to the Facebook group seeking mental health help, Stevens said the networking efforts extend to such topics as financial issues and referrals for veterans and other services.
Group members are dispersed across Georgia, but Stevens enjoys the occasions when some of them can get together in person, just to socialize.
“It’s all about helping each other,” Stevens said. “It’s all about friendships, and it’s very rewarding to be a part of a forever family.”
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