Retired Master Sergeant Julia Chambers balanced her role as mother and wife while serving on 3 combat tours and then found her purpose in helping other veterans.
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – We hear about a veteran who has balanced his role as mother and wife while serving on three combat tours as part of FOX54’s Veterans Honor Week.
Meet retired Master Sergeant Julia Chambers who, after serving, found her purpose in helping other veterans.
“The patriarch of our family, he’s a veteran. He’s my dad. He’s been dead for a few years now. But he served in WW2 in Normandy. And it seemed like my family, especially the three older than we had, wanted to serve in the military.”
Julia Chambers grew up in a small town in Maryland and always dreamed of serving in the military, taking over for her family.
Fast forward to the present day, she is a retired U.S. Army Master Sergeant who has served on three combat tours.
“I served in Desert Storm for the cleanup part, and I served in Iraq in the ground war. And I served in Somalia as well.”
During her three missions, she served in different roles, supporting the front lines, ensuring the supply chain moved efficiently for all combat soldiers, while managing the security of her platoon.
“I took care of all my soldiers and all my soldiers went home as a platoon. So what I say my proudest moment would be taking care of my soldiers, showing that leadership and coming back , we all come back safe and sound.”
But one thing that has always supported her during her six to seven month deployments is her family.
“Every time I came back from a deployment, my family was there.”
As her family was always there to support her during her deployment, she worked hard to make sure she could be there to support them.
“When you have a family or you have children, it throws a different light…because you want to be a good mother, you want to be a good wife, but sometimes you’re not there to do that. And so in this aspect, it can be difficult.”
She officially retired from service in 2004 after returning from Iraq, allowing her to spend more time with her children as they grew into young adults.
After her last child left for college, Chambers felt empty and welcomed a new opportunity.
“I was an entrepreneur in Afghanistan. And so it was rewarding. There were times, don’t get me wrong, but it was rewarding because it allowed me to do other things financially. for my daughter’s college.”
She decided that when the contract ended in Afghanistan, she would return to the United States and complete her degree in business administration.
“I think that’s when the doors really start to open for me to full employment opportunities.”
But it wasn’t about the money for Chambers, it was about finding his purpose.
Three years ago she came to ‘Still Serving Veterans’ looking for a career and hasn’t left since.
“I came here one day and he was a counselor and we were talking and he was like, ‘Well, what do you want to do?’ And I said, ‘oh, I like helping people because I really do.’ He said, ‘you know what a position is open? Would you like to apply?’ And I said ‘yes’, so I applied for an interview and I got the job.”
After stepping out of uniform a few years ago, Chambers can now say she found the job she was meant to do.
“I love helping veterans, what I love is the interaction because it’s something about veterans, you know, veterans know veterans and we can talk and we can open up and we can identify with a lot of different issues”
She added, “As a career counselor, I can help them with their CV or Linkedin or negotiating salaries or preparing for interview techniques. But sometimes I have veterans who call and come and want just sit and talk to a veteran.”
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