Oral History Interview with Angelica Ramirez

SPRAGUE: Today is March 17th, 2023. This is an interview with Angelica Ramirez, who served in the United States Navy from March 2013 to December 2017. This interview is being conducted by Luke Sprague at the Mitchell Street branch of the Milwaukee Public Library System. This interviewing interview is being conducted as part of the I Am Not Invisible Project as part of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum Oral History Program. No one else is present in the room. Okay, Angel. Tell me a little bit about where you grew up, please.

RAMIREZ: Well, I grew up in a town called Vista, California, located in northern San Diego. I grew up in a family where there my parents are immigrants so I'm first-generation American. Um--

SPRAGUE: Okay. 00:01:00What did your family do just out of curiosity?

RAMIREZ: Well--[Pause]

SPRAGUE: Do you want to take a break, or pause? Of course. Okay. Sorry. My bad. This is Luke Sprague again with Angel Ramirez. And we're starting up on segment two and Angel we were talking about your family.

RAMIREZ: So, like I mentioned, my my family. My parents are immigrants, respectively. My mother from the Philippines and my father from Mexico. So it's very diverse. My mother's, she---in the Philippines she was actually an accountant. She had a degree in accountancy. But when she came to the United States, unfortunately, her education didn't translate. It wasn't equivalent to an accountant here in the United States. So she just obtained

a job doing like production work for a for a golf company. And ever since then, she, ever since she immigrated to the United States back in 1998 she's she's pretty much done the same work doing production, embroidery and bags, golf bags. And as for my father, he immigrated from Mexico to California. And since he's the oldest in the family of eight children, he had to help his mother, a single mom, take care of his brothers and sisters and had to drop out at eighth grade. So since he doesn't he doesn't even have like a high school diploma he's been a truck driver. But my parents are very are very supportive and has always given me and my brother such a great childhood, not me not knowing that there were financial struggles, just bec--me

not knowing that there's been financial struggles, just just because of how great my parents made sure we had a great childhood and had fun and a great education.

SPRAGUE: What what schools did you attend?

RAMIREZ: I've always attended public schools in the Vista District Unified or sorry, Vista Unified School District.

SPRAGUE: Okay. Okay. And tell me about what happened after high school, where you went and what you did.

RAMIREZ: So right after high school, a very last-minute decision. Three months before my graduation, I enlisted in the U.S. Navy. It was a decision, like I said, that was very last minute. Ever since I was in kindergarten, I've always thought, saw myself as,

I always saw myself as going to college and going into the medical field. It is something that's been very instilled to me by both of my parents, how important it is to gain an American education. And also, just from experience, seeing my mother, how she is a very educated woman in the Philippines, but did not get the same opportunities here in the United States. So although I felt guilty about my decision, I knew that enlisting in the Navy was the best choice for me as a first-generation American, still wanting to progress in life, take a bit more time to discover what I truly wanted to do and and ultimately do something honorable for this country that I'm the first American citizen in my family for.

SPRAGUE: When you joined, what did your family say about joining?

RAMIREZ: My parents initially

did not support it. They were very concerned for me. As I mentioned, they just wanted me to go into college. But although I was capable of going into college I, I didn't want to deal with the burden of student loans or my parents dealing with those loans. And so.

SPRAGUE: Okay.

RAMIREZ: [inaudible]

SPRAGUE: No, I'd ask the question about your what your parents and family reaction was.

RAMIREZ: Okay. Okay, I'll continue on.

SPRAGUE: No problem.

RAMIREZ: Um--[pause]

SPRAGUE: Ok. So, no problem.

RAMIREZ: I forgot where I left off and I want to finish the thought. Can I start over again?

SPRAGUE: Yeah, hold on, we"ll sto--we'll pause. Okay. This is Luke Sprague with Angel Ramirez. We're

starting segment three. And Angel is talking about not wanting college debt, correct?

RAMIREZ: Yeah. I didn't want the burden of obtaining student loan debt and I didn't want my parents to have that burden as well. So I was I was trying I was doing my research of what I could possibly do as my next step of being of being progressive in my life after high school. I looked up the Navy. Well, I looked up all the military branches, and the Navy was the best branch, in my best interests. And I had to wait. Unfortunately, I had, I was one of those kids that I had to wait until I was 18 to sign because even though I graduated at 17 years old from high school, my parents did not or refused to sign that I could go to boot camp. So I just waited around

five months after my high school graduation to enlist, and I was sent out March 2013. And initially it--me leaving was pretty bad to where it was--my parents gave me the sense that they disown me and I went into I went into boot camp thinking that I would never hear from my parents again. But gratefully, in the middle of boot camp, I received a letter from them saying how they apologized. And after all the time of thinking what I chose to do, that they are really proud. And they did go to my graduation and they were proud of me.

SPRAGUE: Wow. Okay. What what were your initial impressions of boot camp?

RAMIREZ: My initial impressions? Well, I mean, it was kind of what I expected, the whole intimidation, the yelling, stressful situations. One thing I

did not expect was that in literally the first 38 hours I would, I would be kept awake carrying around 80 pounds of gear, marching around base. And that was just the initial processing phase of us, of gathering our uniforms and whatnot. I remember, on March 13 was when I flew to boot camp. I was picked up at 5 a.m. by my recruiter, put on a plane in sunny San Diego and landed in frigid cold Chicago, Illinois [both laugh]. And and so from 5 a.m. of that day, I was awake and I did not go to bed until 8 p.m. of the next day. And but after that, I mean, I, I, I did what I was advised to do, which was just listen to orders, study and pass the PT test. And honestly, I have to say that the

PT was the hardest for me because I actually grew up [laughs]--my last year of high school I was I was overweight. Actually, before I joined, I had to lose at least 20 pounds to make it--my maximum weight for my height, and I ended up losing 50 instead. So even though I lost all a huge amount of weight, my stamina and strength wasn't really up to par to what was expected during P.T. and in the in the tests. So I remember my the first initial test, I actually failed like the running the mile and a half and whatnot. But, you know, luckily they give you more chances to pass and still graduate. And because of the grades, I mean, we worked out five days, or sorry, six days of the week. Um, I really did built my stamina and strength. And then the last two

PT tests I passed with flying colors and I would I never expected in my life being an overweight minor like that, I was capable of doing that. So that that's like one of the biggest memories and accomplishments I remember in boot camp for me when it came to like, the knowledge and the history and whatnot, I was okay with it because I'm a very studious person and I follow direction. So that wasn't hard. I didn't really have an ego. As I noticed in boot camp, a lot of my, the recruits in my in my unit was they you know, they had like ego problems. That's what made it difficult for them and whatnot. But other than that, boot camp was a great experience. Oh, and one thing I want to mention, which is funny, I you know, I was 18 years old. I was I was actually the youngest in in my unit. And so the RDC [Recruit Division Commander] is what they called like, they're, like the drill instructor went out of the Navy.

For the whole time, the eight weeks we were in boot camp, they purposely put me the youngest, the youngest recruit in the unit with the oldest person in the in the unit, who was 38 years old. We always had to be partners. We were bunk, rack mates, and we had to get through--for all the like the partner activities that we had to do we were always partners too. And I'm guessing it's, they wanted to make an example that, you know, in the military we're going to be working with people of all ages and backgrounds. And so they put me and this recruit as an example. And she was she was from Puerto Rico. And I remember her telling me that she had a son who was my age. And so that was very, such an interesting, amazing experience I had in boot camp that I had to work, I was forced to work with someone who who was 20 years older than me, had a son that was my age, but

we were in together for the same purpose. So that was incredible.

SPRAGUE: What what was it like coming together with all these people from all over the United States?

RAMIREZ: It was I mean, it was it was very it was a huge learning experience for sure. I mean, I grew up in San Diego, California area, and there's already diverse people. I was okay with being around diverse people, but I haven't been with people like from the South or from the East Coast. And, you know, they have certain upbringings, beliefs and whatnot. Mannerisms that I wasn't used to. And so, you know, that's part of the struggles in boot camp, is trying to learn people, learn and understand. And I mean, like I like I mentioned before, we're all in there for the same purpose, same mission.

So that was a great training opportunity for all of us to learn more about diversity and how we all can benefit from it amongst each other.

SPRAGUE: Any RDCs that you remember in particular, by name, maybe [laughs], or not.

RAMIREZ: Oh goodness, I do not remember their names, but I know it was it was two two males and one female and their personalities, I felt, like clashed [laughs]. I mean, they were great RDCs. They trained us well. But when I meant what I mean by clash, I mean, like, they're so different amongst each other. Like the the lead RDC was a white male. He was, I believe, [in like, N.I.T.??] [Naval Intelligence?] And he just had this great like, leadership persona, but he was really short

[laughs]. He was like as tall as the female RDC that was there, and like the personality of the of the female RDC, she was a white female, but she was very tough and scary. I think she was the scariest one out of all three of them. And I forgot what her job was. But, um, yeah, she was just, she was ruthless. She did not show any ounce of, like, happiness or care as compared to like the lead RDC. He did have some caring traits and whatnot. And as for the last RTC, he was extremely tall. I want to say he was like 6'6", 6'7". He was an African-American RDC. And he was very he was extremely fit and he was very motivating. So when it came to like our physical fitness training, he, I can tell he was the one that led. So

yeah, those were my three RDCs.

SPRAGUE: What was it like in terms of were the genders together? Did they separate them? How did they that work?

RAMIREZ: So, Oh man, I'm trying to remember. I, I believe my unit was about. I want to I'm going to be off, but I want to say either like 120 or 200 and I know we're coed and so we split off, obviously, when it comes to like, um, like hygiene and sleeping quarters and whatnot. We are separated in compartments based on our, our, our gender. And so I would be in a compartment of like 90 females during the night, during hygiene hours or cleaning hours. And then when we're off as an entire unit or sorry, we call them divisions as an entire division of, like I said, either 120

or or like 200. We, we combine and like march to whatever training facility we have to go to.

SPRAGUE: Do you happen to remember your class or division number?

RAMIREZ: I believe I was Division 926, and it's very special in a sense of we were a mix of the drumline and oh man, I am trying to remember what else was in it? Drumline and oh, and flags. Sorry. So our division. Because there's a division for, like, for a band. But we were specifically just drumline and flags for the graduation ceremony, and I was part of the drumline. I play the symbols. And the reason why I was there is because I. I was part of my high school's marching band.

So on the first day of processing, we were up, you know, we're all lined up. And one of the first questions they ask the RDCs screamed out, "Who has musical talent, musical ability!," and whatnot. Like, "Step forward!" And so those I stepped forward because I actually play multiple instruments. I, you know, I can play the the flute, the clarinet, the tuba, the trombone, trumpet. I was I was a band geek in high school. So I step my foot forward and they're like, "All right, all you are on Division 926." And I believe our sister division was 925 because 95 was the band, and 926 was just strictly the drumline. And so although I wanted to play like the flute or something, they already had enough. And so they asked me, "Do you know how to play like in the drumline?" And I was I was actually a part of my high school drumline. And in my senior year, we actually

won championships in California. And so I'm like, "Well, yeah, I played cymbals in my high school's drumline. And they're like, "All right, you're the cymbal player." And I remember thinking, Oh, man, I thought I joined the military to get away from music and like, do what I enlisted to do, which was navigation [laughs]. And now I'm the cymbal player in boot camp. But it was a it was a nice opportunity because, you know, playing music while doing other stressful things during boot camp was like a nice relief, a nice little break.

SPRAGUE: Were you playing the cymbals at your base of graduation?

RAMIREZ: Yes. So. So that's the thing I played. I actually performed at two graduations prior to my graduation and then my own graduation. So if anybody has seen a Navy

graduation of all the recruits standing, I didn't have to do that because I was a performer. And so I just performed and I got to sit the whole time.

SPRAGUE: [Laughs] Nice.

RAMIREZ: Yes.

SPRAGUE: So that would have been in about 2013.

RAMIREZ: I graduated in May.

SPRAGUE: May?

RAMIREZ: Yeah.

SPRAGUE: Okay. So tell me about you mentioned navigation. Did you decide that before you enlisted and how did that work?

RAMIREZ: Yes. So I enlisted with the rate QM rate, which is called quartermaster. It was actually my third choice. I initially wanted to be a hospital corpsman. As I mentioned before, since I was a little girl, I wanted to be in the medical field. So if I was going to go in the military, I wish I'd went into the medical field. I mean, the Navy's medical field is incredible compared to like all the other branches. And unfortunately, during the time that I enlisted

in, you know, at the end of 2012, female hospital corpsman was definitely overmanned and they were actually looking for combat medics. And I believe at the time, they just they needed male combat medics. So they told me I could either wait or if I wanted to go in sooner, I had to pick another job. My second choice was MP. I want to be like military police, but that also wasn't available during the time. And so my third choice was quartermaster. And that was available and I did have the ASVAB score for it. So they're like, "All right, we got you, we can get you a contract for being a QM." And I signed it, I remember like a week before Christmas, December 2012, and I was shipped out to boot camp March of 2013.

SPRAGUE: Where did you go to to do that training? Was that also at Great Lakes?

RAMIREZ: Yes. So Quartermaster A School was

on the base across the street, a boot--where boot camp was. So Navy Recruit Training Command was where I went to boot camp, and it was literally across the street. So I just took a bus after my graduation and they dumped me on the bus , on the base. At the base [laughs].

SPRAGUE: And how long was A School for a quartermaster?

RAMIREZ: Quartermaster A school? [Pause] Quartermaster A School was around ten weeks, I believe. I can't remember. I just remember that it was, I graduated in September.

SPRAGUE: Okay. Okay. And what do you remember about the training while you were there?

RAMIREZ: Well, the schooling was all indoors. It

was extremely it's something that I never thought I would get into. It was all about, well, yes, there's Navy history, but for specifically my job, they taught us like rules of the road when it comes to sailing out in the ocean, because just like in the roads here and cars, there's laws on on how you can legally sail on the waters, especially in the Navy, where you're going to be sailing across the entire ocean. Like all over the world. There's international laws and local laws for that. So we were taught we were taught that. We also were taught how to plot on nautical charts. The whole concept of that during the time that I enlisted was actually a funky time in the Navy when it came to navigation to where military ships were trying to convert into digital charts.

But in my schooling they only taught us how to plot plot routes on paper charts. So that's what I was taught to do, you know, that consists of algebra, um, speed times, speed times time equals distance and whatnot. And also just, just the accuracy of having your pencil in a protractor and a ruler to map out this route because you know, any even a centimeter off of your calculations in the long term can get your ship off course for miles or, you know, run into a hazard or run aground. So I like that responsibility with that job of how how much--the pressure of how accurate you have to be. I know that sounds weird, but I'd like having

that great responsibility to ensure the safety of the crew on the ship and us getting to our missions destination on time.

SPRAGUE: So tell me about your first ship assignment, The USS Oak Hill, correct? LSD 51?

RAMIREZ: Correct.

SPRAGUE: Tell me a little bit about where that was at and what that was about.

RAMIREZ: So my first duty station right after my high school training was, yes, the USS Oak Hill, LSD 51. It's an amphibious assault ship. So it's it's known for having like ballasting operations or whatnot. It's it's kind of like a jack of all trades. Ballasting operations include--we have--the ship has a well deck and can take in like AAVs, amphibious assault vehicles and whatnot. And also

it has a flight deck so we can also take in helos, Ospreys and whatnot. And another big thing is that it it has many huge like compartments and berthings. So even though we're a crew of around 200 sailors, we can take in around 1000 Marines. And that's like our main purpose of the ship is that we we collaborate with other branches. And I feel like more so of the Marine Corps when they come and deploy with us. For them, it's called Meus. M-E-Us. I can't remember what that stands for. And so they deploy with us for, you know, 7 to 12 months of the year with all of their equipment, I mean, personnel. I mean, they outnumber us [laughs]. So it's a it's a very unique sector of the Navy. And so the USS Oak Hill is stationed in Virginia Beach, Virginia. It's at the Little Creek Joint

Base with, I believe, I think, Air Air Force and the U.S. Army. And it's a very small. Oh, and there's also like some SEAL teams are stationed there. So it's a very small, small base outside of like the Norfolk, compared to like the Norfolk Naval Base, which I believe is like the biggest base in the nation. And. Yeah.

SPRAGUE: What was that like? Because I looked at some pictures about this. What was it like for you plotting and navigating that ship? And what did you have to deal with in terms of considerations for, like deployment using the wet well or whatever you want to call it?

RAMIREZ: Oh, the well deck.

SPRAGUE: Yeah, well, deck. Sorry.

RAMIREZ: Um, so from what I remember, you know, we're we're giving we're given the the height of the bottom of the ship of how much you can. Like how, how shallow of water that we can enter or be ballasted on and whatnot. Um, I can't remember off the top of my head what that number is, but I had to make sure we were on the right depth, safe depth height in order for us to ballast, because essentially ballasting is you're like sinking the the back half of the ship under water. So when the well deck opens in the back, yeah, you're taking in all that water. It kind of like leans in an angle so all the water vehicles can enter. And then once everything's in, the, the well deck gate closes, and then there's a mechanism inside that drains all the water and we go back afloat above

the water. So it's my job during that operation that I make sure that not only are we in the safe height or depth of the water, I got to make sure, you know, every every 3 minutes I need to take a new plot and make sure we're still in the same location that the that the ship's not drifting off or whatnot. And if so, I, it's my job to make the officer of the deck aware that our ship is drifting at this certain degree or this this latitude, longitude. And so it's the officer of the deck's job to make the decision of whether we have to like, how we're supposed to maneuver to get back in a safe place. So I'm more of just like I mean, I I'm the one that does the work to figure out if if we're in a safe place or not. And it's the officer's job to call the shots of alll right. We got to maneuver to be back on the safe spot.

SPRAGUE: So

I'm curious, what would a typical conversation between you and the officer of the deck be like if you could? Like, for instance, you're doing well deck operations and you start drifting--I don't know, I'm not a Navy person--towards a shoal or something. What would be your what would you say to that person?

RAMIREZ: So, so the cool thing about doing these operations, we have like a set amount of time that we're supposed to report to the officer. So in this situation, we report every 3 minutes. It's also, of course, it's under the discretion of the officer, officer the deck. So he could he or she could request to do it sooner. So like every 2 minutes or one minute. But normally it's every 3 minutes. So every 3 minutes I'm always giving a report to the officer of the deck. And and so, you know, when if everything looks fine, I just report to the the O.D. officer, the officer of the deck. Everything looks fine, you know.

If there was a certain verbiage, I can't remember what I would say [laughs], but yeah, I would pretty much tell him in civilian terms, like, yep, everything looks good. But of course when, you know, when something is off, like off, I remember saying, "Officer of the deck, the quarter, the quartermaster of the watch recommends," and then I say what's the thing that I should recommend, whether it's like, like having to maneuver the ship like 90 degrees this direction or, you know, 45 degrees this direction. And of course, before I see those numbers, I have to calculate those degrees prior to me reporting. So that's why it's so urgent for me to do this quickly, because I'm already reporting every 3 minutes. But before I report, I need to make sure I got my numbers right because I'm recommending what he should he or she should do. Like from the amount of, you know, degrees

to turn a ship or whatnot. So, um, yeah, it's just constant communication. Me constantly plotting our, our GPS location and, and these, these operations can last, you know, 3 to 8 hours. And so depending on how much, how many quartermasters are in my division, we, you know, divide that up in hours and we can have that shift for, you know, 2 hours or even we call it like port and starboard watch, which is 12 hours on, 12 hours off. So, yeah, it's just, you know, in the military, you always have to adapt and adjust.

SPRAGUE: It seems like a lot of pressure.

RAMIREZ: It is. I can see it like from the outside. It is a lot of pressure, especially that you work with the officers, the commissioned officers. And so but I'm one of those weird people that I like that pressure, I like that responsibility, like it gives me that sense of pride and that I want

to do a an accurate, great job.

SPRAGUE: Could you explain to me the difference between the deck officer and the captain of the ship? And the rules?

RAMIREZ: Right. So the officer of the deck is pretty much any like surface warfare officer. They pretty much--all officers on the ship gets get a chance to become the officer of the deck at some point. Oh, and this is this is a shift that's during, while you're out to sea. So they're, essentially on behalf of the captain of the ship, in charge of the whole ship, deciding where it's going and whatnot. And, you know, the captain has other responsibilities to do in his office. So like, he can't it's not the captain that stays up in the bridge or the pilot house, 2/7, to make sure the ship's going where it's going. It'--the other officers on the ship support each other

by taking on that role as officer of the deck. In that moment, they're in charge of the ship and all the operations that occurs.

SPRAGUE: What happens when the captain steps back on the bridge?

RAMIREZ: When the captain steps back on the bridge, or obviously we announce that he's on the bridge and most of the time that he's on it, he just wants an update, a report from the officer of the deck of how things are going. And I mean, there's times where he just would just wants to work. There's a he has a specific section on the pilot house where he can sit and work. That's where the CEO, the commanding officer sits. It's on like one-sided. And my ship, it was the the starboard side and on the port side, it's the XO, the executive officer who's like second in command. So yeah. And I mean, he can talk to anyone.

There's many times where the captain has approached me during my shift as quartermaster of the watch and asked me, "Oh, can you show me where we're at?" or "Where's the nearest land?" "How much longer do we have?" And I appreciate that because even though the captain can get that from their officer of the deck, I'm pretty sure they know that it's the quartermaster that that builds up that report for the officer of the deck so then he or she would come up to me and ask me for that information.

SPRAGUE: He or she, correct?

RAMIREZ: Correct.

SPRAGUE: Sorry about that either.

RAMIREZ: All right.

SPRAGUE: So tell me about you had a couple missions here. Tell me about how does the process work? Does the captain say, "I want to go to Honolulu," and you plot a course? Or how does that work?

RAMIREZ: Yes, exactly. He'll call for a because since I'm enlisted, my officer that's in charge of the department, he's the navigator or the "gator," as they call them.

The navigator will say, "Oh, the captain wants a meeting with us." And and the and the captain would tell us, "All right, this is this is our mission. This is the location or destination. I want to," he would tell us, "I want to get here by this date, by this exact time. So make me a route starting from this day." And so, just from, off of, those, that information, we'd create a route for the captain and once that's that's created we perform what's called a navigational brief, not only for the captain, but for all of the officers, because like I mentioned, the officers, all officers during an underway will be the officer of the deck at some point. And so they must know where the route is. And that's part of my job to conduct this brief to all of the officers on the ship, you know, of all ranks, of what's the route that I created, and whether or not they agree or, you know,

yeah, because concur with what I do. And most of the time, they always do. They never they never say like, "I don't like it," or whatever. They it's just protocol essentially to to give that brief.

SPRAGUE: What were some of the challenges that you faced in that role as a quartermaster?

RAMIREZ: So one one challenge is definitely the dynamic between working as an enlisted personnel with officers. There are some times that the officers, whether due to their rank, feel like they have--I mean, they do have authority over us. But when it came to--I guess I would say like their behavior or attitude towards us, that could get very difficult when let's say, you know, I'm just doing my job and I want to recommend that

where we're going is it's not safe or whatnot. There's a hazard ahead. And whether or not they accept the recommended course, if they don't and I'm I'm fearful that it's going to become a hazard or whatnot or a danger to the whole entire crew on the ship, I need to like speak up. So so there's that dynamic of trying to be, you know, respectful to those appointed over me or whatnot. But then I also need to think over all the safety of the crew. So it's just, yeah, it's that clash with the officers. And, of course, with that comes fear with like retaliation and whatnot. But that's it.

SPRAGUE: Did you run into any discrimination?

RAMIREZ: As a quartermaster?

SPRAGUE: As a quartermaster?

RAMIREZ: Oh, oh, yes. So there's, um, you know, there,

unfortunately, there's this culture in the Navy on a ship where they call them like top-siders and bottom-dwellers [laughs]. So, you know, there's layers on the ship and where people work, you know, at the bottom of the ship or on the top of the ship. And I worked at the very top of the ship. I mean, it's the captain's court, like, or not the captain's court--it's the pilot house or the bridge where all the officers and the captain works. So, you know, it's I guess it's somewhat nicer conditions. It's air-conditioned. There's windows [laughs] because you can see out into the ocean and it's just relaxed because the officers are there and whatnot. So it's easy to put in a good of, you know, a good word or face in your performance with all those higher ranked than you. And so we it it's common to get bullied within the ship that we have it easy as a quartermaster

or that we don't do anything important or no hard work type of situation. But I know that's just like banter or yeah, just like I said, like a little bullying of how other people work harder than others. Kind of immature. But I like, even though I was in that in the Navy between 18 to 23, very young supposed to be. I mean, I was naive, but very I was very young. I felt like I was still very mature. I, I very I very much had this personality or just knowing that there's a mission, you know, the mission comes first. And that and like I mentioned in my story at boot camp, I worked with someone who was 20 years older than me, and I was taught the importance of all of us working together and appreciating each other's differences. So even though when I was finally stationed on my ship and I experienced that discrimination, just just because of the difference of, the differences of

where I worked in the ship compared to everyone else, I just try to brush it off and still worked hard of what I did because I know what I did was extremely important. I mean, we we created the route to know, you know, where you guys are going safely. You know, it's it's yeah, I mean, anybody on the ship can say without me, without us, we wouldn't be able to do this. And that's true. Like without each division or, you know, section of the ship, we won't be we can't have potable water, we can't have food, we can't have, you know, So that's my mindset. So unfortunately, there is that discrimination as being a quartermaster of just being told that you don't work as hard or you have it easy. And so when it came to those stressful situations that we have to deal with, I personally sometimes even dealt with, you know, that psychological like issue

of is it, is my complaining even valid type of thing, or is my struggle valid? Because my job, as people have told me, is not even hard or whatnot. So, anyways, yes, that's my experience with discrimination as a quartermaster.

SPRAGUE: How about other forms of discrimination?

RAMIREZ: Oh yes. I've I've faced, you know, I've been confronted about being a young female woman. I was I was very good at my job. And every time I was eligible to be promoted, I was promoted every each time the first first round. And so as I was, I was already only 20 years old and I was an E-5 already. I started to, you know, receive comments

of, you only, you know, would you, you only got that rank because you're a pretty girl. You only got that ring because of whatever--of my gender or my looks. And, you know, so not only am I a woman, but I'm, you know, I'm half Filipino, half Mexican. And so I get a lot of like, you look exotic and, um, how, how did you grow up and or like, you're just, like, so unique and exotic-looking. The officers just want to look at you while they work. And that was very, I mean, it sounds very childish and like, I know it's that's not likely. I mean, to get promoted, you need to pass a test. How [laughs], how does my looks do any of that? But it was rough. I mean, during, I--for the majority of my enlistment,

I was actually married. I was a married woman. And so, and I was very vocal about my marriage. And even though all my peers knew I was married, I would still get harassed and, um, yeah, not cool.

SPRAGUE: What were--changing the changing the flavor here a little bit [laughs]--

RAMIREZ: Sure.

SPRAGUE: What were, what were some of the more interesting routes that you plotted that you thought were, wow, this is really cool, or this is interesting?

RAMIREZ: Mm-hmm. So many. I'm so grateful that I had such a great experience as a quartermaster. I essentially plotted routes, I mean, all over the world. I've been to every single continent except Antarctica, of course, through my time in the Navy.

And, you know, I plotted routes from San Diego to Hawaii to Hawaii to South Korea through, like, the Straits. Oh, what is it called? I can't remember. Um. Oh, the Straits of Malacca. I believe that's a strait that's very known in commercial sailing to be one of the most dangerous straits for commercial ships to sail through. And our ship went through it, I believe, twice or three times. And so that's all my job. To make sure that as we're we're transiting through the strait, the Straits of Malacca, that the ship's safe, no hazards around and whatnot, and that we're just always aware, especially the officer of the deck because of there's so many commercial ships around us. And of course,

you know, some of them don't follow the laws or as we call the rules of the road. So there is one time where a ship would get within like 300, 400 yards of like the port side or the starboard side of our ship. And it's us that has to maneuver even though we have the right-of-way type of situations. So that's something that's like always, you know, exciting when it comes to like, you know, out in deployment, as a navigator that even though we plot a route that's legal and safe, you know, there's those around us that don't make it safe. And it's up to us to have to maneuver, although it's their responsibility to maneuver. And so, yeah, the Straits of Malacca. So routes to like around Thailand, Indonesia to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka was a great, um-I don't want to say great--was a was

an interesting route to where--what had happened is, you know, I created a route to Sri Lanka from the Middle East and I made sure everything was like up to date, and where, the day of I'm supposed to give a brief to the captain in the morning. But I for some reason I just wanted to check--oh, no, I know that, like, it was the day that there's new corrections because we use paper charts. And so every every week there's new corrections and the, I forgot what it's called, but there's a website for nautical charts to do corrections for sailing. And I believe it was the day of new of new releases. And so I just wanted to check just in case. And it just happens that on that day there is a huge change to where they notified finally that there's a man-made bridge that is like newly constructed, and it was right in the middle of the route that I plotted.

And so we were supposed to like, pull into Sri Lanka in like the next 4 hours. And so I just what I did was I just notified, you know, the navigator, my boss, and he notified the captain. And I mean, it's just common sense where they just said, "All right, well, fix it. Change it before the 4 hours." I did. And we went on with the plan. So that was, I thought that was really interesting where changes like that occur and we need to make quick decisions. And so, yeah, I planted routes and as I mentioned, from the Middle East to the Gulf of Oman, Gulf of Aden--that's between like Northern Africa and Yemen. We went into, or, yeah, pretty much. So that, I've been, um, there in Virginia.

I've been to like Quebec, Canada. So plotting routes from Virginia, around Nova Scotia and into like the small channel that goes into Quebec City.

SPRAGUE: Okay. So when you stopped in Sri Lanka, you were plotting the route, that was 2016, maybe?

RAMIREZ: Yes, 2016.

SPRAGUE: Okay. And do you remember what, where you were approaching Sri Lanka from or what city maybe?

RAMIREZ: Colombo.

SPRAGUE: Okay. And there was a new bridge maybe in the harbor, or on somehow--

RAMIREZ: Yes. So in the harbor there, there was a man-made bridge. And I believe like just more piers. Yeah. For ships to pull in. And it was just just newly constructed, like, around the time that we were supposed to pull in. And so I was just shocked that not even like the--I can't remember whether it's like MCO, MCOAA, you know, the Nautical Chart

Asso--Oceanic Association, something like that. Didn't even post anything about how there's like construction of a man-made bridge. They just posted that like the day that it's officially like being used, that it's there.

SPRAGUE: Wow.

RAMIREZ: And [laughs] oh yeah, and the route was going straight through it. So I'm glad that I was able to change it before an officer on the deck had to make a decision from then on of like, all right, we have to just go around it. Because you never know. You know, it looks simple as just go around the bridge. You never know--I don't know at that moment the depth or there's anything like underneath that water that might run us aground from trying to go around that ship. So that's why it's important to know all the information.

SPRAGUE: Did you have any you mentioned on the deck behind you there on the ship, did you have any operate operations or feeling like when they were landing helicopters, were you like observing that

or were you focused just looking forward and navigating or how what?

RAMIREZ: Mm hmm. So during those operations, Yes. Primarily my focus is to just make sure as the ship's conducting those operations while underway, that our route is still safe and it's going according to plan. But luckily, in a sense, I'm at the bridge. We have TVs that show what's going on behind us. That's how the officers know what's going on, how it looks. So, if I wanted to if I had free time in between reporting our location, I watch I can watch on the TV of how either a helo operation's going on our well deck, or ballasting operations going. So, I essentially I do have eyes of like all over the ship, because since the officers do and I'm there with them, I can see it, too.

SPRAGUE: And is there, like, another officer or chain of command that runs that rear deck or is there an air officer or how does that work?

RAMIREZ: Yes, correct. So since we are capable of having ballasting operations and the flight flight ops, there is like an air officer on board. And also I, I believe the officer that's in charge of ballasting is the is, BOATS. I forgot what it means in the Navy. It's a it's an officer that usually works with like the boatswain's mates, the BMs. And so there's an officer version of that. Yes. Air officer. And we all just essentially, you know, we're a team. We communicate to each other, you know, to the officer deck up in the branch, all the way down to the back to to the air officer or the BOATS to make sure this operation is done successfully and safely.

SPRAGUE: It's going to seem like an esoteric question, but did you have any sense of--and I've looked at those ships

in photographs--it looks like they have like a square stern, kind of, maybe above water. Did that ever affect the handling of the ship? And you may not know, but I'm just curious.

RAMIREZ: Well, it's, I mean, it's definitely, like, it feels wide and. Oh, it's actually from what I remem--it's like flat-bottom, actually the ship. So, yes, when it comes to like swells and whatnot, we feel it a lot. Sometimes pretty rough on rough seas. But other than that, like, I mean, we're like a medium-sized ship, you know, we're bigger than a destroyer, but we're smaller than an aircraft carrier, so. It's, from from my experience, like it, yes, it's a bit bigger. Sometimes it can be smoother, because we're a little bigger. Like I, from I understand, destroyers, it can be really rough because it's so small. But we

are like I said, it's flat-bottom. So on swells we we feel it a lot for sure.

SPRAGUE: Um, so while you're aboard the Oak Hill, do you remember, I'm going to ask you a couple of questions and you may remem--you may not remember. That's okay. But I've got to ask, do you remember in 2014 maybe going for some salvage operations off of the Virginia coast, maybe, for a fighter and a helicopter that went down, by chance, or not?

RAMIREZ: Yes!

SPRAGUE: Okay.

RAMIREZ: Is this something that you looked up?

SPRAGUE: It is [Ramirez laughs]. I'm just curious. I'm trying to find out what your experience was with it.

RAMIREZ: Yeah, well, yeah, it sparked a memory. Um--

SPRAGUE: And I can help you out here.

RAMIREZ: Yeah, Can you read them?

SPRAGUE: So one of them was an F/18--F/A-18 aircraft that went down off of Virginia Beach,

45 miles. And the other one was a MH-53 Sea Dragon that went down it looks like January 8th, about 18 miles, nautical miles east of Cape Henry. And I was just curious because they listed the ship as being involved with it. And I'm like--

RAMIREZ: Yes.

SPRAGUE: I wonder if you were there and what was your experience?

RAMIREZ: So you mentioning it. I do remember it. I mean, it's just to me, I mean, in 2014, I was 19. Still trying to take in that I'm in the Navy. This is my job that yeah, it's just reported to us. The captain says that, you know, we got a call that we are requested to assist in this operation of recovering these aircrafts, I guess. Yeah, that's been down. And so since we have a capability with our well deck and also a flight

deck, you know, to recover them. Yeah. We just, we, we just let like was sent out and got near them and I mean it's such a blur to me just because I was so new to the Navy. And so I was just so focused on doing the right thing and being told what to do. But from what I remember, I mean, yes, I was just focused on my job, which is for us to get to that location safely. I'm pretty sure we must of whether we anchored out or not, There's there's got to be some like small boat operation. So that requires the quartermaster of the watch to ensure that the location that we picked on the water is safe for us to essentially, like just be stationed there while our smart small boats depart off of the ship and, you know, recover the the helo and whatnot. So, yeah, I'm pretty sure I was just still so newly into my job in training that I was probably just

being taught some of the algebra formula like formulas or whatever, while this amazing thing is happening. So but I do remember we, we, we did do that. I remember thinking like, oh, wow, this is like what I see in the movies. There are certain stories and I'm going to be a part of it. This is great.

SPRAGUE: Wow. Excuse me. How about Fleet Week in New York in May?

RAMIREZ: Yes. So that was an incredible experience. In 2014, we were the flagship for Fleet Week in New York. And so what that essentially means is, yes, there's other ships from the Virginia like duty station that come with us, two other ships. I can't remember who they were, but out of all the ships, we were the flagship, which means like like the leading ship. And so with that, I think what that just means is that we're just more active. When it came to that, the event, the Fleet Week activities

in our ship is open for like we become like a museum for locals to tour our ship. Of course, we practice like we do some like public relations stuff and with the community volunteer. I know there's I remember they told us we could volunteer to do like clean ups or like just mingling with the community, educating them about what we do, helping like orphanages and whatnot and just local community centers. But then also we can be part of the the celebration. And so because it was a mission, our uniform of the day was always our dress whites. So it's not like we were able to go out to the city in our regular clothes and have fun and go to Broadway like a Broadway show or something. When we go out, when we are giving liberty, we have to be in our dress whites. And of course, you know,

because it's to show that these sailors are in town and whatnot. And and with that, of course, we get a lot of attention and also, you know, good and bad attention. There's times where, like I remember walking in New York City and there's this guy, you know, in his business suit and a briefcase, and he's on the phone and he goes, "Oh, great, The the crooks are back in town." And I remember, like, looking at all my friends thinking like, okay, we were trained to just ignore and like, you know, just let people have their opinions. They're entitled to it. So then we just carried on. But for the most part, you know, we were always thinking. And it's so cool. We saw I've seen people offer to like, buy shoes for us or clothing. Brand new shoes or, you know, buy us food or drinks. And I remember was kind of a I don't mean to be like negative, but I remember seeing I was in a group of both

females and males from my ship. And there's this one, like this group of people at a bar seeing us walk by and they're like, "Come in here, we'll buy you like a pitcher of beer." And they did that, like for the guys, but then for the girls and the group were like, "Hey, what about us?" And all they said to us was like, "Yeah, go girl power!" And it's just like, okay, I get it. But like, cool, can we get some cool stuff too [laughs], either way. I mean, I've had people tell me, thank you. And even specifically being like of a woman in the military, they they say very inspiring things, motivational things, and it makes me proud to be in the service and especially as like a female of color in the uniform. Other people can see like, Oh, that girl looks like me, and I can do something like that too.

SPRAGUE: About

the in September of that year, 2014, going down to Baltimore. And did you have any involvement with that as a flagship of those star-spangled-celebration? Do you happen to remember that at all?

RAMIREZ: In September?

SPRAGUE: Yeah. As the flagship for the bicentennial of the War of 1812-- inner harbor there in Baltimore? Maybe you don't remember. Yeah.

RAMIREZ: I must have been off the ship by then.

SPRAGUE: Okay.

RAMIREZ: 'Cause--

SPRAGUE: Okay, that could be.

RAMIREZ: Yeah, because that that is when I--I left September of 2014--

SPRAGUE: Okay.

RAMIREZ: USS Oakhill.

SPRAGUE: Okay. Well, that explains it, then.

RAMIREZ: Yeah.

SPRAGUE: Okay. Good to know.

RAMIREZ: Yeah.

SPRAGUE: Okay. So September of 2014. And then you head over to the USS New Orleans or somewhere else, or is there something else in there?

RAMIREZ: Technically. Technically, no.

SPRAGUE: Okay.

RAMIREZ: Um, so--

SPRAGUE: Help me out.

RAMIREZ: Yeah, of course. So I you know, I loved

my role as a quartermaster. When I was on the USS Oak Hill, I we had a lot of fun missions. We, you know, we went to we went to Boston for the 4th of July as we were invited by the city to do like public relations community work. And we you know, we had a ceremony at like the Red Sox game and we got to just travel around Boston. And then as I mentioned before, we went to Quebec City for also another public relations community with their navy. Essentially, all we did was just our ship was open for the public to educate them of like our relations with Canada and what we do. And we you know, we done some training with the Canadian Navy, I believe the Royal Navy. And and so I've had many great

experiences. I don't regret it at all. I loved it. It's it's it's just very unfortunate that I encountered my first, um, witnessed I witnessed a sexual assault on my ship and a sense of where, um, it was--I already forgot where we were, but we were somewhere else. And I worked all day. And so it was nighttime was, I was going back to my rack to go to sleep and right, my rack mate next to me, I saw her getting sexually assaulted by a male who was in our female berthing. And so, you know, I. I reacted right away. I did what I was trained in during sexual assault prevention training in the military to report it. And so I did. I reported it like the same day. And,

you know, luckily, the ship took care of it. They did. They did a great job of taking out taking care of the situation. And how I was further involved was just, you know, I was a witness. So I just said what I what I saw. And and my rackmate was actually a fellow quartermaster. So I think that's what affected me. Why it affected me even more is that I didn't just see any random person that I work with. It's someone in my division that I'm close with, that I know, like, wouldn't want what was happening to her. And so after that, you know, I, I cooperated with through the whole investigation. And I remember during the time I didn't I didn't think it would affect me badly. I was actually proud of what I did. And I'm like, all right, let's you know, let's move on. If my friend needs, like, help, I'm there to support her. But, you know, we continued the mission. We kept working.

SPRAGUE: Okay, This is Luke Sprague and Angel Ramirez, and Angel is segment four here has something to say.

RAMIREZ: So after two months of, after, two months after the incident, I, due to the struggle of my mental health, the doctor of the ship decided that I wasn't suitable to be on the ship during that time. And so I was transferred or essentially my duty station was transferred to the Portsmouth Hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia. And the good thing, though, is that it's a it's a temporary it's called limited duty. I was placed into limited duty. And even though during that time I was very upset that I was taken off the ship and sent to the hospital to work at, I am

grateful now that they did that because during my time in limited duty, you know, my my number one mission is to get better so I can go back out to the fleet, at least sea duty. And so luckily, I believe my my limited duty was only around like six months long. And once, you know, once I was cleared by the doctor that I was suitable for sea duty, I got relocated to a new duty station, which was the USS New Orleans, LPD-18, and it's located in San Diego, California.

SPRAGUE: Okay. Tell me tell me a little bit about what an LAPD is.

RAMIREZ: So an LAPD is is still in the amphibious class of of naval

warships. It's it's actually a newer class. The I believe it's like the San Antonio-class in in a sense to where it was commissioned in the ship was commissioned,I know in the 2000s. I can't remember what year, but like 2008 maybe. And compared to my previous ship, which was commissioned like in the seventies, or in the eighties. And so it still has the same capabilities as like the USS Oak Hill. It does ballasting, flight operations. Um, I would just say it's just new and improved when it comes to like antennas, I.T situations and also just the living conditions. This is going to seem silly, but it was really cool. The racks were different. They weren't as, like, we call them coffin racks to where the the, the, the ceiling above us is

just like inches from our face. There they were now "L" racks so we're able to sit up on the rack. So even though it's still like, so from the waist down, it was like a coffin rack. But then from the waist up you're able to sit up and like read a book or whatever. So that was a cool upgrade [laughs].

SPRAGUE: What are the what are those new racks called? Do you remember?

RAMIREZ: I mean, we call them "L" racks. So, so you know, because of how they look like an L so you can like sit up and, and that. So Yeah.

SPRAGUE: What was it. Did you. You're back and you're in California.

RAMIREZ: Yeah.

SPRAGUE: In San Diego. Were you able to have any time off maybe meet with family or not or.

RAMIREZ: Oh yeah. So that's, this was a significant duty station. It's essentially my hometown. My parents lived 45 minutes--not only my parents live 45 minutes north of the area, but that's my hometown it's where I grew up. So. So it's I'm very familiar.

It wasn't hard for me to adjust. The only adjusting I would say is that it's it's a different navy. You know, there's there's a saying of East Coast navy and West Coast navy and how there's like a difference in culture and whatnot. So that was the biggest adjustment for me is being an East-side navy initially like personnel and now working in the West Coast. And I guess the major difference is the fact that West Coast is a bit more laid back. I've heard reasonings just because, you know, in the East Coast it's closer to our boss, commander-in-chief, you know [coughing], and our boss is the commander-in-chief, a.k.a like the president of the United States. So they say the bases there must be a lot more strict and ready for whenever the president wants to visit. But as for the West Coast, it's a completely other side of the country and apparently we can be more laid back. So and I mean, I also want to blame that it's California. So

like, people just want to relax, be on the beach, eat burritos, tacos, all that stuff [laughs].

SPRAGUE: So this ship was much different than the Oak Hill--it had a lot of improvements, it sounds like.

RAMIREZ: Yes, it was similar in a lot of ways, especially the main things like the operations, well deck and flight ops. But yes, different and in an improved state like the standard of, the conditions of living, the equipment is a lot more newer, a little bit bigger. But even like the layout was the same, very similar then to the Oak Hill. So like I said, it wasn't hard for me to adjust or learn the ship.

SPRAGUE: How about in terms of your role as quartermaster?

RAMIREZ: Oh, yes. So I do I, I did need to like requalify on a lot of the positions that I've done on the Oak Hill. Like the most important,

like quartermaster, the watch, that's like my main role while underway. And luckily this time because I have previous experience, the requalification did not take that long. It just took me about three months. Whereas initially to get it for the first time probably took about almost a year. And so. I can't, oh yes, so since I, since I joined the ship as an E-4, you know, I have a bit higher rank than some, yeah, the lower rank, the E-3 and below that were already on the ship before me. So due to rank, I already had like responsi--roles of leadership. And I mean, I think this goes to anybody experiencing leadership that when you're new to an organization but you're given authority over someone that's been there longer, sometimes there can be

difficulties, but it was a great learning experience and of of how to handle that situation. And I believe I did very well.

SPRAGUE: What you know, I have to ask, what were some of the challenges of of leadership, of being in that role?

RAMIREZ: Mm hmm. Um--

SPRAGUE: If you don't mind me asking.

RAMIREZ: Right. So, I mean, I you know, I have such, I feel like I had minimal experience with leadership as I've only been on two ships. And in a sense, my only, yeah, my only big leadership position was on the USS New Orleans. But so the--I would say just just, I'm sorry. I'm trying to think. So, yes, the one struggle is the fact that I, I was the newest

member with the higher rank that was given immediately authority roles. And I immediately experienced like the sense of not having respect, the respect from those I was appointed over. But I understood that, you know, that's human. And it's it's my responsibility to gain that trust from them. And so I know that I'm a big believer in and leading by example. And so essentially, since I was new, I did initially did a lot of the work also. But I did it to, like, show them I'm capable because I needed their trust. And it pretty much worked out once I showed them my capabilities and knowledge of my role as a quartermaster, as a E-4 and eventually an E-5, because I got promoted on that ship. I gained a lot more trust from my division. And,

um, yeah, we just continue on to finish or complete the mission.

SPRAGUE: What,was there any particular MEU, Marine Expeditionary Unit, associated with the New Orleans at that time?

RAMIREZ: Yes, I believe as it was the 13th MEU that was associated with the USS New Orleans based out of Camp Pendleton. We had some of their infantry infantrymen and artillerymen join us. I mean, I know, I know there's like other smaller factors like peo--Marines and IT or comms communications, but mainly a lot of infantrymen and artillery. And I know those are like jobs in the Marine Corps. That's like boots on the ground type of situation. And I mean, that was our role

in supporting them. As you know, as a ship and an amphibious ship is we carry their equipment, their personnel, and we take them to the locations that they are needed to go during a deployment.

SPRAGUE: Tell me about your deployment to the West PAC in 2016. You talked about it a little bit earlier. Tell me about what that was like and and how you did that.

RAMIREZ: Oh, man. So that was my first and only deployment I've ever experienced. Westpac stands for Western Pacific due to us being located in San Diego. The majority of the region that we essentially were deployed to is, yes, the western part of of the world,

in the United-- or I would say the western part of the United States. So, you know, western of of California is Hawaii, a lot Asian countries. But we did go all the way into the mi---the Middle East. And and yeah, we we were there for about three months, 3 to 4 months. And then we were we went our way back to to the United States. It was a seven-month deployment. It was during the time nearly where deployments were decreased from usually a nine-month deployment to seven months. So that was a huge change in the Navy. And so the first, yes, the first the first two months were in Hawaii and around the Asian countries. We did training with

the with the Marine Corps. We dropped them off. They had training in certain parts of the country, like around, in South Korea and in Indonesia. And as for us, when it comes to like port visits, we went to Thailand and we went to Bali, Indonesia. And what I mean by port visits is like it's it's time. It's like times for us to, like, explore and have fun. It's kind of like a little bit of R&R, and it usually is just maximum five days. Probably not even, like three or four days. And then we go back out in to sea and do our work patrolling the oceans, essentially. And then after the first two months, three months, the next three months was in the Middle East, which is where the majority of, I feel, like a lot of our operations entailed. Um, what was very new during that time is that we actually took in

SEAL Team One. And so we were supporting their mission essentially, and it came to against ISIS primarily in the country of Yemen, from what I understood, because this is all like very top secret stuff at the time. And I only had a secret clearance, but I because I worked up in the bridge and I was the lead quartermaster of the watch during the deployment I was assigned to one of the senior chief SEALs to essentially be his assistant when it came to providing him with nautical charts and essentially like educating him about the area and the waters. And what's funny is that during that whole time, the three months I was with him, I had no idea he was a SEAL. I thought he was just a civilian contractor, because he was always in clothes and had a beard. And we're not allowed to--men are not allowed to have facial hair. And so I thought he was a civilian contractor. And it wasn't until after

those three months that he told me, he was like, "I'm Senior Chief so-and-so. And I was just like, Oh my goodness, I was working with a SEAL! Anyways, um [laughs].

SPRAGUE: That would have been 2016?

RAMIREZ: Yes, still on 2016.

SPRAGUE: June, or?

RAMIREZ: Oh, so it was I'm sorry. My my deployment was it began in February 2016.

SPRAGUE: Okay. The year 2016 you began. And then jumping to the SEAL team. That would have been in June or July?

RAMIREZ: Yeah. Between like a span of April. May, June, July. Yes.

SPRAGUE: Okay. And that was with the senior chief from SEAL Team One?

RAMIREZ: Yes.

SPRAGUE: Okay. Did you ever--did they ever tell you what their mission profile was, or what their--

RAMIREZ: It was--just, um, so and Yemen is a popular location for ISIS to recruit more members for them due

to the fact that there are a lot of refugees coming from Somalia, which is going through, like, civil war. And so actually, I mean, during our time there, we've run into many refugee boats and, you know, we actually took part, partook in rescuing them and letting them know that, like we actually would tell them there's boats of small boats, of sometimes hundreds of refugees stacked. They would be lying down on a small boat on top of each other in layers. And we would tell them, like, if you go to this country, this terrorist organization is going to tell you that they're going to take care of you. But essentially, you know, it's not really what you think it would be. And, you know, it's their decision to whether to go back or to continue forward. But those who would want to go back, that's when we help them. We bring them on to our ship.

They pretty much 01:20:00hang out on the well deck and we give them, you know, food, water and, um, because we kind of like do like patrols, like rounds around that Gulf area, the Gulf of Aden. And so when we get closer to like the Northern Africa, like I know the Navy base there, Djibouti is there, we do small boat operations and like send them out back out into Northern Africa. But those who refuse and want to continue, we have to just let them be. So I thought that was very interesting. But yeah, so in Yemen, ISIS would take over cities there that are, you know, inhabited by innocent civilians there, take over the city and use it as like a recruiting station. And so from my understanding, SEAL team One was sent there to essentially take back the city control and, you know, bring it back to its people. And yeah, 01:21:00so we we accomplished that--after the four months.

SPRAGUE: Backing up a little a little bit here from Yemen and the Gulf of Aden--

RAMIREZ: Mm hmm.

SPRAGUE: You had mentioned that--I think it was the 13th MEU--

RAMIREZ: Yes.

SPRAGUE: --and then they would do operations off of your ship in 2016 for the West Bank. What was it like? According to our records, they had, like an operation off of Hawaii or maybe somewhere in conjunction with that?

RAMIREZ: Mm-hmm.

SPRAGUE: And you can tell me if I'm wrong. Well, what was that like for you?

RAMIREZ: So I wasn't necessarily a part of those operations. Like I said, our ship was just in support of them, so we carried them around and then dropped them off where they need to go. And so once they're dropped off, I'm not part of their business. I'm just like making sure the ship is safe still. And we wait for that. Usually, they're gone from like 2 to 3 weeks for this training. So the Marines go 01:22:00to their locations. So for this example, it's Hawaii and, you know, their boots on the ground. They're conducting these training operations. And from what I've heard, you know, they're very you know, there's simulations of what can happen, like in a war setting, in a combat setting, correct? So, you know, they're out there, they don't shower, they don't--'cause--and the reason why I know that is because every time they come back, they are dirty and smelly. And [laughs] and then even some of them are very, they they come back very skinny because, you know, they're limited at what they can eat. And those are maybe guys who, like, work out and, you know, to build muscle, and they need all these calories to maintain it. But since they're limited with MREs and whatnot, they always come back so skinny and dirty and smelly. But other than that, that's that's pretty much what I do as my role as a quartermaster is creating the route to get them to their training area. And as you mentioned, like in Hawaii, 01:23:00wait for them for 2 to 3 weeks. And while we wait for them and when I say wait for them, our ship is just in in the vicinity. So we still like kind of, we were underway. We just like go in a box like and and we while we wait for them, we also conduct training as Navy men. So whether it's firefighting training, I mean, as a quartermaster, I'd study more about, you know, rules of the road or a certain geography or oceanography type of thing. So we're just always training, even when, you know, it's a break or you think there's nothing to do, there's always time to train for something.

SPRAGUE: So the same thing, probably a very similar thing would have happened when you were in March by Korea and--

RAMIREZ: Oh, yes. Mm hmm.

SPRAGUE: What what was the other than them coming back and smelling bad? What were the--well, I mean, what were your thoughts as Navy personnel, are you like, Oh, gosh, they're off the ship, you know, Hey, they're gone. It's good.

RAMIREZ: Oh, yeah, it's of course, it's less crowded in the ship. And the ship are you know, our passageways are very narrow. And so we're a ship of usually just 200 sailors. And so to have an extra thousand and they're Marines, it gets very crowded and they break a lot of things, and it's our responsibility to fix it. Luckily, what they do help us in is they are part of cleaning station so they clean with us. So but we do, you know, we live with them on the ship while we're transiting between locations that we have missions at. So it's just learning how to pretty much live in the same vicinity. I mean, we're stuck in a we're stuck in in a floating tin cans together. So we have to learn to be respectful to each other there. Of course, there's a lot of like rivalry and back and forth of like, 01:25:00"I don't have to listen to you," but then there's a certain time in deployment where we where we learn that we need each other. So it it gets a little bit better [laughs]--a bit.

SPRAGUE: Did you have your, your Shellback initiation at that time?

RAMIREZ: Oh, my goodness.

SPRAGUE: Or did you have it before?

RAMIREZ: I had it, I had it before. I had it at the USS Oak Hill. So, and the USS New Orleans, I had the option to be, I mean, a Shellback that like was part of the the the whole phase of turning these--I forgot what we call them--Polly--

SPRAGUE: Pollywogs?

RAMIREZ: Pollywogs. Yeah. Into Shellbacks. But I actually refused and I mean it's a good thing I did because, you know, they asked people who didn't want to do it. So they're the ones that would be on watch. And I mean, I just like doing my job. So I'd rather be on watch 01:26:00than be a part of this initiation ceremony. But I mean, I was really glad to hear that you had the option of whether or not you wanted to participate in the ceremony. Because it was a very traditional ceremony. And what it is essentially--the Shellback initiation is--if your ship crosses the equator, you have the right to be to call yourself a Shellback, but you have to go through, like I said, this initiation. And usually what it consists of is just it's just like another day of boot camp, but a little bit worse of, you know, going through obstacle courses, very like uncomfortable situations, dirty situations, eating not so great things, but the whole day getting sprayed with a cold saltwater hose and singing, being told that you have to sing and dance. It's it's all fun and games. And I hear, you know, I hear that in the past 01:27:00it was a lot worse. But I'm really glad that nowadays we're allowed to still have that tradition. But, you know, people have the choice if they want to participate or not, and it's not as harmful or violent. More humiliating [laughs].

SPRAGUE: So a little bit later in 2016, probably after Yemen, it sounds like, maybe you were off of Kuwait and offloading stuff or unloading stuff. Do you remember that at all or any comments on that? And that that would have been in the Gulf further up.

RAMIREZ: Mm hmm. I mean, to me, it was just like any other day knowing that that was our region for the next three or four months. I'm just used to being told, all right, we got to go at this area of water to drop off such and such. And so it just seemed like like something 01:28:00so natural to me. Like, all right, here's a route, were there. I just wait for everybody to make sure we're safe while they're getting dropped off and boom, on our way back or whatever. So.

SPRAGUE: So what happened next with the New Orleans in 2017? What was your experience coming back from the Middle East? I'm assuming to the United States.

RAMIREZ: Mm hmm.

SPRAGUE: What was your experience?

RAMIREZ: Um--

SPRAGUE: Or, do you don't want to talk about it or you want to pause or?

RAMIREZ: I want to pause for a second.

SPRAGUE: Okay. Okay. This is Luke Sprague, and I'm with Angel Ramirez, and this is segment five of our interview. And I was just asking Angel about 2017 and what I thought was maybe the return of the New Orleans to the United States.

RAMIREZ: Correct. So I know I spoke a lot about my experience in the Middle East. 01:29:00I had great, uh, I had great experience working with SEAL Team One and just supporting our Marines and all the training that they had to do. Dropping them off. Being around the Gulf of Aden, Gulf, Oman, and helping the refugees out of Somalia. Something that I take great pride in doing as a quartermaster. I always saw myself as a very smart and strong-willed woman. And that, you know, when it comes to certain situations that have that happens to women, I never saw myself as someone that it hap--it would happen to because I see myself as someone that's extremely strong-willed and I, I can protect myself. But during my time in the Middle East, I unfortunately had my own sexual assault 01:30:00experience while I was serving on deployment, by a fellow sailor that was the same rank as me that--that I didn't really know. I just I know that he worked on the ship. We worked in separate areas. And it was it was just a surprise. I didn't expect any of this to happen. It was in a situation where we were on on liberty. And, you know, before we go out to a on liberty, on a port call, we're, every every time we're always given a brief, a safety brief of how to protect each other and be there for each other as shipmates. And I held that strong strongly to myself that my shipmates will support me. You know, male, female, no matter 01:31:00what rank. And so every time I go out, I'm always in a group, a coed group with a mix of males and females. And I never saw anything wrong about that. And as I mentioned before, I, I, I was married during this time. And everyone definitely knew. That I'm very vocal about my marriage. And so it was the situation to where we were supposed to have fun, be safe, and have fun out in the Middle East at a certain location that I won't disclose. And it turns out that I was under the influence and had no idea what was going on. And it wasn't until the next day that I woke up and when I found out what essentially happened and it it was more so of waking up and, you know, feeling pain in certain areas and then seeing blood and then, um, 01:32:00and having no recoll--recollection of what happened at all the day before. I can remember the last memory that I had was going to a fellow shipmate's like suite hotel that the, that they booked and all of us as a group just went there to like to meet up, you know, before we go out on town together. And we all just took a shot before we went out of alcohol. And that's the last thing I remember. And it was only it was only like the second--like--I took two--it was my second shot at the time, but I had no other alcohol other than that. And so I found it extremely strange that I couldn't remember anything after that. And so, you know, so on the day after, after I assessed the situation of what happened, I'm a very--I feel like I'm a very like, 01:33:00you know, logical, transparent person. So when I woke up in the morning, my group was still in the in that hotel suite because it's it's a suite that we all shared. So there's males and females and we already have this plan. The females sleep here, the males sleep here. But everyone was just scattered. And I'm just assuming they all had a great time. Like from the night before--of a night that I don't even remember. So I went to the closest male from my group that I--and I woke him up and asked what happened last night? And, and, and the reason why. And I told him minimally, like, how I'm hurting. And I found blood on me and I'm really, and I was being honest with him, like, I'm like, I really hope this is not what I think it looks like. And immediately he became extremely defensive and saying things to me like, "Well, you wanted it." And so that's when I knew immediately, Oh, man, something happened. And like, 01:34:00this is such a crazy situation. I never thought I would be in this situation and--and, you know, it put it put like a toll on me. I mean, I'm a married woman and, my, I didn't want this to happen. And but immediately, like, the gaslighting happened and and he, he like, honestly, if I could, thinking back, I want to just ask him to tell me the truth and what happened. And in a sense, if it was like an accident or whatever, that I'd be willing to just, like, forgive him and just say, all right, like, never again. I'm never going to hang out with you, this and that. But then just the way that he came out about it was very suspicious, how he was became very defensive and was telling me all these false things about me, how I'm I've always been a certain type of female on the ship, and which I was far off. Like, honestly, I didn't really have much friends 01:35:00because I was, I'm a family person. I was always with my husband at home, Like I rarely had friends like that were my age. And so for him to claim that I'm that type of way was absurd. And then anyways, I was just so in shock, that I'm in the Middle East in the middle of a deployment and I was assaulted by my own, like, someone from my own unit. I initially, what I thought was like, I didn't want this to ruin my experience, my deployment experience. I'm very proudfull of what I, what I, what I do for my country and my position. I was in a leadership position. And so I just what I thought of immediately was I'm just going to continue on the mission. I'm going to keep doing my job, you know, as a petty officer or assistant petty officer in charge and and do my job and I'll be fine. And and then I've also had thoughts of like, well, I can always report this when I come back 01:36:00to the States after my deployment, which at the time I think I had like four more months of the deployment of when it occurred. And so I endured four months after my incident of carrying on the mission on the ship. I know I did really well, but it was a struggle to where soon I became a target on the ship of being intimidated, to not tell. It opened to other people from his division. He must have told other people. And so when I'm walking on the passageway by myself or waiting for food, I would get the glares, I would get the shoves. Without any explanation. And I mean, there's even times where I'm sitting eating and people will mouth to me that they're watching me, that I know that you worked with. And so one day I wanted to confront him about this. And 01:37:00and it just happens that when I confronted him. So my, you know, I was on working on the officer of the--with the officer of the deck, up on the bridge, quartermaster of the watch. And there's times where parts of the day were reports from all over the ship, including like the engine rooms, are sent up. But for some reason I got the call saying that someone had to be sent down in the engine rooms to gather the reports. And for some whatever reason, I didn't think twice about it. I just thought, okay, there's there's an issue. I'm I'll go get it for the car. It's a, reports for the captain. And so I went down to the engine rooms. You know, we're underway, so the engines are running. It's very loud. And down there we have to wear double ear protection. And when I go in the area, I was, like, locked immediately in the room and I was being, I was physically assaulted and threatened that if I said anything, that 01:38:00my reputation would be ruined, my career would be ruined, my marriage would be ruined, like, literally like that. But verbatim, like your reputation will be ruined, your marriage, your career. And so I like, you know, that that's when I actually got shook because, like, before then, I was just like, they're dumb. They're just trying to intimidate me. I'm not scared I'm going to report it. But then once I got the actual, like, physical assault, that's when like, everything changes. That's when I feel like my anxiety started to increase. I started to overwork myself on the ship. I didn't want to stop working because I know if I ever get off, like, end my shift, I would see him or people trying to intimidate me. So I would always stay up in the pilot house to work or to train because I didn't want to run into anyone else. And I lived like that for the next 3 or 4 months of that deployment. 01:39:00So after I finally came back from my deployment, um, a month after I did finally report it. And that's when, yeah, my career pretty much changed to where I was once again taken off the ship due to being deemed like not not physically fit to be on the, on sea duty. So then I'm, once again limited-duty station and on the local hospital in San Diego while I'm going through this investigation of my sexual assault. And and then I'm also put through a medical board and a medical board is is whether or not they they want to deem that you're physically fit to even continue your military duties. And that took about a year. And at the end, I was deemed pretty much not physically fit for military duty anymore and they wanted to medically retire 01:40:00me. Yes.

SPRAGUE: I have a question.

RAMIREZ: Yes.

SPRAGUE: Why were they researching your physical state when you reported a sexual assault? What--that has, I mean, other than the fact of for evidentiary purposes, immediately. But was it a retaliation? Was it a--I mean, it doesn't--the two don't--if someone is assaulted, that doesn't imply necessarily they're not physically able to do the job. That, those two don't go together?

RAMIREZ: Oh, I completely agree. But I believe it's, I think it's, unfortunately the common thought in culture of a female got assaulted and she's eventually not going to become mentally fit to continue the job where, you know, ironically, you know, even though I was a witness of a sexual assault, you know, back in 2014, I was still 01:41:00deemed physically fit like to, after I did my three-month treatment. And I did go back to the ship and I performed just fine. And so when this sexual assault happened to me, it's almost like because I'm the victim, it's just automatic. All right. We need to evaluate her as not fit mentally and physically. And I mean, I'm assuming just because I said to the doctor the truth, like, yes, I, I experience increased anxiety, increased--I mean, it's natural. Like I just got hurt and I want to protect myself. They said, well, you can't continue your career in the military. And it was, I was very upset. This was a job I wanted to do 20 years and maybe essentially become an officer. But, yeah, this all this occurred. And 01:42:00as I mentioned before, I'm the type of woman that I never thought in a million years I would put myself in this situation, like be put in this type of situation. And unfortunately, I know this sounds bad, but I was type of those w--like those people that thought, you know, for sexual assaults to happen to someone, it's a it's a bit a bit it's a bit of their fault to put themselves in that situation. And I definitely learned from experience that is not the case at all. So and this is the reason why I'm telling my story, because, you know, you can be in my position too where you might believe it's partially the victim's fault and whatnot. But I mean, I'm a clear example of I was a very successful, hard- working sailor in the Navy and I loved my job. And due to someone being very careless and essentially this person and this investigation turned out to be obsessive of me. This is why it occurred in the first place, because 01:43:00it's more of a like an obsession case that because I was married and he can't have me, he would do anything to to have me. And it's such a very, very, like, unique and unfortunate case that I went through, that someone that I worked with was obsessed and did anything he could to get to me. And it hurt me and essentially threatened me to keep quiet and--and yet it's just unfortunate. And so that's--here I am now, or as in in 2017, after my deployment, that's where I was. I was immediately sent to a local naval hospital to be evaluated to to be MEB boarded. And I was deemed unfit and medically retired at December of 2017.

SPRAGUE: What 01:44:00what happened to the investigation of the physical assault and/or the sexual assault? What was the result of that? Did you--

RAMIREZ: So the result of it is that when it came to the UCMJ, like in the court martial, it was actually acquitted due to lack of evidence. And that is extremely hurtful because I think of stuff of, oh, so when you're sexually assaulted, you're supposed to keep your bloody panties or you're supposed to keep the spec--you know, such and such. And so though I did have witnesses and they spoke in the investigation, I understand it's not enough evidence, I suppose like, I guess tangible evidence to commit him of a crime under the, you know, in court martial. So in court martial, it was acquitted. But when it came to like administra-- administratively through my command, my captain essentially got him administratively 01:45:00separated from the Navy. So in a sense, I guess that's kind of like my sense of justice. And I also obtained a restraining order against him for two years. So, I mean, that's that's that. But I mean, compared to like real life, when someone is sexually assaulted, they the attacker usually gets jail time or is can registered as a sexual sex offender, whereas my attacker just lost his job.

SPRAGUE: So you're administratively discharged, or medically, sorry--discharged.

RAMIREZ: Correct.

SPRAGUE: December 2017?

RAMIREZ: Correct.

SPRAGUE: Over here. The day after you ETS'd, what was your, what's going through your head?

RAMIREZ: It was definitely the darkest time of my life. 01:46:00While going through the investigation was painful enough, my marriage did dissolve it. It was difficult for both of us to go through what was going on. And so I was I was separating and getting a divorce. I moved back with my parents and essentially the first thing I did was just set up my care with the VA, the local VA in San Diego. And from the get go, I was going to the VA about like 4 to 5 times a week doing therapy of all sorts and just getting like, you know, just getting care. And, you know, luckily because with my medical discharge, I get a compensation through disability. I was able to like, live off of that for a year. So essentially for the for the whole year of 2018 was all medical for me. Therapy, living with my 01:47:00parents, getting through a divorce and just trying to stay alive. As, you know, most as, some service members, you know, experience with mental health and the thought of suicide. And so all of, like I said, all of 2018 was self-care and the support of my parents.

SPRAGUE: Okay. What if. What? What do you think about right now? About. I have an idea, but what do you think about being a veteran? What? I mean, what? When someone says that to you. What? What? What goes through your mind?

RAMIREZ: Well, pride is a big thing. I'm. I'm extremely proud of being a U.S. Navy veteran. Um, you know, it is part of my identity. 01:48:00I my my, my experience of being an adult, like, my first experiences of being a legal adult is being a U.S. Navy sailor. And so my experience, and in the Navy formed me, almost like the foundations of who I am as an adult. And I'll always be proud of my work and what I've done. I, like I said, I wish I could stay in longer. It's it's unfortunate that I went through these situ--incidents, sexual assault incidents. But being a veteran, I'll always be proud. And especially because of my experience, I'll always support fellow women vets and those who have gone through similar situations. I just I just try to be supportive to all veterans--male, female. You know, long term, short term. Because 01:49:00we all have our, um. We've all gone through certain struggles and have some sort of depression or PTSD for various reasons, not all because of war, being shot at. There's various reasons to have PTSD from the military. So in conclusion, yes, I'm always going to be proud of my service. I don't regret it. And I just--all I can do is bring awareness to certain situations that has happened to me still continuing in the military and hoping for change.

SPRAGUE: Mm-hmm. I have to ask the question. If you were able to do it, and you could re-enlist, would you go--would you rejoin the United States military?

RAMIREZ: Yes, I, I definitely would. I, I, you know, I've been out for about six years now and I've attempted, you know, different 01:50:00jobs, like in industries. And I always find myself thinking back to my times in the Navy and how much fun I had. And I'm just I love it. I love the constant change. I love the travel, I love the responsibility. And to this day, I still, I would have seen myself as 20 years plus, even an officer. But, um, but yeah, if I ever had the opportunity, if I could, I would, I would love to go back as an officer, but I know that I now have a bunch of barriers of difficulty, so it's not necessarily possible for me. So that's that.

SPRAGUE: Okay. So 2018 medical. What are you, what were you doing now and what brings you---we're in California.

RAMIREZ: Yes.

SPRAGUE: How did you get to Wisconsin? And tell me a little bit about that and what you've been doing.

RAMIREZ: Oh, yes.

SPRAGUE: Yes. Please.

RAMIREZ: Of course. 01:51:00So as I mentioned, 2018 was such, one of the darkest times in my life. And as I was recovering with the support of my parents, I have attended an intensive outpatient program for behavioral health. And while I was there, I was introduced to randomly just the topic of, well, we were discussing healthy coping mechanisms and one of them out of, you know, in a long list of certain things, was like bicycling or or like motorcycling. And at the time, Harley-Davidson Motor Company had a deal to where they had a discounted vouchers for active military to take their Harley Davidson Riding Academy. And I took advantage of that because why not? Like I necessary like I literally thought I have nothing else to do. Just learn--is this is, like nearly free for me 01:52:00and it's worth like $400 originally. So I'll just do it. Something to do. Whatever [laughs]. And I took the course and I fell in love with it. I fell in love with the sport of motorcycling. I immediately got my own motorcycle and I just I kept pushing myself further and further to, essentially three months after getting my license, I rode from San Diego to Montana, and I found myself becoming a long-distance motorcyclist, motorcycle rider. And a lot of it is because it does benefit my mental health. And and I essentially, through time, through my motorcycling hobby, I met other bikers. There's a lot of veterans who are bikers and we all have the same connection and reasoning to why we ride. And it helps, you know, with our PTSD and it gives us that sense of freedom and adrenaline again, where, you know, 01:53:00I missed out. I lacked that all of 2018. I, I was very numb. So motorcycling brought that back, that feeling for me. And so, as you know, as the year went by and I feel like I'm a bit better to start thinking about my next chapter in life. I've always knew I've always known that I was going to go to college. So I thought about, all right, I'll utilize my post-9/11, or actually my VR&E because I'm a disabled veteran, and get an education. But then, you know, I really thought about what--I want to do something that really makes me happy and I will be proud to do just like what I did in the Navy. I was proud of what I did in the Navy. Motorcycle. So I thought, motorcycles make me happy. What can I do with motorcycles? I didn't want to be a mechanic. I didn't want to do like, be a builder, anything. But like, I just love the thought of, like, spreading awareness about motorcycling. And so I incorporated that as, like, marketing. 01:54:00And so I decided that I wanted to major in marketing. And because I was so adamant about motorcycles and specifically Harley-Davidson, because that was the company that introduced me to motorcycling by providing me that voucher for the riding academy, I'm like, I'm going to like, where is Harley-Davidson located? Because I want to work for them. And I saw that they're located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And so I started to look at universities near there. The first one is UW-Milwaukee, and it just happens that UW-Milwaukee is is the most military- friendly university in the Midwest. Like they they have an actual official certification that they are. It's called being military-friendly. And they have the most active veterans enrolled in the university. And so to 01:55:00me, that was a winner. Like, I want, I need the most support as a veteran going into school because I know I won't be around the same age as my peers. And so I enrolled at UW Milwaukee and I got admitted. And so I moved into, I moved to Milwaukee in 2019 to start my first year at UW-Milwaukee, and I moved- and that's how I moved here to start my education and my journey to work for Harley-Davidson.

SPRAGUE: Any motorcycle clubs or gangs you're involved in?

RAMIREZ: [Laughs] Gangs.

SPRAGUE: [Inaudible] [Ramirez laughs].

RAMIREZ: So I'm a very soft person [laughs]. So, even though some people are shocked that because I ride motorcycles, they think I'm like, scary or intimidating or tough, but I'm actually very sweet. And when it comes to groups, I've actually found an all-women's motorcycle collective called the "Litas." And it's a very, very inclusive 01:56:00and easy group to be in and a sense of where traditionally motorcycle groups, you know, they have like an initiation or a fee or whatnot and certain responsibilities. But in this group, there's no hierarchy. It's more of just like, it's a it's an organization. It's a group to support women who ride motorcycles. And we all, you know, we all relate to the connection of we're women in a very male-dominated sport. So we just want to have our place in it and not be challenged or or not necessarily challenged, but like just, you know, brought down in a sense for doing something that we love. And and because I joined. So when I was in San Diego, I joined the branch. There's branches of the "Litas" and I joined the "Litas San Diego." And I enjoyed it. That's how I met so much women, because when I was in the military, the majority of my friends were men. I didn't, you know, get along with a lot of the females 01:57:00my age because I was a married woman. I couldn't relate to them. So this was a surprising difference that I was able to gain and get along with so much women. And I loved it because it's, you know, peer, peer support. And and so with that, when I moved to Milwaukee, I joined the local Milwaukee branch. And actually three months after joining, they asked me to become one of the founders. And now, ever since 2019, I have been a founder of the "Litas Milwaukee."

SPRAGUE: How do you think the Navy--your service in the Navy--how do you think it's changed you as a person, if it has--both positive and negative?

RAMIREZ: It it's a huge influence in my life. And I joined when I was 18. I mean, I'm first-generation American in my family, 01:58:00so I've always struggled growing up with it to know what it's like to be an American, you know. When I was a kid--an American kid or an American woman once I'm an adult. So, and I've always had this great, like, gratitude for the country because of how my parents talk about it, how they're grateful to have immigrated there for more opportunities, better opportunities for me. So, because I have this gratitude, knowing joining the military was such an honorable thing to do in this country, you know, which is it's it's the reason why I did it. And then actually experiencing going through it. I experienced the discipline I experienced--you know, it's it's rapidly--like being in the military is learning something. All these great qualities like leadership, teamwork, like, just training and just 01:59:00being attention to detail. Like paying attention to detail. All that stuff. Like just rapidly. It's like it's a crash course of all that. And it, yeah, it truly molded it molded me to who I am today when it comes to the unfortunate, you know, negative things that has happened to me. I mean, that has influenced me to who I am today, as well as being more resilient and just more more aware of, you know, things that can happen to others in the world. Because, you know, when you feel when you're young, you feel like you're invincible. And if you feel like you always do good things, that good things will always happen to you. I was a big believer in that, that when you do good, you're rewarded. When you do bad, you're, bad things happen to you. And so it did. It did, you know, skew my beliefs a bit when those bad things happen to me. 02:00:00But it has now, you know, just made me a more wiser, I guess, a wiser person. And I'm ready to just keep tackling life because I'm still fairly young. I'm 28 and I'm still trying to put a mark in the world. I'm still trying to establish my career because I just recently graduated from UW-Milwaukee. So my I just have the sense of I still have a long stor--like a long journey, and I'm I'm moving on forward. I went through a lot these last six years, but it was all worth it. There's a reason and I can sense that I will become extremely successful eventually.

SPRAGUE: What what motivated you to do this interview?

RAMIREZ: I was motivated with the fact that I that there's this opportunity, this great opportunity to share my story as a female veteran due to my experiences of being 02:01:00quieted or yeah, just pretty much being quieted about my experiences or downplayed of my my veteran status. This is a great opportunity for me to just tell my, tell my stories, my experience as a U.S. Navy veteran. And I hope that it does inspire and influence other people to change, you know, the culture a bit and just make this world a bit better.

SPRAGUE: Did we miss anything you'd like to cover?

RAMIREZ: Mm-um. I just, um. Yeah. I just want to mention that, you know, when I joined when I joined the U.S. Navy, I was from the start I always knew I wanted to work hard 02:02:00and be successful. Um, I had no other intention other than performing my best, serving my country. Um, yeah, performing the best that I can as a quartermaster. And I knew I proved that right with my quick promotions being all the way up to an E-5 by the age of 20, the care that I had for my shipmates, for their well-being, and for their professional performance. I truly enjoyed being deployed, being under way, it was an adventure. I felt like I live such the American dream as a first-generation American, being a U.S. Navy sailor, being a woman, active duty. And I know it. And I have been honored with the award of the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal from the captain of the USS New Orleans. And so 02:03:00I know that that being awarded that validated that my work is being recognized, and I know that I'm doing good. And so I just wanted to say that. I know I'm a hard worker and I was very passionate at what I did in the Navy. It's unfortunate of what had happened to me that had occurred and how it concluded to my medical discharge. But I just want to support, now that we're at where I'm at and the position that I am at, I just want to support changing the culture in the military, being just more open minded and aware and listening to our female vets and and supporting them and validating their experience. It doesn't matter which branch you're at or how many years you did. The point is that you accomplished boot camp and you have earned the title of Marine, Airmen, 02:04:00Coast Guard men, Sailor, and you served and you've done your part. So yeah, I just want to end with that.

SPRAGUE: Okay. So thank you for your time today, Angel. That will conclude the interview.