Speaker: Alyssa Holmes, Director of Service Operations
What was your branch of service, rank, and years of service?
Alyssa Holmes: I served in the army as a specialist from 2002 through 2006.
How has your military service positively impacted your life or career?
Alyssa Holmes: My life and career have been impacted by my military service. Through the sheer exposure to people, cultures and ways of thinking. There's a lot of different types out there, right? And it takes all types and that's one of the biggest takeaways for me. Uh In addition to that, I would say, uh I learned a great deal of empathy and that's especially cultivated through my time with the local nationals in Iraq and through performing military funerals.
What did your military experience teach you about yourself?
Alyssa Holmes: I learned that I'm really adaptable to many different situations and able to persevere, uh, when the going gets tough and that's really good. It's a really good feeling to know, but maybe more importantly, less importantly, I also learned that without a rigid, like, control structure and discipline and the or else I'm probably not going to work out.
What about your military service are you most proud of?
Alyssa Holmes: I am absolutely most proud of the time I spent performing military funerals at a Fort Eisenhower, which is formerly Fort Gordon in Augusta, Georgia. Back in uh mid to late 2005, I was on a detail for about six months there, the three month details, but I asked to stay on because it was impactful for me. Um But we were performing funerals all around the region, uh you know, or the, the, the the southeast region of the United States. And I was exposed to a lot of different people and many different ways of mourning from just sheer heartbreak to celebrations and everything in between. And that's really come in handy later in life when encountering people who are, who are going through bouts of sadness. Um There's often lots of thanks and it was a really powerful opportunity to serve others because how one conducts themselves in in this time of grief really can have a, a very significant impact on that, on the, on that on the griever and potentially, you know, create a memory for them uh to sort of counteract some of some of that sadness, maybe that memory will, will add more sadness, who knows? But I am most proud of my opportunity to be able to do military funerals and to help those who are mourning.
Anything else you'd like to share about your military service or Veterans Day?
Alyssa Holmes: I guess the final thing that I could share about my military service, uh goes back to the beginning, you know, the recruiter told me, hey, you come into the military, you're gonna get to throw a grenade. Who else has thrown a grenade? None of your friends have thrown a grenade, that sort of thing. So, I went to basic training and I threw a grenade and I'm pretty proud of that, pretty happy about it. So, uh, yeah, I've, uh, I've thrown a grenade, a real live one and it went, boom.
