(uplifting music) (serene music) - [Announcer] This program is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota, (uplifting instrumental music) - Major combat operations in Iraq have ended.

In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.

(crowd cheering and applauding) - [Carla] At that moment, we were like, "We did it."

We finished the war, you know?

But, I mean, you're young and naive, and that wasn't the end of the war.

I believe that was the beginning of the war.

(gentle spirited music) (gentle serene music) My name is Carla Hernandez.

I served in the United States Navy.

I was currently at ABH3 boatswain's mate.

I grew up in foster care.

My mom passed away at a young age.

And my caretaker, she passed away.

And then 16, and me and my siblings, you know, my siblings was like, we were all young, so we didn't get along.

I never had a good relationship with my father.

And then once they found him, he had the heart, I should say, the accountability to talk to me on the phone and say, "I'm sorry, I can't take care of you.

I don't have the means.

I don't have...

This isn't my house I'm living at.

I can't properly take care of you, and I have to sign my parental rights away."

So, I became a ward of the state.

(gentle serene music) Being a teenager and being through that, you become very angry.

When you're 16, you know, you shouldn't have to worry about where you're gonna stay, where your food's gonna come from.

And I was, thankfully, you know, I give everything to Mary Bonhorst 'cause she made me who I was.

She helped me in a way that I can never repay her.

You know, she took me into her home, and like the first thing she said was, "The doors are never locked.

You know, my door...

If you want to leave, you can leave.

But when you wanna come back, the doors are never locked.

So, you don't have to sneak away, you don't have to run away.

If you don't wanna stay here, I understand."

She was the best foundation that got me who I am today.

(uplifting music) I went to the mall in Pierre, South Dakota and I went to the Army recruiter.

And they happened to be closed.

And the Navy's right next to the Army.

So the Navy guy was like, 'cause I pulled the door and it was closed.

And he was like, "Why don't you come over here and, you know, just maybe wait for him to come back."

And so I was like, "Oh, okay."

And then he was like, "Why are you gonna join the Army?"

And I told him, you know, what I wanted to do and it sounded fun.

And he was like, "Yeah, that's cool, but why would you... You're gonna get paid the same, and, you know, at that rank, why would you do that playing in mud and running 10 miles a day when you can still make the same and travel the world?"

That's where my interest in the Navy begin.

I knew about, you know, wars and stuff like that.

And we just got done with the, what, Desert Storm?

Yeah, so in my mind I was like, "Oh, it's fine 'cause we're all done with all the wars, and, you know, I'll just take that time to travel."

I was stuck in South Dakota.

Little tiny town, stuck in the system, so I was like, you know, "This is my chance.

I got to get out and see the world."

(spirited music) They gave me orders to the Abraham Lincoln.

I started off as a blue shirt, is what they call 'em.

A blue shirt, you come and you throw a chock down on the aircraft and you make sure when it stops, that chock stops.

It's like the brakes for the jet to hold them during rough seas, and then you chain it down.

And that's where I started.

And then everybody on the ship has to do, we call it TAD.

So everybody on the ship, the brand new, you have to serve 90 days in the kitchen.

(inspirational music) The master chief of the kitchen, he was like, "I wanna try and experiment."

And I was like, "What?"

And he said, "Yeah, no, I wanna see if a female can make it in the cargo."

Cargo, have to get the food that they ordered from various parts of the ship and bring it up and deliver it to the kitchen.

It's hard work.

He was like, "You're gonna be holding 50 pounds of rice and bringing it up, you know, five, six stairs."

So, I was like, "Okay."

You know, I was like, "Okay, I think it can do it."

And he said, "I just wanted to see if a female can do it."

So, I was like, "Okay."

So that's what I was doing.

And I did it.

When I was finally done with the TAD, I went back to my division and they said, "All right, I wanna do an experiment."

And I was like, "Oh gosh, another one?

Like, what is this?"

And they said, "I wanna see if a female can be in crash and salvage," 'cause it's mostly male.

It's all male.

Like, I've seen them, but I didn't know who they were.

There are red shirts, there's blue shirts, and there's yellow shirts.

So, when I seen them guys and I was like, I don't know who these guys are, but I know they're a part of my division.

And they're kind of big guys and, you know, very alpha and stuff like that.

So, when they said that, I was like, "Oh, okay."

And, you know, they're just like, "Yeah, this is where we're gonna put you.

So, we wanna see if you can work in that environment."

I grew up more of like a tomboy.

So, I mean, I kind of related to being around the guys a little bit.

And it was very diverse.

If you grew up in South Dakota, you're diversity is not very, you know, limited.

You're limited to white people and Native American.

So, I mean, then getting thrown into, you know, all the different nationalities and, you know, ethnicities, and everybody would say, "What, you're Native American?

I didn't think you people existed."

Silly questions of, "Oh, you guys live in teepees?"

You know?

And I'd just be like, "What, this is what you're taught?

This is...

So, I was like, "No."

(spirited music) Crash and salvage is a department of the V-1.

They are responsible for their first responders.

So, if somebody goes down, dehydrated, standing where they're not supposed to, gets hurt, we are the first, we run out there with the stretcher.

There's a truck crew and there's a crew that waits on this line when the airplanes come in.

And if they have hydraulic problems, they can't get the hook back up, we have to run over there with the dolly, manually push this 300-pound hook up and then put it on a dolly and then it leaves.

Or if they're having hydraulic problems and their front goes down or, you know, we have to run in there and put a pin in there.

Or just stay on the firetruck and stay ready, and then they have everything that we need.

(jet zooming) There was a pilot that his AC stopped working in his cockpit where he had to emergency come back around and he landed.

And that little cockpit got, like, 120 degrees for him, so he was getting heat exhaustion 'cause he was, you know, sweating.

And by the time he made it out, he finally collapsed, so we had to carry him off.

And there's all kinds of injuries.

If you get injured on the flight deck, it's not like, oh, I slipped and fell like if I were to fall out here.

If you fall down, and you're gonna mess up, that's steel.

You're falling on steel.

Everything can kill you.

I went on leave.

You get two weeks of leave.

And then I came back and I went to, they call it A-School in Pensacola, Florida.

So, A-School covers the whole flight deck.

So, ABH is like, you know, a broad spectrum of what you're gonna do.

You're either gonna be a yellow shirt, blue shirt, or crash.

You might work with fuel or... You know, there's all different colors.

Those rainbow colors you see on the flight deck, they're all different brands of what you're gonna do.

It's kind of like a little city.

The day I got my orders, the next day, the USS Cole got bombed.

(pensive music) I think it killed 15 to 18, or maybe less, sailors.

Some of those sailors just got out.

Just the same, just got out of A-School, joined, less than a year under their belt, six months, you know?

Just got in and, you know, they paid the price.

So that was eye opening when you look at that and you're like, "Man."

And then just to think I was to fly in Yemen and I was gonna meet the Lincoln, and that could have been the Lincoln.

I was just like, "Wow."

The next day that when it got bombed, they pulled me back in and they said, "Your orders are changed.

We don't know where the Abraham Lincoln is.

Nobody's talking.

They went dark.

We won't know for a couple of weeks.

You're gonna go on leave till we figure this out."

So I said, "Okay."

So I went back on leave.

So when I got back home, I believe the recruiter or somebody gave me my orders.

You know, they had my foster parents' house.

At that point I was like, "Oh, I thought we were done with wars."

And, yeah, and then the Cole got bombed.

That was my "what have I gotten myself" into moment.

And then I was like, "This is real.

This is really... You know, this is what I signed up for.

This is real.

You gotta stick to it."

(upbeat music) I flew out after my orders got changed.

I talked to some government person saying, "Hey, my flight got delayed.

I couldn't make the flight from New York."

The government put me in a big fancy hotel and I actually got to see the Twin Towers.

So I could see the twin towers from my room and I was like, "What?"

It was like, you know, a little person from South Dakota.

That was crazy.

It was the coolest thing I've ever saw when I saw the Twin Towers that night.

And then that was me leaving the United States the next day.

I got to Bahrain.

They give you these notes of saying you can't wear no United States, no nothing.

It's just either a black or a white and blue jeans.

Don't broadcast you're American, basically.

I'm just like, "Oh my gosh, really?

You are not gonna know I'm an American with a big green seabag that says, 'Property of United States Navy' on it?"

A man in full Arabic, you know, the traditional wear was there with my name and I'm thinking, "How does he know my name?

Who are you, and am I gonna get kidnapped?"

So, I followed the man.

Got in, and he hardly spoke any English.

And took me from the airport and then to the base, and immediately there's a Humvee, .50 cal, big spotlight, guys with AKs.

"Get out!"

You know, blah blah blah.

And then once they seemed, you know, I was getting there and then they kind of backed off and they didn't let the cab driver in, but he had to stay in the vehicle.

And then I got out and, you know, had to walk all the way over there.

And that was the first time, it was October and it was like 95 degrees at night.

So I was all like, "What is this?

What is what is going on?"

You have to put that brave face on even though you're scared to death.

(jet zooming) The Abraham Lincoln has a certain time of saying, "I'm here," 'cause they don't broadcast that.

They're not gonna broadcast that.

What if somebody intercepts it?

So, they're gonna say, "I'm here.

We're gonna send a helo or, you know, a plane.

And everything goes by weight.

So, they weigh you, they weigh your bag, they say, "We have so much room for this amount of weight."

And then finally I got on the C2 and it was my turn.

And, yeah, I got on the boat by plane.

We were in dock, dry dock, and, you know, every day you come to work and you go to your, you know, crash and salvage station.

So when I came up and I opened our door, and, you know, it's a small area and we got like, what, maybe 12, 15 guys in there.

So they're all glued to the TV.

You know, and I peek over and I think that was when the first or the second plane had run into the towers in New York.

It was literally like, you know, I'm looking and the tower boom, everything.

And I said, "What movie are we watching?"

And everybody said then, "It's not a movie."

And I was like, "What do you mean it's not a movie?"

They said, "This is news."

And I said, "What?"

And then I spun around and I got glued to it.

A little while later, they got the Pentagon.

I'm like, "What?"

You know?

And then the phone lines just shut down.

(siren wailing) Then our boatswain came and he gave us a big we're going to war kind of speech.

And then you're just like, "Wow."

And we couldn't get ahold of our family at the base again.

This is the second time I experienced a base getting locked down until everything, you know, the threat level went down.

(somber music) They always talked about when if at any time there was a war or anything happened, we can pull you off of your leave anytime.

You know?

And that happened to me.

I was back at home and I think I was probably there for like a week.

They contacted me one time and they said, "No, you gotta get back.

We got a ticket from here.

Where are you at?

We're gonna get ticket now."

And I said, "I'm in Pierre, South Dakota."

And they said, "Okay.

In about four hours, you gotta go to the airport and you're coming back."

And I was like, "What about leave?"

And they said, "We're refunding all your leave days."

All the people I've talked to before, that's never happened to them until that.

So... And it's these events of, "You gotta leave now."

So you don't know what's gonna happen.

So when we went out to sea, we were leaving Australia and we turned around.

So we did our six months.

We were gonna go back to United States and be done.

We all knew Australia was our last trip, then we hit we Hawaii, drop off, and then go to San Diego and drop off a air wing and then go home.

And then they said, "No, you're going back to Australia to do your flight deck and redo it."

And when you redo a flight deck, that usually takes a month.

We did that in, like, two weeks.

So, we redid our flight deck.

And then after that, we went back out to sea.

I think it was like two months.

And then we got extended another two months.

It happened...

They were like, "Oh, we're getting extended again."

(pensive music) (ominous music) When the actual shock and awe happened, everything was sent off the ship.

All the helos, all the jets, and a lot of CNN, ABC, NBC, all the major news people.

It was crowded.

Like, you think the flight deck was crowded before.

It was way crowded with all the news people.

And they had to control 'em and we're trying to like, "Get out of the way.

You gotta... You know, do our job."

And on our crash and salvage, the airplanes cannot take off until we are at a certain position.

So we have to be the first on the flight deck.

So we're kind of like the fire crew.

If we're not there, they can't take off, so we have to be there and watch them.

And if they start on fire, we're the first response.

You know, if somebody gets injured, we're the first response.

So, if they crash, obviously, we're gonna the first respond to rescue and salvage the aircraft.

And we were so close to Kuwait that we can finally get CNN.

Sometimes it was pixelated and then they're like, yeah.

And we are watching them bomb, you know, bomb after bomb.

You see 'em shooting and then it clicks in your head of like, "One of these jets can get hit."

What if they come back all messed up?

They're gonna crash, and that's our job.

Then you're like, "What if they're using chemical war on these jets and they crash?"

Everybody knows, like, it can get on you.

And then you're just thinking of all these scenarios.

Even though you're not right there, you see it.

And like, that was the only time I was, like, afraid for my life, even though we had to wait four hours for them to get back.

And you can tell all the guys were nervous and scared 'cause it was kind of really quiet.

Everybody was just watching the TV 'cause we were waiting for a jet to go down or a helicopter to go down or something.

Yeah, it was scary.

I was scared they could come back and we could die.

One of us could die.

All of us could die.

(pensive music) There was actually two other carriers that came during the war and we had to basically train them.

By the time that carrier was saying, okay, they got the watch and then we could go home.

So, after 11 months out to sea and you can see Hawaii, but we can't leave Hawaii, we dropped anchored.

So, when we dropped anchor, everybody's like, "No, we're so close to being home."

I mean, it's Hawaii but it's part of the United States.

We didn't know until the day before.

The captain let us know the president is coming aboard.

He flew on the S3 and, yeah, he came out and our crash and salvage.

I mean, I think they're kind of attracted to the crash and salvage 'cause we wear big silver suits.

So, I mean, when he came down, you know, did the salute and shook hands.

And he came over to the crashing salvage and I happened to get a picture with him, which I didn't know was gonna be on a newspaper somewhere.

(crowd cheering) At that moment, we were like, "We did it."

We finished the war, you know?

But, I mean, you're young and naive, and that wasn't the end of the war.

I believe that was the beginning of the war.

For us, we were like, "We finished what we set out to do."

(serene music) Towards the end of my military career, I had gotten sick.

I had gotten ovarian cancer.

So, the last year, I was going through chemo.

When Indonesia had that big tsunami, I was in Hawaii getting chemotherapy.

'Cause I had gotten off the boat and that's when I found I had a ovarian cancer.

They did a recall of everybody who got off the boat.

So, I was still doing chemo.

I just finished two rounds, one or two rounds of chemo.

And they were like, "You gotta go back to the boat."

And I'm bald, skinny.

And so they...

I mean, there was no ifs, ands, or buts.

It was kind of like a order.

You gotta go.

You know, even the doctor couldn't stop it.

The doctor was like, you know, "She's just finished this chemo.

Her T-cell are this and this and she's..." You know?

And so they were nice enough to wait for my immune system to get a little bit just past the barrier of like, if I caught a cold, I died.

You go from... You're part of the ship and you're a great asset and, you're part of the team to, like, when you come back and you've lost like, I don't know, 10 pounds and bald and pale and you look sick 'cause you are sick, you don't feel great.

And to them saying, "All right, well, you can do this because you can't really do much.

You can't do much because you're sick."

So, after getting that experience, I was like, "All right, this is it for me.

I'm done."

I did everything that I set out to do.

(solemn music) I look back at the Navy as like, that was...

It was a great eye opening event.

I didn't think it was gonna go that way.

I thought I was gonna see the world and, you know, travel and it went hard left.

I learned so much from it.

And, I mean, it happened the way it was supposed to happen.

I don't really like broadcast that I'm a veteran, but those who did it, they understand what we went through and what it was and what it took.

And sometimes it continues to take and sometimes it's a lifelong work to get back to what you were.

And sometimes you'll never get back to that and you just have to adjust of who you are now today.

Some people grow into it and it comes a part of them and they really enjoy growing and becoming more in the military, and some people say, "That was a great time.

It's time to turn the page and become something else."

I guess I was a part of that.

Every veteran that's their own badge of right, honor that they get to carry, and I'm not gonna tell one veteran to another veteran saying, "No, you really shouldn't do that" 'cause, I mean, they've earned their stripes.

(solemn music) It was a great time, you know, a great experience, you know?

I wouldn't have changed it for anything.

But I know it doesn't make me who I am.

Who I am now is totally different than who I was.

Like everything in life, it changes.

(solemn music continues) (solemn music continues) - [Announcer] This program is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.