KILLEEN, Texas — Millions of Americans proudly join the military to serve their country and many of them here at Fort Hood.
Say hello to retired Command Sergeant Major Deia Aubrey, a woman who spent three decades proudly serving her country in the U.S. Army.
Before putting on a camouflage uniform and calling Killeen home, she lived her life in the industrial landscape of Flint Michigan.
”Flint, when I was growing up, was a bustling city of probably about 450,000 people,” said Deia Aubrey, Retired Command Sergeant Major. “It was industrial. That was when Ford, Chrysler, GM, those were the families growing up there.”
After spending most of her life on basketball teams, she decided to trade in the jersey for an Army uniform.
A decision she says she made to change her life.
”Getting off the streets of Flint Michigan,” said Aubrey. “I was doing ok but the streets of Flint can kind of swallow you up if you don’t get away.”
After making what she says is the best decision of her life, she spent 30 years working her way up the ranks to Command Sergeant Major, leaving lasting impressions along the way.
”Just someone to look up to,” said Dorothea Goodson, who served with Aubrey. “An example to female soldiers that you came become anything that you want in the United States Army. There are no limits.”
Many of those soldiers now call her family because she was there when they needed her the most.
”So, around 2014, I had my son and Sergeant Major Aubrey at the time, was in the delivery room with me. Pretty much commanding me to push, to have this baby and I will never forget that,” said Glenise Ramirez, who served under Aubrey.
Like many service members transitioning out of the Army was hard but she found a new home with the Women’s Army Corp of Veterans.
Now, she has a message for other female vets struggling as she has.
”Now, I'm not alone and there’s a sisterhood that is going through the same thing that I'm going through no matter how long ago they got out,” said Aubrey. “We’re all in this together and we’re here to support one another.”
Retired Command Sergeant Major Deia Aubrey is now a proud member of the Women’s Army Corp of Veterans and mentors other soldiers trying to make it as far as she did in the Army.
Proving her service didn’t end when she took the uniform off.
