Oral History Interview with Gail M. Nohr

[Interview Begins]

BOWERS HEALEY: All right. Today is May 9th, 2023. And this is an interview with Gail Marie Nohr. I'm going to ask you to state your full name and also give me your name at the time that you entered the service, please.

NOHR: So my name is Gail Marie Nohr when I entered the service, it was Gail Marie Blazei.

BOWERS HEALEY: And please fill your last name.

NOHR: My current?

BOWERS HEALEY: Both, both of them.

NOHR: B-L-A-Z-E-I--maiden name, and married name, N-O-H-R.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. Thank you very much. And you served with the United States Navy, is that correct?

NOHR: Yes, the United States Navy.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. And when did you enter the United States Navy?

NOHR: So it was in 1984. And then I served till Memorial Day of 1985.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. You happen to know the exact dates? If not, that's fine.

NOHR: So May 31st, 1985, but I'm not sure of the date in '84 because I signed up on a delayed entry program. So it was kind of I don't remember the exact date. 00:01:00It was, I think, a February.

BOWERS HEALEY: All right. And this interview is being conducted by Ellen Healy, and I'm doing it in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for the Wisconsin Veterans Museum Oral History Program. No one else is present during this interview. All right. Shifting back to you, can you tell me where you were born?

NOHR: I was born [XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX], Wisconsin.

BOWERS HEALEY: And where were you raised? Where did you grow up, primarily?

NOHR: So we moved out to Suamico. I lived in Suamico since I was born and then we moved to Howard, which is just they're very close together near Green Bay.

BOWERS HEALEY: You said Hollow Ridges?

NOHR: Howard.

BOWERS HEALEY: Howard.

NOHR: Yeah.

BOWERS HEALEY: Is that actually a town or--

NOHR: Yeah, it's a small town near Suamico. So the two of them are together Howard-Suamico.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. And tell me a little bit about your family as you were growing up as a kid.

NOHR: So my parents owned a grocery store and so my father was gone a lot. He 00:02:00was working from six in the morning till nine at night. So if I wanted to see him, I had to go to the store because my mother was sick a lot. So we didn't have much of a family life. And I kind of took care of them as much as I could because they were a little bit uncareful.

BOWERS HEALEY: Did you have siblings or not?

NOHR: One sister and one brother who died, an older brother who died two hours after he was born.

BOWERS HEALEY: All righty. And where did you attend school where you were growing up?

NOHR: I went to the Howard-Suamico School District and Bayport High School.

BOWERS HEALEY: And what got you interested in joining the military?

NOHR: Well, a girlfriend of mine asked me if I would join with her on the buddy system.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.

NOHR: So.

BOWERS HEALEY: Were you in high school when that happened?

NOHR: Yeah, I was still in high school. I said, "Yes [laughs]." And, you know, a 00:03:00semester went by. I went to college for a semester and then I signed up and then she didn't [laughs]. So I went anyway. But that was that was the reason why I signed up.

BOWERS HEALEY: And--.

NOHR: I had a couple of relation, my couple of cousins that were that were in as well.

BOWERS HEALEY: And were they in the Navy or what service?

NOHR: No one was in the Marine Corps and one was in the Army, I believe.

BOWERS HEALEY: And prior to going on active duty, you mentioned you were in college. Did you have any part- time jobs or not?

NOHR: I did work for my father at the grocery store.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. And you stated that you went in on the buddy system.

NOHR: Yeah, she--she suggested it, and I just signed up regular, and then she didn't. So that was just something she threw out there.

BOWERS HEALEY: Did you sign up for any particular military occupational specialty or were you open contract?

NOHR: No, I signed up for as a hospital corpsman.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. And why didn't you choose that?

NOHR: Basically, because it was offered to me. Yeah. And I thought it would be a good start for a career.

BOWERS HEALEY: And how? Tell me about the enlistment process other than buddy system. Did you talk frequently with people at the recruiting station or not?

NOHR: I did talk to them several times. His wife was actually a teacher at my high school, so he was just very friendly and helpful. So it was nice.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. What else do you remember about the enlistment process? Did you have to go to Milwaukee or take the ASVAB test?

NOHR: Yeah, I took the ASVAB and they said I could qualify for hospital corpsman 00:05:00and then I went to Milwaukee for the MEPS to get my enlistment stuff done. Yeah.

BOWERS HEALEY: And how long? How long between the enlistment process before you actually went off to the Navy?

NOHR: So I was on the delayed entry program for some reason. I don't really know why, but it took about six months for me to get actually in.

BOWERS HEALEY: Were you in college at that time?

NOHR: Um, yes, I believe I was. It was just between semesters. So I had just finished a semester and then went.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. All right. So when did you where did you actually go? Where was your first duty station?

NOHR: So I had my boot camp in Orlando. Yeah, that was. That was nice. It was during February. So it was the weather was actually pretty all right. And then so after boot camp, I went into my A School at Great Lakes, Illinois, and I 00:06:00worked at the hospital there trying to it's a it's a nursing program that it's it's like a year's worth of schooling that you do in like a short period of time, like a few months. So it was a lot of schooling and a lot of a lot of work. And I wasn't sleeping very well.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.

NOHR: And it was very eye-opening for me to be taking care of veterans. It was a lot of veterans on that ward that that were missing limbs. And I was trying to take care of them as best as I could. And they didn't have family with them because obviously they're in the hospital and they're stationed somewhere. They had no family. So I was trying to take care of them as best I could and be the family for them that they needed. They were crying and upset. And at 18, I don't 00:07:00know if I was really ready to see that. It was very eventful in my life. It really made me feel like I want to take care of veterans.

BOWERS HEALEY: I take it you would never work at a hospital or a nursing home before that?

NOHR: I had not.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.

NOHR: No, that was all new to me.

BOWERS HEALEY: Was that going to be your permanent duty station?

NOHR: No, that was my A School. And then I got transferred out to Portsmouth, Virginia Hospital, and I worked there again working with veterans on the ward that were seriously injured. And it was it was challenging, but I wanted to do it. I did.

BOWERS HEALEY: But they injured to do military service for military service. All right.

NOHR: And then I got transferred to Norfolk Naval, the Sewell's Point Clinic. So the naval base is the largest base that I understand for in the world, the Norfolk Naval Base. And I worked at Sewell's Point Clinic, which is right on the base.

BOWERS HEALEY: How do you spell Sewell's?

NOHR: S-E-W-E-L-L'-S.

BOWERS HEALEY: Let me go back to Portsmouth, Virginia. You said you worked with vets that were seriously injured. How long were you at that that facility?

NOHR: About four months. And then I transferred to Sewell's Point Clinic.

BOWERS HEALEY: Why did you get transferred, if you know?

NOHR: They just needed people at the clinic.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.

NOHR: And I just went there.

BOWERS HEALEY: And you were still 18 or 19?

NOHR: Yeah, I was probably 19 at that time.

BOWERS HEALEY: What type of work did you do while you were at the Sewell's Point Clinic?

NOHR: Sewell's Point I worked in admissions so people would come on base and need medical treatment and I would work in admissions.

BOWERS HEALEY: Did you like that work better or not?

NOHR: It wasn't quite as emotional as the hospital work, so it was a little bit easier for me to handle and then I got discharged.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.

NOHR: I got a medical honorable discharge.

BOWERS HEALEY: You say medical? Do you want to talk more about what the nature of the medical discharge was or not?

NOHR: Well, something had happened to me in in my A School at hospital at Great Lakes that caused me to get hospitalized. And then it took a year for them to do the medical discharge. I, I just kind of broke down because I thought my father was going to pass away and I couldn't leave. He was very sick.

BOWERS HEALEY: Mm hmm.

NOHR: And then it just just happened that way.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay, So while you're working, you're going through the medical discharge.

NOHR: Yes. Yes.

BOWERS HEALEY: Time, besides taking almost a year, did it take a lot of time and effort and appointments and that sort of thing or not so much?

NOHR: Not so much.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.

NOHR: Not so much. But it was I was very thankful and grateful that I got an honorable discharge. And actually, it allowed me to. An honorable medical discharge allowed me to access the V.A. clinic, when I got out. I didn't do it right away. But after a while, I was able to get into the V.A. clinic and get help.

BOWERS HEALEY: Anything else that you particularly remember about your military service? What was it, about 12 or 14 months of 14 active duty?

NOHR: Yeah, about 14 months. Something did happen to me when I. I went with a friend to her home in New York, and we went to New York City and I was sexually 00:11:00assaulted. So they consider that military sexual trauma because I was still in the service when it happened. But it wasn't a military wasn't a group of military people that did it. It was civilians. So but it did affect me for my whole life. I was drugged and I didn't know I couldn't move and I couldn't talk, but I knew what was happening. My eyes were open so I could see what was happening. So then I blocked that out for 35 years. And I don't know if you want me to fast forward to what happened then.

BOWERS HEALEY: Well, let me ask. I want I want you to be able to talk about that more. But before we move on from your military service, did you have any 00:12:00particular mentors or people that seemed to be helpful to you while you were in the service? Or maybe good friends? You mentioned that you went to New York City with one.

NOHR: Yeah, I had a lot of really good friends. I loved my girls in boot camp. I'm still in contact with a couple of them and just I really loved my petty officer. She was very good, a little strict, but very personable. You know, at the hospitals, there were some nurses there, too, that were that took me under their wing and showed me how to take care of the veterans. So that was nice, too. Yeah.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay, good. And then you were discharged. Was the transition--you came back to Wisconsin was the transition easy or difficult?

NOHR: No, it was difficult. I came back and I basically went to my parent's 00:13:00house and didn't leave the house for six months. Did not leave the house. I just sat there, watched TV. I watched MTV morning, noon and night and did nothing. I don't know if I felt embarrassed about what happened or felt embarrassed because I was discharged. I just didn't want to leave the house.

BOWERS HEALEY: Mm hmm. Did your parents, what was your parents reaction?

NOHR: They pretty much let me do what I wanted to do. They didn't really talk to me much about what was going on or ask me any questions. They just kind of let me do it.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. And after six months, did you get yourself out of the house?

NOHR: I did. I ended up getting a job and meeting my husband, and I ended up 00:14:00getting a job at the post office.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.

NOHR: Which is 75% military or was back then. I don't know if it's different now, but but when I worked at the Green Bay Post office, it was 75% military. So it was like I was back in the service, which was very comfortable for me.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.

NOHR: So what I did is I, I was sorting mail, but I was also the union steward for the veterans and fighting for veterans rights. I was filing grievances because the supervision was not the best and they were violating the contract. So protecting veterans rights. I was also the safety and health director. So making sure that they had a safe place to work, they would come to me with their problems and I would try to take care of them as best as I could. Yeah.

BOWERS HEALEY: Was your husband also or is your husband also a postal worker or not?

NOHR: No, he's a carpenter.

BOWERS HEALEY: So how did you meet him?

NOHR: Through a mutual friend.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.

NOHR: Yeah.

BOWERS HEALEY: And you said you worked for 22 years at the post office?

NOHR: Yes, 22 years. I got an early retirement, then I ended up working at the Brown County Veterans Service office.

BOWERS HEALEY: Did you do that as a paid or volunteering?

NOHR: Nope. Paid.

BOWERS HEALEY: Paid.

NOHR: Yeah.

BOWERS HEALEY: What did you do at the Brown County Veteran Services Office?

NOHR: Yes. I answered the phones and did the email of veterans who were looking for services, looking for help. The Veterans Service office doesn't have a lot of money to to give out to people that are in need. So I was I called myself a 00:16:00resource navigator, so I was looking for resources for veterans because they would call looking for help.

BOWERS HEALEY: By the time you started working at the VSO, Veterans Services Office, had you also utilized their services or not?

NOHR: I had utilized their services. Yes.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.

NOHR: Yes. Oh, I wanted to talk about that too. I did get into the VA clinic and I was able to get a disability and the VA helped me with mental health services and physical health services, and they were very helpful.

BOWERS HEALEY: So when you left the service, the active duty service, you didn't have a disability rating or did--

NOHR: No.

BOWERS HEALEY: No, okay.

NOHR: That came several years later. I didn't know anything about the VA. I had no idea. I don't even know how I found out about it.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.

NOHR: I just I can't even remember how that happened.

BOWERS HEALEY: When was the first time you walked into the Veterans Services office or called them out in relationship to your discharge? Are we talking five years, ten years?

NOHR: Probably five years after, maybe. Yeah, probably five years after. Yeah. So they were very helpful. So like working at the Brown County Veterans Service Office, though, that was really an eye-opener because I was taking about thirty calls a day and half of them were for I'm losing my house, I'm homeless, I need help, I need food. You know, they they really needed help and they didn't know where to go, you know. So I joined the Brown County Veterans, Brown County Housing Homeless and Housing Coalition. So I wanted to find out, well, where are these shelters? Where can I send people? What how can I answer these requests? I've got to find out. I got to know where to send them. I got to know, you know, I want to make that warm handoff. I want to write that referral and send it via 00:18:00email so that that agency can call them and know what the story is, what their background, you know. So because if they're down-and-out, they're not, you give them a phone call, a phone number, they might not even call that number and they're just going to be stuck in the situation that they're in and probably get into worse trouble. I mean, there's--

BOWERS HEALEY: What is the Brown County Homeless and Housing Coalition? Is it well, what is it? Does it have resources or is it a referral place?

NOHR: It's agencies that get together. It's like homeless shelters, different agencies, people who are having problems, you know, anybody's welcome. Anyone who is a service provider in Brown County is welcome. And they're a great group of people.

BOWERS HEALEY: Do they actually have a building or not?

NOHR: No, no. We meet at the library. It's just a nonprofit agency. Yeah, they 00:19:00just we just get together and meet once a month. There's another agency. There's a side-off agency that's called service providers. And there's a system that they enter. There's the there's a homeless system that they enter information into, and everyone has access to that information. It's called HMIS. Homeless Management Information System. It's a state database.

BOWERS HEALEY: If you're a veteran in Brown County and are about to lose your home or you're homeless, what would you say that your success rate is at getting people in back into homes?

NOHR: So it would be a referral and the referral agencies pretty much work on that. I'm I'm just thinking just off the top of my head, it's probably 75%, you 00:20:00know, that we're able to help people, you know, with referrals.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.

NOHR: Yeah. And sometimes people don't take your offering, you know? So I don't really know because we don't do any research about that. So there's like not a lot of follow-up that I know of. So all of that experience made me decide I wanted to do something about that. Yeah.

BOWERS HEALEY: All right. You can go ahead and well, we can talk about that. But you also had started mentioning before I went back to your active duty service, you mentioned that you yourself had gotten help for an incident that happened, not--while you were in the military, but not military- related from the standpoint the aggressor wasn't military.

NOHR: Right.

BOWERS HEALEY: So where were you at in your life when you sought out help for that?

NOHR: Okay. So I was going to school for substance abuse counseling because I had some problems with substances myself. I had a couple of DUIs and then I, I ended up going to AA meetings. And then the 12th step of the AA program is helping the next person who's struggling with alcohol, helping that next person. So I decided I was going to go back to school for substance abuse counseling because I wanted to help people. And during that schooling, I ended up in a class in a project with two women, two other women who were abusing me verbally. And it brought me back to that sexual assault because I was helpless. It was two people against me, just like the sexual assault was several people against me. 00:22:00And I couldn't do anything about it. I couldn't stop it. I couldn't I felt like I couldn't move again. I couldn't talk. So that brought all of those those feelings and that terrible feeling that I was helpless all come came back that I had forgotten, or that I wouldn't let myself. I guess they call it repressed, you know, like I was protecting myself from thinking about that. So that all came back and I started having panic attacks where I couldn't. My heart rate was beating at 140 beats a minute, just sitting still. And I didn't understand why that was happening. So I tried to get into the VA, but they didn't have any openings. So then I called the Vet Center in Green Bay and they had openings. So I went to the Vet Center and they did something called EMDR on me, which is Eye 00:23:00Movement Desensitization Reprocessing therapy. And what it is, is it's a light that moves past your eye and then a sound in headphones and then a buzz in your hand, and they all go back and forth at the same time. So it's almost like REM sleep. So your your consciousness kind of goes into subconscious and you start to think about like, what's what all happened in your life. So for me, I went back to the beginning of my life when I was with my parents and they were not around and I was unsafe and and it started there. But then when I got into the service, it brought me back to the sexual assault where I was unsafe as well. So reprocessing that made me feel like, okay, it wasn't my parents fault that they 00:24:00that they treated me like that because they were treated like that. So I reprocessed that whole thing and it wasn't my fault either. So I'm not less of a person because that happened. And then for the military sexual assault, I reprocessed that as well. I mean, I felt like it wasn't my fault, but I was at that building, that house with that group of people. I trusted my friend. She brought me there. I'm not a bad person. I'm not it wasn't my fault. I'm not guilty. I don't need to be ashamed of what happened. It's just something that happened. And I have to accept it and move on and realize that it wasn't my fault. So I processed. Reprocessed that. And that's from I had four sessions of that four one-hour sessions. And then the fourth session I was cleared of the 00:25:00problems that I that I felt.

BOWERS HEALEY: And you so you you received this processing from the--

NOHR: Vet Center.

BOWERS HEALEY: Vet center. And when when was this? Was it fairly recently, or?

NOHR: About a year ago.

BOWERS HEALEY: A year ago.

NOHR: Yeah.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. And is this something that military people do or have they hired civilians or just what?

NOHR: You know, I'm not even sure if there's military people. There are some military people working at the Vet Center, but it's probably half and half, half military and half in civilian.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.

NOHR: I don't know their exact make up. I'm not even sure if the girl that did it was a military veteran. I don't know.

BOWERS HEALEY: Sounds like you're a real proponent of this treatment.

NOHR: Oh, yes, very much so. I mean, maybe it doesn't help everyone, but it 00:26:00really helped me.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.

NOHR: Better than talk therapy. That didn't help me very much.

BOWERS HEALEY: All right. Now, you wanted to tell me or you want to say more about and tell me more about what you have done and what you're involved in in terms of homeless and finding homes for veterans in Brown County.

NOHR: Yes. So after leaving the the Veterans Service office, my husband and I and some partners started a nonprofit called Veterans 1st of Northeast Wisconsin. So there is a housing program in Wisconsin called Housing 1st that I was aware of where they house you and then they do they help you with other things. So it's kind of a low-barrier housing program. So I kind of changed it up a little bit. And I called it Veterans 1st, because veterans, to me, are my 00:27:00life. And I want to give back to veterans because they were ready to give their lives for their country. And I feel like we need to give back to veterans. So this program, it's going to be Tiny Homes Village for Veterans. There's nothing like it in northeast Wisconsin. So we're going to be the first one. We are going to offer four affordable homes that are 600 square foot with two bedrooms. So out of shelters, they can come and live there for free until we get them jobs there. We have some jobs lined up for them at different agencies. We're also partnering with Department of Workforce Development that's going to come and do some trainings and job placements for them, for us. So I don't know if it'll be once a week or once or a couple times a week. They'll do, you know, assessments 00:28:00like what kind of career would you like, what kind of we're going to offer this training and then we're going to help you with resumes and interview skills and then help you get that job. So once they get the job, then they will be paying 30% of their income and have to save 30%. And then they'll be able to move into an affordable 400-square-foot home of their own. And we're going to have sixteen of those. And four of the transitional for eight people. So we're going to have room for twenty-four veterans total. So the transitionals will be up to two years. They can stay in those those ones. And then hopefully by that time they'll have enough money to move into the affordable ones and they can stay there for another three. So a total of five years. By that time, they should have enough money saved up to either move into their own apartment somewhere or move into, you know, purchase a home with a VA home loan. Because we're we're 00:29:00also working with a mortgage company called Houses of Honor that will be doing classes like budgeting classes and looking for housing for them that are available on the market right now, helping them apply for a VA home loan and also helping them with whatever financial questions they may have. They're going to come right on-site and do those courses.

BOWERS HEALEY: Do some of the vets that you're working with, although they may be homeless or about to lose their home, are some of them receiving veterans benefits monetary?

NOHR: Some of them might be, and that's okay. We have a we're going to have like an income limit. So we're still working out the details on the percentage, like what would be acceptable. It's definitely for low-income, low-income veterans. But also if they have a disability, they they would be accepted as well. So some 00:30:00of them may be connected to the VA. If they're not, we can connect them to the CVSO office and they can file try to file a claim for them. We're also partnering with hopefully the VA clinic on something called HUD-VASH vouchers. So with that--

BOWERS HEALEY: I'm going to have to ask you to spell that. What kind of--

NOHR: H-U-D, so Housing and Urban Development, and then V-A-S-H. So that's Veterans Administration Supportive Housing.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. Thank you.

NOHR: Yes.

BOWERS HEALEY: Go ahead and tell me more about that.

NOHR: So in that program, they give the veterans vouchers, and the vouchers help them pay the rent up to 70% of the rent. And then so these would be for the affordable units. So the rent in those are going to be between 600 and $700. So 00:31:00very much low, lower-than-market value right now. So the VA would pay for some of their rent, offer mental health, physical health and case management services for them while they're in the program.

BOWERS HEALEY: Do you have a site where this is going to be located or do you have some tiny houses built already? What status do--

NOHR: We don't have any build right now. We are working with we have a meeting with the city and the county on May 17th. So we're discussing a property right now that is near the VA clinic, but we don't have it set in stone just yet. It'll be talked about on that May 17th meeting. So we're hoping to partner with the county on that property.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. Do you know, are there any other current veterans housing 00:32:00housing in Brown County that is strictly for veterans or not?

NOHR: There is the Veterans Housing and Recovery Shelter. So it's a homeless shelter for veterans with seventeen beds that is actually set up by the WDVA. They have a constant waiting list, and I worked there for a year as a counselor. It was very it was I really liked working with the veterans. So that was another reason why I wanted to do the Tiny Homes Village, because it gave me an idea of what it is to work with veterans as a substance abuse counselor and what they might need and what helps them. And, you know, I also felt like it would be nice if sometimes shelters you can't really avoid people. You're like, right next to them all the time. So in the tiny homes, you were going to have classes, you 00:33:00know, weekly, but there's a place for them to go on their own so they can, you know, spend some time.

BOWERS HEALEY: So when you say seventeen beds, it is a shelter with just seventeen beds in one room?

NOHR: No, seventeen bedrooms.

BOWERS HEALEY: Bedrooms. Okay.

NOHR: But they're constantly around each other. Yeah, that could be a challenge. That's why we wanted to do the tiny homes.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.

NOHR: So it's a great program. It's. It works for a lot of people. We had a veteran who called us a couple of weeks ago and asked us if we had a bed open and we said we won't have openings until the summer of 2024. And so he we offered to get him into the VHRP in Chippewa Falls. So my husband drove him out there a couple of times [laughs] and he was able to get in. So we do like the HRP.

BOWERS HEALEY: What is the HRP?

NOHR: That's Veterans Housing Recovery Program. The one I just told you about. That's WDVA. So there's one in Chippewa Falls. There's one in Green Bay. There's one in Union Grove. So that's the shelter. So there were seventeen at VHRP. Veterans. There was 39 at Saint John's homeless shelter. This is all at the same time. There was 21 at New Community Shelter and there was four at Transformational House. So that's quite a bit of veterans in one area that don't have housing. And also there was a study done by Brown County that tried to determine how much affordable housing that's needed right now. So this study was done last year and they determined that there was a 3700 undersupply of affordable housing currently. And veterans make up 11% of that at over 400. So 00:35:00we're not going to be able to help them all, but we'll be able to help 24 per every 2 to 5 years.

BOWERS HEALEY: And when you mentioned 3700, is that the entire state?

NOHR: No, that's just Brown County.

BOWERS HEALEY: Brown County. Okay. Let me go back to some of your education and training and maybe some of its program certificates. Have you used the Veterans Administration benefits for any education?

NOHR: Yes, sir. Yes, I have. I started out in health information management, so, you know, doing records. And I tried that for a while at a hospital, but I don't like sitting behind a computer. So that didn't work. So I went back to school for, like I said, substance abuse counseling. And then I did I did get my degree 00:36:00in that. But and now I'm working on getting my license. So I work at Jackie Nitschke Center in Green Bay. It's one of the biggest substance abuse centers in Green Bay. So Jackie Nitschke, being the wife of Ray Nitschke, who was a Packer coach. So she started this program and it's for there's residential treatment. So 28 days onsite and full all-day programing for substance abuse. And then once they graduate from that, then they can possibly get into the sober-living homes. So there's four of those.

BOWERS HEALEY: And you mentioned you had a degree. Is that a associate's degree?

NOHR: Yes, it's a associates degree. So I am working on getting my license. So I needed the supervised hours. I need 3000 supervised hours to get my substance abuse counselor license. And I wasn't getting that at VHRP because they didn't have a counselor supervisor for substance abuse. I was kind of it. And you can't 00:37:00supervise yourself [laughs]. So I'm kind of starting over from square one, but I hope I'm hoping to get those 3000 hours and get my get my license so I can be a licensed substance abuse counselor in our village. Because sometimes military trauma or any trauma goes hand in hand with substance use, because we're trying to self-medicate, we're trying to numb the pain. It's hard to know when to stop. And then that causes a lot of problems. Then we start relying on that. And then there's, you know, you get used to it, you get accustomed to it. And your your your tendency to use gets sometimes worse because that you're keeping you keep trying to get the same. I don't know how to explain it. You're trying to get the same feeling, but it takes more to get that feeling. Um, there's a word for that [laughs].

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. You've mentioned a lot of things that you do for veterans trying to help veterans and organizations that you work with. Are you involved in any social organizations with or without veterans?

NOHR: I am. I am a lifetime member of the Disabled American Veterans. So Chapter 3, DAV. They're very helpful to us. As a matter of fact, they just printed up a bunch of our brochures [laughs]. And they're very helpful with that. They're very supportive. We're actually going to the state meeting in June to see if they want to sponsor a home. So for $50,000, they can. It'll be the DAV home and we'll have a plaque outside. It'll be called that. We're going to have several 00:39:00that are wheelchair accessible. So hoping that they may sponsor one of those. But yeah, they're very supportive and they're going to get us on the agenda for the state convention. So I'm a lifetime member of that lifetime member of AMVETS Post 57 in Green Bay. They're very supportive as well. They gave us a nice donation when we started and they're constantly supporting us. We couldn't do it without the DAV and the AMVETS. New member of American Legion Post 539, The Women's Group, in Wisconsin and Green Bay. They are going to do a golf outing for us and all the proceeds, a majority of the proceeds are going to Veterans 1st Tiny Homes Village. So very thankful for the women's group on that.

BOWERS HEALEY: And that 539 Women's group. That's American Legion?

NOHR: American Legion. Yeah.

BOWERS HEALEY: American Legion.

NOHR: Mm hmm.

BOWERS HEALEY: And that's a new women's group?

NOHR: No, they're not new. They've been around for quite a while. I want to say 75 years.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. And is Veterans 1st, is this a nonprofit organization or--

NOHR: It is. It is a nonprofit. Yes. We have a 5013c3, and we have our own tax exempt number. So any donations are tax deductible. We were very lucky to get that. It didn't take us too long to get certified with the state.

BOWERS HEALEY: And you mentioned $50,000 and it's donated. Is that the cost of a tiny home or part of the cost?

NOHR: Well, it started out at 80,000, but because we're partnering with all the 00:41:00local unions, that cost came down to 50,000. So with all of the working donations, so the electrical union, plumbers and heating, I'm sorry, plumbers union, heating and cooling union, the carpenters union, the heavy equipment mechanic union. So every single union is going to donate all of their building services. And some of that they're going to highly discount the materials. So my husband's a union carpenter, so he kind of has some connections with the unions. He's been working hard at that and bringing that cost down so someone can sponsor a home for $50,000. We had one veteran and his family want to sponsor a home when there were 80,000. Now he can sponsor two homes.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.

NOHR: And yeah, so someone can sponsor a veteran. So for 1500 dollars a year, 00:42:00they can sponsor a veteran that's going through the program. That would include discounted furnishings that they can take with them and a part of their food. We're partnering with a couple of food pantries that are going to have just Veterans Days for our guys and gals. So a lot of their food is already taken care of, but whatever is not is going to be paid for by the sponsor. And also, they can take them places like the veteran wants to go to their Vietnam vet group or they want a sponsor, wants to take them to a group outing or something like that. They could do that. Maybe some of the churches might want to be sponsors. We reached out to a couple of churches already to see if they would like to be sponsors. We'd like to have a spirituality part of it. So on Sundays 00:43:00we'd like we have a couple of pastors that want to do services. I want to bring in AA. I've been a member of that in the program for seven years and really like AA. Like Jacki Nitschke uses AA as well. Giving things up to a higher power is something that that could be a little difficult for us veterans because we are taught to be in control, take charge of things, but we can't always be in control of everything. You know, there's a higher power there that we can rely on. So we want to bring that to the to the village, bring in different veterans from the community to go to the meetings to share their stories, their success stories, you know, help them guide the next group along. We're going to have an aspect of mentorship. So those who have been through the program can come back and stay a little bit longer and be mentors. We're going to have squad leaders, 00:44:00so there's going to be three squads of seven homes so someone can come back and be a squad leader mentor. So they would kind of be in charge of checking in with everybody, making sure they're okay, making sure all our needs are met. Just hanging out with them, that kind of thing. I already have a few people that want to do that that I was counseling at VHRP. There's four of them that want to live in our village already, so they want to be mentors.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.

NOHR: We have, just real quickly, we have--So traumatic brain injury help. So someone's going to come and do that therapy. I said the career training we're also partnering with NWTC on apprenticeships so either area veterans can come in and learn a trade and get college credits or, you know, the the residents 00:45:00themselves can can go ahead and build. It's going to be built in three phases. So phase one is seven homes, sorry, six homes and a community center where all the groups are going to happen. Phase two is seven more homes. Phase three is seven more homes. So if a person is living in phase one and they want to be a carpenter. They could get an apprenticeship and build the next couple of phases and get college credit and get training. So the unions are going to train these people in how to do this there or how to do all the trades. If they have an interest in carpentry, someone's going to show them how to do it. If they have an interest in plumbing, the unions are going to do an apprenticeship for them. So we're going to also have woodworking classes. So my husband's a carpenter. Like I said, he's going to do woodworking projects for them. We have several groups that want to do art therapy, so creative outlets. We have a company 00:46:00that's going to bring horses to the village and so you can have that animal connection. So horse therapy, equine therapy is very good for people to try to relax and calm down and get a connection. Dog therapy. We have a company that wants to show veterans how to train their own therapy dog, so if they want to do that, they can do that. We're going to have gardens on the village, so we're partnering with the UW-Extension that's going to come in and put in gardens, raised gardens and gardens in the ground so they can tend to the gardens for chores, they can use it for food, they can sell it at farmer's markets. So hunting and fishing trips. So we have a couple companies that want to take them to hunting and fishing trips so they'll come and pick them up and take them hunting and fishing, which I think is a great outlet for sure. Veterans group 00:47:00cookouts. So we are going to have a calendar on our website where different groups can sign up for a weekend cookout. They, you know, like the VVA or the AMVETS or a church group or a company wants to come and do it. You know, they want to spend some time with our veterans. We're working on a partnership with Festival Foods that would be doing some of the donations of the food, and then the agency would come and cook, or the veterans can cook too, and they would sit around and have a nice meal together. We're going to have music as well. They're going to have volunteer opportunities. So we're going to actually ask that they work 20 hours a week. If they can't work, then they would volunteer. So we're partnering with the Volunteer Center of Wisconsin, of Green Bay Brown County that's going to offer volunteer services for them. So it's all a roundabout. 00:48:00It's a it's a it's a wraparound services for the veterans. So we're offering a safe, supportive place for them to live. At the same time, we're also offering mental health, substance abuse, help, job training help, camaraderie, everything that a person needs to try to get more self-sustainable to overcome some of those traumas that they might have that might have happened to them either before service, during service, after service, whatever their trauma is. We're going to try to address that. We also we just we just want to support them any way we can. And if there's something that they'd be interested in, we would certainly look at offering that. We have about 100 people, veterans and non-veterans that have signed up to be volunteers in whatever aspect we want them to be. Some people have. I just had a lady talk to me yesterday. I want to 00:49:00do yoga, meditation, mindfulness, you know, body movements, Reiki, you know, they want to do all these therapies with them, which I've heard are very good. You know, if we offer it, we'll say it's this time out this week. This person's going to come and do that. We have a massage therapist that wants to come and do therapy. So all of these people are volunteers. The veterans don't pay anything. We don't pay anything. So it's pretty self-sustainable. I think with the with the rent that we have come in, we can sustain this. It's just a matter of purchasing materials and the materials are going to be discounted and some of them are going to be offered. So it'll be just a matter of that initial purchase and hopefully the land will be a very low amount of a lease, if anything. Yeah. There's going to be retail shops close by that they can work at.

BOWERS HEALEY: Who would own the land, if you find a place to build the tiny homes?

NOHR: So hopefully it would be land that the county owns that we would be able to lease. That's just being worked out. It's not. It isn't. We're still talking.

BOWERS HEALEY: Are these tiny homes movable or not?

NOHR: So the ones we make are probably not going to be movable.

BOWERS HEALEY: They're going to have a foundation?

NOHR: Yeah. Well, they're going to be on a slab foundation. So they weren't meant to be movable, but we would like to have another separate village nearby. That would be a shelter in place village. So this is this is a five-year projection in our transitional and affordable homes. But we also want to address the elderly population as well. So they may want to shelter-in-place. There's going to be some people who are going to want to do that, but that will be phase four.

BOWERS HEALEY: Now switching a little bit to to a different topic, how did you learn about the oral history program and what got you interested in it?

NOHR: I think it was the 539 group, because--

BOWERS HEALEY: I think the women's--

NOHR: The women's group. Yeah, because this is is basically a woman's portion of it currently now isn't it right now? Because there was a women's group in in Manitowoc.

BOWERS HEALEY: Oh, you went to Manitowoc--

NOHR: Yes.

BOWERS HEALEY: --for a year?

NOHR: Yes. It's the "I'm Not Invisible."

BOWERS HEALEY: Yes. I was going to say to answer your question that there is a push and a target to "I Am Not Invisible," doing it a couple of years ago. But then COVID happened and in-person interviews were challenging, if not prohibitive--

NOHR: Correct.

BOWERS HEALEY: --in any case. So. Okay, so you went to Manitowoc and you think you heard about it through. Did you go over with a group of other ladies or--

NOHR: Yeah, we went with a car pool.

BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.

NOHR: Yeah, it was really great.

BOWERS HEALEY: All right.

NOHR: Really, really nice.

BOWERS HEALEY: All right. Um, I don't think I have any other questions that I want to ask, but I do want to ask, is there anything that you would like to add or that you think that we have missed that you'd like to add either about your military service or about your post-military service or anything?

NOHR: Well, I guess I just feel like I have to give back to veterans. And there's such a camaraderie. There's like I, I you can't find it anywhere else. Veterans want to take care of other veterans. And all the veterans groups that I belong to. They're very supportive of what we want to do because that's what they do. And like I was saying, the Women's 539 group is going to be doing the 00:53:00the golf outing and there's another veterans group that's going to be doing a car show for us. Last year, they raised $14,000. All of their proceeds are going to us. So veterans take care of veterans. I've seen it time and time again, and I don't think it's ever going to stop. And that's how I started back when I was 18. It just never goes away.

BOWERS HEALEY: Mm-hmm. I appreciate the sentiment. Yes. And heartfelt on your part.

NOHR: Thank you.

BOWERS HEALEY: All right. Well, I thank you for doing this interview. I know it takes your time to do this. I'm glad that you and other women took the time to go over to Manitowoc and learn more about the program that speaks highly of that group. But in particular, I want to thank you for your service as well as for everything you're doing for veterans since then.

NOHR: Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

BOWERS HEALEY: This will end the interview.

[Interview Ends]