About this episode
Send us Fan MailA lot of veteran stories get flattened into headlines. Jessica Linna’s doesn’t. She enlisted in the Michigan Army National Guard in 2001, just three months before 9/11, not because she had a perfect plan but because she didn’t. After losing her sister days before graduation, she’s honest about feeling aimless, trying college, working a solid job, and still wanting a direction that actually meant something.We talk through what it’s like to become a combat medic (68W), from Fort Leonard Wood basics to Fort Sam Houston training, and the moments you never forget, like reception halls replaying the towers falling, CS gas, field exercises, and the quiet strategy of staying “under the radar.” Jessica shares how the military can build discipline and teamwork while also leaving lasting traces, including how a startle response can follow you years after a war zone.Then the conversation moves to her 2006 to 2007 Iraq War deployment to Baghdad, including working in and around Saddam’s former sites, operating in western then central Baghdad, and the nerve racking limbo of trying to leave through BIAP while rockets and mortars still hit nearby. We also dig into what coming home really looks like: unexpected community support in Bangor, Maine, the demobilization grind, and the emotional whiplash of switching from survival mode back to normal life.Finally, Jessica connects service to the next chapter: finishing a nursing degree, building a civilian nursing career, and finding her lane at the VA as a float nurse. Along the way we touch on marriage strain among veterans, single parenting, family loss during COVID, and the simple standard she wants to be remembered by: do your best and care about other people. If you value honest military-to-civilian transition stories, subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review. What line from the conversation hit you the hardest? Support the showwww.veteransarchives.org
