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Date: 11/6/2019
CHICOPEE – Stephanie Shaw was only enlisted in the National Guard for three years, but during that time it made an impact not only on her life, but the lives of those she encountered while enlisted.
Shaw, who lives in and works as the Director of Veteran Services for the city of Chicopee, was nominated by two different people to receive a Sister in Service Award.
According to the Sisters in Service Awards website, the inaugural event is being held on Nov. 9 in Falls Church, VA. The event is “designed to shine the spotlight on and honor women veterans making an impact and substantial contributions to the woman veteran/military community.”
Shaw enrolled in the National Guard during her junior year of high school in 2000. She calls her military beginnings “unconventional.” She told Reminder Publishing at the time she decided to join she was dating her high school sweetheart, now her husband, who had joined the National Guard.
Shortly after he’d enlisted, Shaw became interested in enlisting herself, just to be told by her now father-in-law that he “didn’t think she could do it.” After finishing basic training, she said she took that challenge one step further, “I asked the recruiter ‘What’s the hardest job a girl can do?’ They said ‘MP, military police.’”
In 2001 Shaw joined the military police in the National Guard. The initial situation, she said, is now often referred to jokingly within the family.
In January of 2003, Shaw was sent to Kabul, Afghanistan, for a nine-month deployment. She said this is how she earned her veteran status. Shaw decided to leave the National Guard in 2006 to pursue motherhood. However, she said, “As a mom of five and wife of a veteran/currently serving Guardsman I tell everyone that my military career wasn’t exceptionally long and while I did get out of the Army, I haven’t strayed far.”
Shaw said she only found out she was nominated in the Local Government category on Oct. 28, two weeks before the awards were to take place and was “blown away.” One reason she was so shocked, she said, was due to the fact that the two people that nominated her for the award were “from two different walks” of her life. “I did not see that coming. They’re not even connected to one another,” she said.
Shaw said she was still “completely overwhelmed” by the nomination. “I just do my job and this is my life, I don’t see anything extraordinary special about it,” she told Reminder Publishing. “I was truly moved to tears. It’s not often that you get to hear about yourself from that perspective.”
Shaw said she is grateful for the opportunities and the doors that have opened for her because of the National Guard. “What I do isn’t even available in other states, it’s not anything I aspired to do,” she said.
“It’s a place I’m very passionate about, it’s taking care of people and taking care of people just means something to me,” Shaw said. “Taking care of people that at one time or another that at one point just signed up to do something so selfless.”
Shaw said she is excited to learn from others at the event, and then come back and share that knowledge. She believes, if physically capable, “everyone should consider the path of enlisting in one way or another.”
“The baseline of life skills, the social emotional skills to lead, to have confidence, to have instruction, to be part of a team. I just don’t know if there’s another avenue that gives you that,” she said. “It just opens so many future benefits and opportunities that you just can’t find anywhere else.”