VETERan of the month San Diego - August 2021 By Amber Robinson Ashley Tatum, U.S. Navy Veteran Sitting with Ashley Tatum in her spacious office at the Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic, I can see why her clients enjoy her so much. The room is decorated warmly, but with comforting items like a blanket and pictures of family. Ashley is dressed like happiness itself in a brightly colored top and hot pink pumps. But what makes time with Ashley so pleasant is that her energy is just as comforting and bright. A Navy veteran, Ashley entered the service in 2002 in Ohio at the age of 18. During her senior year the attacks on the world trade center happened. Although many of her friends went into service, she decided to go to college. That is, until she toured a campus and learned just how much college costs. As one of nine siblings, she knew there was no way her family could afford the pricey tuition. “There was really not enough money for any of us to go to college,” said Tatum. “So I went to the recruiter’s office.” Unsure of the job she wanted to do in service, Tatum joined as “undesignated”. After she completed basic in Ohio she went to Florida for some generalized training and finally landed in California for her first duty station. “And I’ve been here ever since!” said Tatum. Where she originally landed was a small duty station called Point Mugu Naval Air Station, just south of Santa Barbara. Tatum hardly had time to unpack before she left on deployment aboard a ship, still without an official job. It wasn’t until she approached the rank of E4 that she was forced to finally choose a rate. Up until then her unit had her work on the ship’s flight deck, launching and recovering aircraft. At the time, Tatum said she knew she didn’t want to do that forever. 8
WWW.SanDiegoVeteransMagazine.com / AUGUST 2021
“It was hot, getting up to 120 degrees out there in the gulf,” Tatum said. “I was over it.” She then agreed to a job as an AZ or as part of the Aviation Maintenance Administration. The job would allow her to stay inside, cool and clean, which sounded great to Tatum. But, Tatum served for two more years on the flight deck before she was finally able to do her job. By that time, she was an E5 with subordinates who she enjoyed mentoring. When the time finally came for her to work in a cool, clean office it was not quite what she wanted anymore. “Time just crawled by,” said Tatum. “Time already goes slow enough while deployed, but this just made it worse!” But, by that time she was on her third deployment. When she came home again, Tatum transferred to shore duty and left active duty shortly after. She then completed two years in the Naval Reserves as a yeoman. “I then left the service to support my husband’s career,” said Tatum. Tatum met her husband in 2005 while underway. In her last few years of service she and he married and had kids. It was in those years as a now stay-at-home mom that Tatum began to experience transition difficulties. “I had a real struggle with identity when I got out,” said Tatum. “When you have the uniform on people can take one look at your shirt and know where you’ve been and what you’ve done. When you switch that up to now wearing yoga pants and a t-shirt every day, there is a real loss of self.” Tatum said she found herself bringing up her service and deployments as often as possible in various conversations as a way to validate herself.
