ST. JOSEPH, Mo. -- Ms. Veteran America 2019, Naviere Walkewicz, was the guest speaker for a Mini Tactical Pause hosted by the 139th Airlift Wing’s Resiliency Center on Nov. 7, 2020. The event was conducted virtually to accommodate Airmen who were performing drill from home.
Topics discussed in great detail were resiliency, suicide awareness, communication, coping and empowerment.
Walkewicz’s advice to members is to find things that bring you joy and live in that vein. She explained that fear causes you to take one of two actions: forget everything and run or face everything and rise.
She states you have to put yourself in the mindset you desire, and if it doesn’t work out it is a lesson learned, not a failure. She recommends giving yourself, and others, the benefit of the doubt because. “Wounds are not always visible,” she said.
Walkewicz says she applied for the Ms. Veteran America competition because she cares about the cause behind the organization. The Ms. Veteran America competition is a mechanism that advocates for homeless women veterans.
Walkewicz says it's important that every veteran, male or female, gets the help they need and deserve. “We all have crowns, some are just invisible,” she said.
Walkewicz is a graduate of the Air Force Academy. After seven years she transferred to the Air Force Reserves. She currently serves as a civilian diversity and inclusion officer for U.S. Strategic Command.