'It's a good time to be a woman'

  • Published
  • 7th Bomb Wing Public Affairs
DYESS AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  If you’ve never heard Col. Garrett Harencak, 7th Bomb Wing commander, sing, “I am Woman,” then you missed Dyess’ annual Women’s History Month luncheon here March 10.

The theme of the day was “Building Communities and Dreams.” Colonel Harencak, along with almost 65 other guests and base leadership, attended.

Mrs. Staci Vileta, 7th BW sexual assault response coordinator and military spouse, was the guest speaker for the event.

“Ladies and gentlemen, it’s a good time to be a woman,” Mrs. Vileta said in the opening of her speech, borrowing from a longer quotation by Mrs. Claudia Taylor Johnson, former First Lady, whose statement continued, “ ... because your country, now more than any time in its history, is utilizing your abilities and intelligence.”

Mrs. Vileta said she can talk about building communities and dreams. Her job now as the SARC has been the surprising result of life choices that brought her from dreaming of being a high-powered, “corporate” career woman to marrying into the military and taking a more flexible approach to her career path.

During her husband’s tour in England, Mrs. Vileta worked for an American university as a field representative while earning her master’s degree in counseling. She also deployed as a traveling professor and found it to be exciting, and a good use of her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. She said she wasn’t very happy about the prospect of leaving the career she had built and starting from scratch at Dyess.

“(But) being attached to the Air Force, you can’t let your happiness be determined by geography,” she said. “We must all grow where we are planted.”

That was a decision she made when she and her husband were informed of their move to Dyess from England in 1998.

“Now, as the SARC, I work to build our wingman culture and take care of those who may have been hurt in our community,” she said.

The opportunity for her to become Dyess’ SARC came while she was working for the Family Advocacy Program here. “I had no way of knowing that a series of fortunate events would lead me to where I am now,” Mrs. Vileta said.

“If you had asked me eight years ago if I could see myself standing at this podium talking to all of you, I probably would have booked you a life skills appointment,” she said. “Then, I believed opportunities like this don’t come to women like me. Now I know better. Opportunities like this are created by women like me, and women like those I see before me today.”

Mrs. Vileta also spoke about the novelty of being a woman in the military. Many women from previous generations had to fight for what are now normal jobs for females in the military.

In 1948, President Truman signed the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act, officially recognizing the ongoing role women played in the defense of our nation, she said. But it wasn’t until 1994 that women were authorized to be fighter pilots.

Previously, she said, women had been considered “too high strung.” In this decade, women have built communities and seen dreams come to fruition.

“Today, we live and work in an Air Force that actively recruits and promotes female Airmen and civilians,” Mrs. Vileta said. “Every step along the way, progress for women in the armed forces was based on the blood, sweat and tears of hard-working women before us.

“These women pioneers gave us a solid foundation on which to build the future and a great responsibility to ensure the growth of the next generation of women.”