Finding Your Voice in The Army with Kynnie Martin

And in this four part series, you'll hear from these individuals as they share their unique experiences in the military and the lessons they learned that carried them into their new roles in civilian life. Former U. S Army Captain Kenny Martin has a story unlike any other. The daughter of a single mother, Kenny spent her teen years living with her grandparents after a tragic event befell their family and left her mom serving a twenty eight year prison sentence.

During the trial, Kenny was told her voice and story didn't matter. Thankfully, it wasn't long after joining the Army that Kenny found her voice again. Today, she uses her voice to lift up and support the voices of others by working with nonprofit organizations that serve veterans I had a chance to speak with Kenny about the incredible work she did in military intelligence and the hopes she has for her own daughters. Hi. Hi, how are you good

to talk to you? Get to talk to you? Well, I mean, I don't talk to you on the radio when I hear your voice, but good to hear your voice. But for real, it's kind of weird. It's like an interactive radio show. Now. Usually just yell and I wouldn't hear. But now you can say whatever you want any time, and I have to acknowledge it. I know. Well, I'm very honored that you'd spent some time with me, So again, thank you very much. Yeah, thanks for doing this. Let's

start from the beginning. I kind of like to get to know what what folks are about before we even talk about the military service. And so tell me where you grew up and what home was like for you early on. Sure. So. I born and raised in Colorado, originally from Colorado Springs, but currently live in Denver with my husband and my two kids. I was raised by a single parent, my mom My father Quasi in the picture when I was little, but they got divorced when

I was pretty young. My mom and my grandparents raised myself and my two younger brothers in Colorado Springs. Growing up with a single mom, Do you feel like that in any way or anything from that, because I grew up with a single mom too, and it had a lot to do with the decisions I made in life. Yeah, for sure. So speaking of life decisions, tell me about your decision to listen the army. How did that come about? It was actually a spur of the moment decision for

me to go into the army. I think being raised by a single parent and then my grandparents. My grandfather was a West Point class of nineteen thirty two and served thirty two years in the army, and his side of the family has very long history of service in the military, dating all the way back to you know, England, the Civil War and everything. So yeah, I think the tenacity, the grit, the resiliency that single parents have to have and that they have to instill in their kids to

be able to function in life. You know, I think having two kids in my own even with a great supportive partner, was really hard to do. And so having a single parent being able to raise three kids with my grandparents, you know, it definitely teaches you a lot differently. I think you you rely on each other, you get really close to your family, I think. And there's just a lot to be said about single parents for sure. When you were a teenager, your mom got remarried to someone,

Is that right? Yeah? So, you know, as a kid, I grew up an incredibly supportive family, a really good school system, and I always had that support system to to build up my confidence. You know. I was in Gift and Talented Student Council president and my mom, being a single parent, went with low income. We were also a free and reduced lunch program. Kid like me and my brothers were right, but we were never taught that

we were victims of anything. We were never taught to take advantage of any of the programs, but to be thankful for them and of all the things that we can be thankful for. To continue giving to our community. So we always did volunteering with our church, with our neighborhood, with other groups, and so we've always just been taught

to give back in that kind of way. So seven were juniors in high school and my mom had gotten remarried to this guy and they had met because she actually was going to school to get her pH d in criminology and sociology, and after a few years, the marriage started to deteriorate pretty quickly, and he became pretty abusive, mostly mentally to my mother and then also to me and my brothers. So there would be multiple days where we would come home from school and the house would

be trashed. We would come home and you know, they would be arguing, and my mom would tell us, you know, go to youth church and come back and I'll make sure he's gone out of the house and you guys can sleep here and go to school the next day. As the relationship became more toxic and abusive, Keeney's mother filed a permanent restraining order against him, which required he

moved out of their home in Boulder, Colorado. He was scheduled to come over to our home to pick up the rest of his belongings, and this was in May of He came over and while they were in the house and he was escorted by a member of the Boulder Police Department. He told my mom that she couldn't watch me all the time, and she couldn't take care of me all the time, and he was going to do whatever it took to either bring harm to me

or take me and my brothers away from her. So that really scared her, and it scared her to the point where she had purchased a handgun unbeknownst to me and my brothers, and she had kept it in her house. She had taken lessons on how to use it in self defense, and in that moment when he told her he was going to take us away from her and possibly hurt me, she decided in that moment to pull out that gun and she shot him six times. He

didn't survive. And so through the court trials and everything, it was determined that because she had purchased that handgun at advance, it was premeditated murder and not self defense since he had physically never done anything to her. So in October of which was twenty three years ago, my mom was sentenced to twenty eight years in prison. She obviously missed high school graduation, college graduation, all of that stuff, but she was here in Colorado and we still got

to see her. And that kind of was like the first watershed moment of my life that brought me into this military service. I'm so appreciative of you being completely vulnerable with your story because I think a lot of people in different ways relate. I think you and I have very similar stories growing up with just the parental situation, how vulnerable we were as kids, but how protective my grandma was from for me or even you know, my mom when when she was raising me. So so I

really appreciate you sharing that. You know, and as as you're getting into the first stage of your life in the Army and you go into basic training, like, that's where I want to start with you and I talking about this. Tell me what going into basic training was like for you. I got a letter in the mail from our r O t C unit saying they were looking for students who would be interested in joining our O t C and possibly commit to being in the

military afterwards. And that summer I was like, you know, I'm not doing anything. So I went to basic camp in June of two thousand to my first ever military experience activity. That basic camp is really what changed my life. Um it was four weeks. It was the hardest mentally, the most grueling physically, and the most fun thing I had ever done. And it was the first time ever that I had actually touched a weapon before in my life, and I remember being so nervous about handling live rounds,

especially given my situation with my mom. Had no idea, you know, how I was going to do one drill. Sergeant took an interest in me, and I think just saw the leadership potential that I had, and he knew how nervous I was, and so he took me aside and helped me feel comfortable with my weapon, and then we went to the life fire range. I hit thirty eight out of my forty targets and actually was in the top three at the range. So so that was

pretty awesome. I was pretty proud of myself for, you know, overcoming this big fear and for kind of being a badass at the time. So I came back from this basic camp experience in Fort Knox with this whole renewed

sense of confidence. It was then in that moment that I realized I had this voice and that I had lost it during the trials when my mom was sent to prison, the judge overseeing the case didn't allow me to take the stand to talk about my experience living in that home with my mom and her husband, and so essentially I told me that my voice didn't matter. So when I went to that basic camp for the Army, I was told that my voice did matter and that

I needed to use it. From that day on, I had to rebuild myself really, and it was those members of the military, my friends, the drill sergeants, all of those people that were involved in that camp and then later on in r O t C who really helped me regain my voice and regain my confidence so that I could be a voice for others going forward. That's when I decided, like, I'm going to join the Army.

As soon as I got back, I signed my contract and started r OTC for the last two years of my college experience, and then graduated in December of two

thousand two and became an active duty Army officer. From that point on, your first year in the Army, if you were to put into a minute nutshell, what would you describe it as the first year in the Army man, I would say it teaches you a lot about yourself about what you're capable of doing, because you are put into school and you are tested mentally and physically beyond

like anything that you ever thought you could imagine. It really either breaks you down, quite honestly, or it helps break you down and then builds you right back up. Kenny found her voice and trusted a support system of friends and mentors during our first few months in the army, and eventually she would also find someone to love for the rest of her life. I met my husband in September of two thousand four. We deployed to Iraq in February of two thousand five, so we didn't really have

much of a dating history before deployment. We had no clue if we were going to see each other again. We didn't know what communications were going to be like at that time. So we're like, well, I guess I'll keep my cell phone number, and if we come back at the end of this twelve months and make it back alive, let's call each other and kind of start all over. I was just reading about your wedding day. How did it happen? Is it true? Because what I

read was you were not even on the same continent. Yes, that's true. So on October, my grandfather, who again had helped to raise me and my two brothers, he actually passed away. I was able to get a Red Cross message and was home within twenty four hours of his passing. Because my husband and I were not married yet, the army still considered us single soldiers even though we were engaged but not legally married. He was not able to come with me to go home to attend my grandfather's funeral,

so I went home by myself. He decided to start looking into how we could get married. Turns out Colorado is one of four states that allows a marriage by proxy, so we looked into how that was possible because that sounded really weird. And in Colorado, if one person is present, the other person can fill out an affidavit and a power of attorney and have another person mary their person by proxy. So I had my best friend marry me in proxy for my husband on November four, Colorado time

zone and November five, Iraq time zone. But we did have a real wedding, mostly because he's always grown up in the church and had always just pictured having an actual wedding, so he wanted that. And then he also wanted his signature on our marriage license, so I have to marriage licenses. Is that legal? I don't know, let's hope. So you know, I love it. I think it's a fantastic story. Can you tell me about the work that your husband was doing as you guys were over there

at the same place. Yes. So with the third Infantry Division, he was stationed in Baghdad within the Green Zone or the International Zone as it's known. He was in charge of force protection for the entire divisions areas of operations, so that was all of Baghdad and some of the

surrounding areas as well. He had a pretty unique role with forced protection because he was in charge of physical security, so all the checkpoints and those kind of things that our division was in charge of the security for the polling sites during the first national Iraqi elections in two thousand five. That was a little bit scary, but a great opportunity for him again because he was just on

the road all the time. One of the reasons why we are adamant about voting and talking to these younger generations about why it's so important to vote and use their voice when they're voting is in Iraq, people were waiting in line to vote to make their voice heard for the first time ever. And there were suicide bombers. There was vehicle bombs, there is roadside bombs, there were

attacks on polling places to silence those voices. After my husband and his teams would go out to clean up these polling sites, people would be their waiting in line again to make their voices heard. So it's it was that important to them that despite these attacks, they would go to the polling sites. And while you're there, what type of work are you doing in Iraq? So when I was over there, I had two different jobs. So the first half of the deployment, I was in charge

of these drones by planes. They were the shadow tactical unmanned aerial vehicles. I was a first person with a third infortuted division to have that type of equipment. Myself, my company commander, and our first sergeant. We received our equipment and we also welcomed our first soldiers into that unit in July of two thousand and four and then had to train and prepare for deployment by February of

two thousand five. So that was a really unique experience because there was only one other unit in the army who had been doing it, and they had just done it the year prior to us arriving, So it's a

really steep learning curve. One of the things I think I learned out of that deployment and out of that experience of being a platoon leader is you know, you get your soldiers, it's a really wide age range of people that you are thrown in together with all varying backgrounds, and then me as a platoon leader, I had the least experience among all of them, but I was looked

at as a leader. So so really, I think for for me, one of the things that I've always tried to do as a good leader, a good manager, or even just a friend is just making sure that you take care of your people, you know, making sure that when we got over to Iraq, they were calling their families and they had been in touch with their families to let them know they had gotten there, making sure that they needed what they needed to be able to do their jobs well and to be able to make

it home. And so, my guys, we had a laundren recovery site located out of Taji, which is just north of Baghdad. It was our responsibility to make sure that these drones were conducting two seven operations on reconnaissance to ensure the safety of our coalition and US multinational forces. My guys saved a lot of lives from the work that they did, and it was work that that couldn't go without a break. So we literally had birds up twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, the

entire year. I want to talk now about your life after the military, starting with your retirement from the Army. When did you know it was the right time to leave and what was that transition into civilian life like.

So after my deployment to Iraq in two thousand five to two thousand six UM and obviously meeting my husband and then getting married and all of that stuff, the Army at the time was doing these extended deployments where they were going to be deployed for eighteen months sometimes more, and we decided at that time that maybe being dual military wasn't the right fit for us. At the time, just starting a family and everything that we wanted to do.

The situation with my mother was improving and she had an opportunity as well to be released from prison, and so it was at that point in time that we decided that leaving the military was going to be the

right decision for us. So in two thousand seven is when we got out and we moved to Colorado where I was born and raised, and we were able to be with my grandmother, my brothers, and then also helped support my mom as she transitioned out from the prison system and then helped her with her transition into civilian life as well. What drew you to volunteering and working

with nonprofits during this time? In two thousand and eight, the Medal of Honor convention came to Colorado, and that is when I met all these veterans who had received the Medal of Honor, and the Medal of Honor is the highest award bestowed upon any military service member, and these true real life heroes were just so humble and many of them had their own stories that they were willing to share with us. And it was in that point that I realized that I wanted to do more

for veterans. Being a veteran myself, I think for a lot of veter ends leaving the military, that's one of the things that we all miss the most is that we have this higher purpose and greater mission that we are all going towards. With volunteering, I was looking for something to contribute to and to just better myself and better the community that I was living in and so using my post nine eleven g I Bill, I decided to go to school to get my master's degree and

start working in the nonprofit sector. So the first nonprofit organization that I worked for was called Veterans Green Jobs. They were interested in helping veterans who are transitioning out of the military to get jobs in the green energy sector, and so it was a really great organization to be

part of. I was surrounded by other veterans who wanted to just help our fellow brothers and sisters and arms, and I'm still again very good friends with many of them, just because of that common interest and the common path that we took together. Working at Veterans Green Jobs really helped me to refine how I wanted to help veterans,

and it was in employment. It was helping them discover what they wanted to do post military, the skills that they had learned, and the leadership that they had been taught, and how all of that can transition into a successful civilian career where they can work for companies that they're proud of, where they can have jobs that are well paying and support their families and just be out in their communities again, So where did things go from there? What was the next tour for you in your career

after Veterans Green Jobs. So I started working with many companies across the country and helping them to recruit veterans, essentially like a headhunter almost, but again we were a nonprofit organization and helping veterans achieve employment. And so with with that came a lot of connections into companies that were interest in hiring veterans. Xcel Energy was one of

the companies that I partnered with. They operate out of Minnesota, and then they also have corporate headquarters in Colorado and Texas, and so being in Colorado, it was a really great opportunity for me to work with this company, this utility company that had so many great jobs and were interested

in hiring veterans. Again, it was just really great timing where after I had graduated from Regis in two thousand and ten, and then the CEO of Xcel Energy in two thousand and twelve actually testified in front of the joint chiefs about why it's smart to hire veterans, why

it was a good business case to hire veterans. With that came internally the interest and intentionality of Xcel Energy wanting to hire veterans and create a veteran hiring program internal to the company, and I was brought in to launch their internal veteran hiring program, which to this day

we still hire ten percent military veterans. External to the company, we have a fantastic internal employee Veterans Affinity group, and there's just a lot of people who do a lot of good for veterans in the communities where we work, live and play. Now I am an account manager working with large customers and communities to help them achieve their energy goals and sustainability goals, but I'm still very involved

in that employee affinity group. I'm actually the chair of the Military Veterans Employee Group at XL and we do a lot as far as supporting our employees who are currently serving in the National Garden Reserve, who may be going on active training or deployments, supporting them and their families.

We do a lot of volunteering in the communities, helping homeless veterans, building care packages, renovating homes, writing letters to veterans who are in our nursing centers and community living centers. So we do a lot in the community through that Veterans program, and so it's in that way that I'm still able to give back to the veteran community and to help my brothers and sisters in arms. What are some of the biggest obstacles or misconceptions around employment for veterans,

both from an employer and a veterans perspective. I think for a lot of transitioning veterans coming out of the military and directly into civilian life is we don't understand the full breadth and scope of everything that we achieved in the military being really attractive to the employers and

to the companies who want to hire us. The average soldier is in charge of millions of dollars of equipment, they're in charge of each other, They're taught so many leadership skills, but you don't really realize all of that because it's just part of your day to day while you're serving in the military. It's nothing really special, it's

nothing really that stands out. But to the civilian mindset and to corporate America, it does stand out, and I think people need to understand that sounds almost like you were teaching veterans how to remarket their skill sets. Yes, that's exactly right, is remarketing the skills that you've acquired in the military. You're you're given a job, and you're given an MS or a designation for what your job is,

and that's really all you think that you're doing. But as one of my mentors put it perfectly is veterans, you're more than your MS. You are the leadership that you've learned from. You are the people and the culture and the diversity that you've surrounded yourselves with, and you're the experiences that came with your MOS. And so it's really unique experience being a veteran coming out into the workplace. You know, the biggest misconception, unfortunately with veterans is the

stigma around PTSD. PTSD isn't just a veteran issue, it is it is a human issue. Um. Anybody can suffer from PTSD, and and while it's true many veterans UM have big diagnosed with PTSD, it doesn't mean they're not employable. Many who are diagnosed know what the triggers are and they avoid them or they have ways of dealing with them, and they can function just as fine in the civilian workplace as anybody else, What are some of the causes and organizations that you really care about and that you

continue to work with today. The causes that I care about really kind of run the gamut, and they have changed, I would say over the last decade that I've lived in Colorado. I would say one Veterans obviously is still probably one of the top priority of causes for me, and so just volunteering and working with a number of

the veterans serving organizations is still there. I've also been on the board for Women Veterans of Colorado, which is a organization that just brings together women veterans in Colorado.

It gives us a platform and a space to come together as women who have served in the military, who have served in the Armed forces, and have this unique experience for us to come together and support each other through the emotional, the physical, the mental kind of all the challenges that came with being a woman in the military.

One of the cool things that I got to do was actually part of this documentary called Women Warriors, and the production team was from a local community college out of Front Range Community College, and these students put together this awesome documentary of women veterans from Colorado from all different eras of service from World War Two all the way to post nine eleven, and it was a great opportunity to tell our stories of service and talk about

our experiences, whether they were good, whether they were bad, and how that helped to shape who we are today. And that team actually won an Emmy for their work. I have a Congressional Record of Service sitting at the Library of Congress now um for my contributions to that documentary. So just really unique opportunities through women veterans of Colorado and really special relationships with with all the ladies that

I've come to know through that as well. It was really an empowering thing for me to join the Army, even more empowering now post military service to use the voice that I was given back to help others in the community, whether it's building the future for my kids, whether it's for homeless veterans who are suffering and dealing with mental health issues, whether it's helping to lay a path for other girls like my daughters to follow in

my footsteps and join the military. My husband and I have grand dreams of both of them serving their country. I will try to build them up as much as I can so that they are they are army strong and army ready. But really it'll be up to them. Well, I appreciate your openness so much on so many levels. Um. I think you have a tremendous story and also just a will that is giving back constantly. So thank you for your message, thank you for your story, thank you

for your time, and most importantly, thank you for your service. Yeah. Thank you. Hopefully I'll see around sometime. I'm in Colorado quite a bit, so maybe one day I'll see out and about for sure. Thanks Bobby. It is inspiring to see veterans like Keeney not only volunteer to serve their country, but find new ways to continue a life of service

as civilians too. Thanks for listening to Vets you should know check out our other episodes from more great stories from inspiring vets who continue to work selflessly and tirelessly in civilian life to make positive change. If you like what you heard, please rate and review the podcast. We want to hear from you, and don't forget to subscribe for free or follow the show on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Vets You Should Know is a special four part series podcast from I Heart Radio hosted by me Bobby Bones. Our show has written and produced by Molly Sosha, Andy Kelly, Ethan Fixel in partnership with Haley Ericson and Garrett Shannon of Banter, edit sound design and mixed by Matt Stillo and my personal producer and hero is Mike d an Turn