MASHPEE, Mass. (AP) - When Angela Cincis, 28, a first lieutenant with the Army National Guard, attends leadership meetings, she often is the only woman among a group of 20 people.
And when the Medford resident turns to female civilian friends to share her experiences, she might find herself in the position of having to explain what a platoon is.
Members of a minority gender in the service, women veterans and those on active duty sometimes feel a divide between themselves and friends and family who haven’t experienced military life.
But that wasn’t a problem earlier this month, when Cincis met up with 11 other women in the military for a day of golf and yoga at New Seabury Country Club in Mashpee.
It was part of an Adventure Series hosted by the Home Base Program at Massachusetts General Hospital - and the first time the Adventures Series was dedicated solely to women, according to Laura Lakin, Home Base veteran outreach coordinator and herself a first lieutenant in the Massachusetts National Guard.
Cincis teed off with women who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan in the afternoon and in the morning joined them for warrior and mountain poses in a yoga class taught by Patricia Donnelly.
The women also took part in a shortened version of the Resilient Warrior class that the Home Base Program usually presents in a four-class series.
The free stress management program for post-9/11 service members and veterans seeks to use the mind-body connection to reduce negative thinking, improve sleep and curtail anxiety.
Molly Alesch, 31, of Stoughton, said she loved the class and is glad she made time in her busy schedule to attend the Adventure Series event.
“It’s important to have that female camaraderie,” she said.
A member of ROTC in college, Alesch went immediately to Iraq after graduation, reached the rank of Army captain and now works full time for the National Guard.
She said she noticed women were treated differently from men in the military - especially as she ascended through the ranks.
But attending graduate school in Boston with civilians - mainly women - felt different, too, Alesch said. She said some things that seemed earth-shattering to her civilian classmates felt trivial to her, especially after spending time as a supply officer for an aviation unit.
“Nobody’s getting killed,” Alesch said she would think. “Like, relax.”
People tell her “thank you for your service” without wanting to hear about what that means, she said. “Not everybody’s a hero, and there are really bad things that happen.”
During the Resilient Warrior class, instructor Louisa Sylvia asked the women whom they turned to for support.
The servicewomen mentioned friends and family, but also said they tried to protect loved ones by not telling them the whole story.
“I just kind of lied to my mom all the time,” one woman said. “’Yeah, I never leave the base. Totally safe.’”
The reality is that women’s role in the military is growing, including in combat areas, Coleman Nee, secretary of Veterans Services for the commonwealth of Massachusetts, said in a phone interview Tuesday.
“Women veterans are the fastest-growing segment of our veterans population,” both nationwide and in Massachusetts, Nee said.
“We also know that in particular over the past 13 years the role that women play in the United States military, particularly in combat situations, is groundbreaking,” he said. Women already work as flight medics in combat areas, Nee said. And last year, the military lifted a ban on women in combat roles.
“We’ve had women killed in action from the commonwealth in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Nee said.
Massachusetts has 32,000 women military veterans, and Gov. Deval Patrick’s administration is working to make sure they have access to health services and other benefits, Nee said.
“We know that women veterans are more likely to be unemployed. We know that women veterans are more likely to be homeless,” he said. He said veterans services is looking to close gaps in services at the state and federal levels and has held six conferences for women veterans in Massachusetts in the past six years.
“It’s really hard to gather female veterans,” Lakin said. Women veterans are busy with jobs and children. “They’re always wanting to put their families first. We wanted to bring these women together for the very reason it’s difficult to bring them together.”
Donnelly said she thought of approaching Home Base and asking it to put on a golf event for women veterans after her husband helped lead golf expeditions that mainly catered to men in the military, Play With Heroes.
“Golf is a microcosm of life” and teaches emotional control and positive self-talk - “all that good stuff,” Donnelly said.
Cincis said she was proud to have an opportunity to play golf with fellow military women, seeing them as successful and driven to accomplish their goals.
Plus, it was a great opportunity “just to have a good time, relax, build up some resilience skills - and golf skills,” Cincis said.
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