The Bold Maneuver: The Ambitious Woman's Playbook for Achieving Greater Success by Cummings Callie

Author:Cummings, Callie [Callie Cummings]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
Published: 2019-03-13T16:00:00+00:00

Death Dealer

My family has a pretty good belly laugh every time they tell the story of when I told them I joined the army. I had been living in New York City working for a hedge fund when I decided to look into the military as an option for leadership growth. I decided to go one day during my lunch hour to the Times Square Recruiting Station and take a look at what options there were. The Times Square Recruiting Station is a little square building made of glass walls that sits, literally, in the center of Times Square. I walked through the door with my high-waisted pencil skirt, silk blouse, and pumps, and was greeted with wide eyes and looks of confusion. “Excuse me miss, are you lost?” Several men, all wearing a different uniform, peered around their cubicle walls as I stood there at the doorway. Confidently I said, “I’m interested in talking with an army recruiter about what opportunities the army has for professionals.” They all looked around like they were being punked, looking for the hidden cameras and waiting on Ashton Kutcher to storm through the door. After a few seconds the army recruiter walked toward me, shook my hand, introduced himself, and walked me toward his desk. It took several appointments, tests, and physicals before I was accepted into the army’s Officer Candidate School. I had been accepted just before Thanksgiving. I went home to Missouri for a weekend to tell my family I was changing my career path. My mother, sister, and step-father were all in the kitchen chatting when I decided it was time to tell them. I stepped through the kitchen doorway, and onto the tile. As I was nervous for their reaction, I twirled my hair and did a little nervous toe sweep with one foot. Unplanned, I did one full ballet twirl with my swept foot, not wanting to look them in the eye as I told them, “So, I think I’m going to join the army.”

Laughter took over the house. I had just done a ballet twirl as I told them I was joining the army during a time of war. My sister, under her laughter and with a squeal said, “You’re going to die!”

Safe to say, my goofy, girly personality wasn’t quite going to work for the task ahead. I had accidentally become a barrier breaker to women in combat roles, and in this role “being me” wasn’t quite going to make me successful, or make the impact that needed to be made for future generations of women in the army. The barriers that myself, and others, were attempting to break had large stakes and required a larger game than most. I gave up two things in the aspiration for women to unequivocally serve in combat roles. I gave up my femininity and put my personal life on hold. We have not yet reached the level of Starship Troopers, where men and women serve equally; the military was

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