S.O.S. (Stories of Service) - Ordinary people who do extraordinary work
From the little league coach to the former addict helping those still struggling, hear from people from all walks of life how they show up as a vessel for service and drive for transformational change. Hosted by Theresa Carpenter, a 29-year active duty U.S. naval officer who found service was the path to unlocking trauma and unleashing your inner potential.
S.O.S. (Stories of Service) - Ordinary people who do extraordinary work
From Soldier to Whistleblower | Welcoming back Mandy Feindt - S.O.S. #219
What happens when a decorated Army officer discovers her family is being poisoned by contaminated water on a military base – and then faces retaliation for speaking out? Major Mandy Feindt takes us inside one of the largest toxic exposure cases in U.S. military history, revealing how the Red Hill fuel facility in Hawaii contaminated drinking water for over 93,000 military and civilian families.
With raw honesty, Mandy shares the devastating health impacts her family experienced – from her 13-month-old son developing mysterious rashes and respiratory issues to her own unexplained symptoms that left doctors puzzled. When military leadership insisted the water was safe despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Mandy made the courageous decision to become a whistleblower, risking her nearly 20-year military career and upcoming promotion to lieutenant colonel.
The institutional betrayal she experienced was profound. Overnight, her standing in her unit plummeted. Her evaluation reports were downgraded. But instead of staying silent, she filed a Department of Defense Inspector General complaint that was ultimately substantiated after a three-and-a-half-year investigation – a remarkable outcome in a system where less than 2% of such complaints favor service members.
Beyond her personal vindication, Mandy's advocacy has driven meaningful change. She spearheaded a landmark federal lawsuit that held the Navy legally responsible for the contamination, helped secure a National Academy study on health impacts, and established a registry for affected families. Now, she's working on transparency legislation to ensure future military families aren't kept in the dark about environmental hazards.
Perhaps most powerfully, Mandy opens up about her journey through PTSD, moral injury, and finding healing through specialized trauma programs and adaptive sports – ultimately becoming a 10-time medalist at the DoD Warrior Games. Her story illuminates not just the fight for justice, but the profound resilience required to transform betrayal into purpose.
Listen now to this essential conversation about courage, accountability, and what happens when duty calls you to fight the very institution you've pledged to serve.
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Imagine that you're stationed in Hawaii and your family is exposed to one of the largest toxic exposure cases in the history of the United States Navy. And imagine, as this happens, you are being told that the water's not that bad and when you go to communicate with your elected officials, you are retaliated against. And even in that investigation you are vindicated and the problem is still not fixed. So we're back again to talk about some of these issues with an active duty major speaking in her personal capacity. Mandy Feint, how are you doing today?
Speaker 2:I'm good, teresa, good to see you and thank you for having me on again.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Thank you so much for being here to the Stories of Service podcast Ordinary People who Do Extraordinary Work. I am the host of Stories of Service, teresa Carpenter. This is episode 219, and to kick us off, as we always do, is an intro from my father, charlie Pickard.
Speaker 3:From the moment we're born and lock eyes with our parents. We are inspiring others by showing up as a vessel of service. We not only help others, we help ourselves. Welcome to SOS. Stories of Service hosted by Teresa Carpenter. Hear from ordinary people from all walks of life who have transformed their communities by performing extraordinary work.
Speaker 1:And Mandy is a US Army officer, a decorated athlete and a nationally recognized advocate for military families impacted by toxic exposure. With nearly 20 years of service, she has led troops across multiple commands, while also taking on one of the most formidable battles of her career exposing the truth behind the Red Hill water crisis, which has affected more than 93,000 military and civilian families. As a Department of Defense whistleblower, she has testified before Congress and worked alongside national leaders, grassroots organizations and EPA's Red Hill Community Representation Initiative to demand accountability. Her voice has become a beacon for families navigating institutional betrayal, government denial and the long-term health impacts of toxic exposure. But beyond her advocacy and this is what else we're going to talk about she is a 10-time medalist at the 2025 DoD Warrior Games, where she represented Team Army in swimming, recombinant cycling, precision air rifle and track and field events. She brings that same tenacity to the field of competition that she does for the fight for justice. So welcome Mandy.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I'm very happy to be here, teresa.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm happy to have you, and so, first off, as I always do with all my guests, and for those who did not see our last episode, just tell us a little bit about where you were born and raised and why you decided to join the army and what you did in the army.
Speaker 2:So I was born and raised in Hampton, virginia, so the Southern Tidewater area. My granddad was, you know, career army guy and retired at Fort Monroe, so our family just stayed there. You know, I grew up in a military town and 9-11 happened my senior year of high school and I was already going to school on a track scholarship. But once I got to college I just, you know, I saw the ROTC team or see the ROTC program, the Ranger Challenge team, and I don't know, I just felt this calling. I felt like I, after 9-11 happened, you know, I needed to do my part, I needed to serve and kind of follow in the footsteps of those who had served, you know, prior to me and my own family.
Speaker 1:And as you served in the Army, you've done all sorts of jobs, but human resources was your calling. That was what we were called to do in the, in the army, correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I started off as a as an air defense officer. I there was. When I came in the military there were very few combat arms branches that you could go into and I just felt like I needed to do that. It turns out, you know, human resources was more in line with what I was going to school for, which is human resources management, and just gave me a little bit more quality of life and allowed me to be in tons of different units where air defense kind of locked me into certain places and locations and yeah. So I much preferred and have excelled in the human resources area military Wonderful, wonderful in the human resources area, military, wonderful, wonderful, and we do have a couple of visitors on the call.
Speaker 1:Bill Brown, who we just had the Navy SEAL swim and that's where you and I met up this past weekend says rockstar military and veteran advocates. Well, thank you. And LinkedIn user don't know who you are. You said all great American. So appreciate you guys joining us on the call. We did have an amazing past weekend. We might mention that also throughout the call. It's something that has brought us together is the world of advocacy, mandy, as we both supported Pete Hegseth, his confirmation as SecDef, and then we also both supported the New York City Navy SEAL Swim, which benefits the Navy SEAL Foundation, who has raised almost a million dollars this year. So wonderful patriot you are, mandy, and I'm just so proud to not only be your friend but to serve alongside you.
Speaker 2:Thank you, you too, and I have to say hey to Bill and just shout him out what a wonderful event that he puts on every year, a way to honor our veterans and our, our Patriots, our first responders, our gold star families and, um, I really enjoyed volunteering with you, but I'm telling you, I had major FOMO, like I wanted to jump in the Hudson and swim with those guys, and so I think we talked about it. We're going to do it next year.
Speaker 1:I know I'm on. I've already talked to you. Oh yeah, I've, he built. Bill Bill knows, and so does Rob Sweetman. He has a 62 Romeo team, which I believe raised the most money of all the teams, but all the teams have a friendly competition to try to raise the most money as possible. And then the other LinkedIn user that is joining us is Noel Pace, and so we do know Noel as well. I believe he was also at the Hegseth confirmation hearing not the hearing, but the press conference is, I think, where I met him. So wonderful to have you guys on. Thanks for joining us. So now we're just going to kind of catch up where we left off. So tell us a little bit for the people who haven't watched the other podcast, unfortunately, just a synopsis of what happened while you were stationed in Hawaii with this unfortunate water the Red Hill facility.
Speaker 2:Yes, so I moved to Hawaii in July of 2020. We lived off base initially, but in early 2021, we were offered a home base, a historic home on Fort Island that had survived the attack on Pearl Harbor waterfront property. There was a hundred-year-old home. There was just no way that we could say no, obviously. So we did the trek across the island, moved ourselves in the April, early May of 2021.
Speaker 2:And within just a few weeks, we started getting really sick. My son started having rashes. He developed a cough. By the way, my son was 13 months old getting really sick. My son started having rashes. He developed a cough. By the way, my son was 13 months old at the time. My husband was experiencing like ocular migraines in Frigo and just feeling super lethargic. We just kept getting sick. Honestly, didn't think much of it.
Speaker 2:I was stationed in an innovative position as the J-1 at Special Operations Command Pacific. I'd wear my bathing suit under my uniform every day and I'd go and swim during the lake in a pool that I didn't know at the time was contaminated and I had, you know, these rashes on my body, but I never once. Looking back now I don't know how I didn't, but I didn't consider it was the water that was in our home or the pool that I was swimming in that was slowly poisoning us and causing all of these health symptoms for my family when, in May of 2021, there was a massive spill from the Red Hill bulk fuel storage facility. And this, this bulk storage facility, is the largest underground storage facility. It supplies all the fuel for the Indo-Pacific, so a strategic asset and a very important one. But it's been leaking for decades almost since its existence, for about 80 years and I had no clue, like when I came to Hawaii, they don't brief you like oh, by the way, there's this storage or this fuel storage facility that's leaking and it could potentially, like harm you and your family. So I didn't know, they didn't capture all the fuel. They also didn't tell anyone about it.
Speaker 2:And turns out that fuel, about six months later, in November of 2021, was stored in a fire suppression line and a gentleman was driving his truck doing his rounds in the storage facility. The top of his truck hit this pipe where all the fuel that the Navy couldn't account for was stored, and it leaked. It ruptured and it leaked for about 30 hours. And one thing I didn't mention is that Red Hill is built 100 feet underground but 100 feet above Oahu's sole clean water aquifer, and so when the leak happened, it compromised the drinking water and 93,000 people were impacted. Thanksgiving weekend, you know, thousands of people cooked their Thanksgiving meal with contaminated water.
Speaker 2:There was no denying at that point. The military's initial messaging was there's no indication that your water is not safe. Me and my staff are drinking it. Today. This is coming directly to us from the base commander, from the leaders of Pacific Fleet, and this is all going on while thousands of us are sick and in the hospital. We were being evacuated from our homes, and it wasn't until weeks later that they finally disclosed that there was a spill that there had come from, and you know when that happened.
Speaker 2:I just felt very convicted to speak up and say something, because, you know, I had young children who were in the on base child development center and I knew that they weren't getting clean water. Transparency wasn't happening. People were sick and they wanted answers, and rightfully so, but the Navy just wasn't giving us anything. And what really bothered me, especially as being a mother at the time of very young children, is this whole notion that the Navy somehow reserved the right to know more about what our children were being exposed to than we did as parents. And so, you know, I hired a good legal team and a media team and I started doing, you know, national media.
Speaker 2:It just wasn't really well received, I tell everyone. You know I was in really great standing with my unit and I love the special operations community, but I kind of went from like here to zero overnight and my unit turned their back back on me, you know when I wouldn't stay silent and I wouldn't bury my head or shut up in color. And you know that was obviously really hurtful and made things extremely hard because, you know, not only was I dealing with my own family being extremely sick, evacuated from our home, but I was also dealing with this whole institutional betrayal thing and then the retaliation, you know, on top of it. It was just, it was a lot, teresa.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, what I'm curious about is like and I think we've talked about it maybe on the previous call but did you even? Did you get the symptoms first and then have to figure out what it was? Or did you have some sort of an announcement that there was a spill? So basically, all these people were just having symptoms and nobody was telling you guys what was going on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean so all through the summer we were slowly we believe we were slowly being poisoned. So we'd get the rashes, we'd get sick, the bouts of you know, vertigo and stomach pain and headaches and things like that. That all kind of happened like over time. But in November when the major spill happened I mean, for like I mean it was coming out both ends, we were projectile vomiting, couldn't stay out the toilet, I mean TMI, but I was in adult depends for like a week. There you go and you know, in the hospital. Like our kids were so sick in the hospital, like we knew that something was wrong but we had no idea what.
Speaker 1:Um, but and where was public affairs and all this? Like what were their? What were their announcements? Like what were they telling you guys, anything?
Speaker 2:No, in the beginning it was just downplaying the significance. You know folks started calling the department of health and there was a lot of pressure from the department of Health to the Navy that you need to put this out. The Department of Health actually is the one that put out the information first and they, you know they said you need to stop drinking your water before the Navy ever did. But you know this is a Navy asset. The Navy knew they had known since May that these spills were happening. There was detections of TPH total petroleum hydrocarbon in the water all summer long in water test results. They knew they had access to testing and they didn't tell anyone.
Speaker 2:The other important thing is again, it's one of those you look back and you're like how did you not think anything? So now you know before there was actually water testing like at least that we've had access to. They were flushing the system to try to bury the evidence, if you will. So they were pushing water through fire hydrants on our streets. You know the military, when you live on base, has access to your sprinkler system. So our sprinkler systems were going off like two, three days in a row and we couldn't. We were like, oh, it was just a faulty sprinkler system. You know, like we didn't think anything of it. But I mean they were flooding our streets, like just trying to like push all this water out, and we had no idea.
Speaker 1:Wow. No I mean it's, it's so unfortunate and they have an IG report that comes out that basically tells the military to investigate itself. I believe is pretty much what it said and, as far as we know, nothing's really come of that IG report that was released. I think that was like the first thing, because there was the IG report, then there was the federal court case, so let's talk about first. So finally, you know there's enough of this outrage over this thing that they put out an IG report and you're like yes, yes, they're doing an investigation.
Speaker 1:They're really going to get to the bottom of this. So tell me a little bit about what happened with the IG report.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I think last time we talked that IG report had just come on. It was actually three reports one on the system itself, one on how the Navy responded. And yes, you're right, like they did make recommendations essentially to like investigate yourself, and I don't know that anything has come from that. There's been no real accountability that's come from it either. I mean, the IG basically found that the Navy did a really shoddy job of communicating and they had an obligation to and they didn't. They failed to warn. That was not only evident within the federal trial.
Speaker 2:So we my family led the federal trial or the federal lawsuit against the Navy, so you could look it up, fight versus United States of America. That happened in federal court in Hawaii last year around April and it was a bench trial. So we left court thinking we would know something right away. But it turns out, you know, a judge has a federal judge, has for as long as she in this case, wanted to decide and recently, actually a couple of months ago, that case was determined and it was found in our favor. The Navy was held liable and we were able to, you know, prove everything that we needed to in court and were compensated for short-term harm that happened.
Speaker 2:So that was a huge win, although and I'm sure that you've read about in the press like everyone wasn't satisfied with the amount of payouts. For us it wasn't necessarily about the money. I mean, the amount of money was a bit of a slap in the face for everything that we have been through. I mean, I think I told you last time our family at that point had been over 750 medical appointments, nine medical procedures, three major surgeries Like it's been a lot, and they only talked about short term harm in this trial. So there's been, I think you've seen. Since there's been another additional lawsuit.
Speaker 1:I saw like a class action one with lots of families. I believe right yeah, yep.
Speaker 2:So you know, the biggest thing though for me with pushing forward and again that it was a civilian case because of Ferris, there was an active duty folks that filed for that, so it was my husband and my two kids that were the lead plaintiffs, or the bell, one of the bellwether plaintiffs in the trial and for people that don't know what Ferris is.
Speaker 1:Ferris means that as an active duty service member, you are not permitted to sue the department of defense. So even if you are sexually assaulted, even if you are, you have some gross medical malpractice, like our friend Lauren Palladini, who's been on my podcast, or gosh Staff Sergeant Carter, who was paralyzed from the neck down. Unfortunately, you have no recourse if you suspect medical malpractice and in your case you suspect toxic exposure, but you cannot sue the Department of Defense as an active duty service member. So you were able to be your child's advocate I remember you telling me that or their legal representation, and that was how you were able to be on that lawsuit, correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's interesting that you say that. So you can't sue for any of those reasons that you just listed. You also technically, or what people believe. If I lived in the same house, you know the one cooking the meals with the contaminated water and you know washing the clothes and bathing my children. People believe that you know all of that is considered incident to service, which is wild to me.
Speaker 2:But you know, the significant piece of our trial is that it was the first, what we believe is the first environmental case when it comes to water contamination against the military that was found, you know, in the service members or the military families favor, and so that's, that's huge. That'll be case law in the future, even with Camp Lejeune and other, you know, toxic exposure type cases. And so for me and for our family and for our law firm, that is the biggest piece. It's a huge win, regardless of the payouts, and it kind of puts DOD on notice that you can no longer poison your people or your military families and get away with it. So that was the biggest win for us with the federal trial.
Speaker 1:Yep, I agree, and you always got to look for those silver linings. And speaking of silver linings, we do have a couple other people who've joined the call Darren Lopez, who says, oh my God, that's terrible. Darren has himself been a victim, sadly, of the military justice system and been on my show. And we also have Lauren Palladini who's joined and says Hi, friends, so proud to know you, mandy, you're an incredible advocate, and I'm just so proud to know you. Well, we're proud to know you too, lauren. She did an amazing job telling her story on the Stories of Service podcast and I will continue, like I do with you, mandy, to keep up with her and her fight, because it's a horrific story as well that needs justice.
Speaker 2:But shameless plug really quick for Lauren and Coalition of Heroes. I sit on the board. Lauren's a very dear friend of mine and is one of those tiny but mighty fierce advocates and we've done a lot of advocacy on the Hill in the subject, as you mentioned, of military medical malpractice and she is a force and I just love her. So, yeah, if you're not familiar with Coalition of Heroes or the work that we do there, please go check them out.
Speaker 1:Yep Coalition of Heroes and check out my podcast with Lauren Palladini. It was very, very well put together. In fact I told her she put together the best outline that I've ever seen an advocate put together before a call, where I knew exactly where to go with the conversation, and I found that to be really helpful. And I use that as a model to send to other advocates who were considering telling their story, because I thought it was really just well laid out. But speaking of good news, because we never want these stories to be just sad stories, we want them to be stories of justice and stories of redemption and of fighting fighting for what we believe in. And on that note, you did file a retaliation complaint against your chain of command, so tell us a little bit about that and that part of the story.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, um, you know I this part is a little bit emotional for me, but you know I had mentioned that I was in really great shape with my unit and I have loved the military. I think when Red Hill happened I had been in the military for about 16 years and oh, by the way, I was on the zone for promotion to lieutenant colonel and I'm still a major today, three and a half, four, almost four years later, if that tells you anything.
Speaker 1:You were a hard charger, mandy. I mean, there's no ifs, ands or buts about this. Like you are a go-getter and there's no reason why you were not a go-getter as a army HR human resources officer. So that's where you were. You were on the career track.
Speaker 2:I was on the path and I was in the zone for promotion and everything went to hell in a handbasket. The moment I, you know, decided to utilize that intestinal fortitude and that moral courage that we all learn about every military profession we're supposed to be doing yes yeah, the thing that we're supposed to see something, say something.
Speaker 2:Um, so the moment that that happened and I started, I took a hard stance and I started, like I said, doing media and everything. I was just I was being grossly retaliated at work. I mean it, just overnight everything changed and, um, I ended up because we were evacuated from our home and our family was so sick, I ended up taking utilizing because and I notified so General Rudd Josh Rudd was the commander of special operations. I had a meeting with him, actually brought my husband, we tried to phone in our lawyer, but we were denied access to our attorney and I said Listen, sir, I've got a lot on my plate.
Speaker 1:You were denied access to have a meeting with your attorney and him in the same room.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so he had his attorney. The command attorney was there and my attorney doesn't live there, he lives in Louisiana.
Speaker 1:And you couldn't phone them in. You know, that reminds me of recently. I'm not ready to tell that kind of story yet, but I had some counseling and I really wanted to have a legal person in the room to make sure that I was, you know, not going to be retaliated against and that it was going to be, and it ended up being an okay conversation. But I would have felt a lot better if I'd been able to have someone to call in and unfortunately you were denied that. That's too bad.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So the command knew I was represented by counsel at that point and we just said, hey, like I'm trying to make a formal complaint of retaliation to these are the things that are happening to me and I want you to look into this as my commander, which is your obligation, right To have a an environment free of retaliation and harassment. And I was experiencing both and it was. It was awful and almost, you know, it was cruel, because everything that my family was going through at that point and how sick my kids were, and, um, the fact that that is the way that they saw fit to support me, um, was just awful.
Speaker 1:And what's really sad is like what were your coworkers like around this time? Because this is also like the story of the, of the death by thousand cuts? I always say there's a movie called the assistant that I highly recommend. That goes into this type of environment, when people start to turn against one another and they support a toxic environment, and it sounds like that's kind of what happened is like you were, but they were getting exposed to right, like there were coworkers that were being exposed and where they just kind of felt silenced by the whole thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so there were some families that found ourselves in our position, but you know this impacted the on-base maybe drinking water system. So our position, but you know this impacted the on base maybe drinking water system. So several folks you know didn't necessarily live on base and so those, that group of people certainly weren't anything because you know, unless you are dealing with it you don't necessarily care not that you don't care, but you don't have an invested interest.
Speaker 2:You're not the one speaking up, but it's interesting that you say that because stu scheller, um, who has become a dear friend of mine, made a today and I'd be remiss if I didn't say anything about. You know today and how heavy that is, and you know the 13 service members that we lost at Abbey Gate, which led, you know, stu, to speak up and to say something, and we all know his story. But anyways, he made a post today that sort of talked about all the excuses for why people didn't speak up. Made a post today that sort of talked about all the excuses for why people didn't speak up, whether it's you know, I'm in a, in a job or a job security or a promotion, or you know you know family obligations or for whatever reason.
Speaker 1:And at the end of the day, he just said you know, you're a coward and I was a little triggered by that. I'm not going to lie. I ended up texting him. He hasn't texted me back, but I was like Stu, I'm, you know cause I stayed in, but at the same time, um, you know, I I want to at least show like I'm still on active duty, speaking in my personal off duty capacity. But I'm I'm still doing it and it it's risky. I get scared, my heart starts beating sometimes when I'm talking about certain issues. But, um, I, I think I think he wasn't directing that towards me. He was directing that towards everyone in general who doesn't speak up. And yeah, I mean, there's definitely this environment that happens when nobody speaks up. But I want to be that example that, hey, you know I'm retiring.
Speaker 2:I mentioned, you know, stu, because I for one Stu was a huge inspiration to me long before I ever met him. But you know, I saw the courage it took and what he went through.
Speaker 2:And before I spoke up, I sat with my husband and I was like two things you need to know, they will come for me, they're targetably placed in my back, and two, we'll never see a lieutenant colonel. And so both of those things came to fruition. My husband's a civilian, so he didn't quite understand that, but my husband's a civilian so he didn't quite understand that. Um, but I say that about stew because he did mention that today and so, um, and I'm really grateful for him and you know him sort of paving the path I am too for warriors.
Speaker 1:But he is a trailblazer yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:so most people in my command, though, just kind of like stayed silent or they're like mandy, you know, like we can't say anything, and people were, you know, constantly advising me to like stand down, and I was just like these are my kids, you know what I mean. Like my kids represent thousands of other kids. And another thing I'll say too is that I'm an older mom and I got back from Afghanistan I had, like I had, cancer and I also had like unexplained infertility, and so we really struggled to get pregnant. You know, I, both my kids, are from infertility treatments and we lost a baby in between. So we fought really hard to have our kids. But we're old, my husband and I are old, and so when we're dropping our kids at this on-base daycare facility, like most of the people who have kids, our kids age are much junior, whether you know, junior enlisted or, you know, captain and below, and so I knew, because I've been a junior soldier, that like I didn't have my voice back then and I didn't know my resources and I'm older and, you know, have some experience and well resourced at this point. So again, I just felt really convicted and obligated to say something.
Speaker 2:So, going back to what you know, the retaliation stuff. So we went, we met with General Rudd and I just said, sir, you know, I'd like for you to look into this and you know, know, if you're not like, I would like to utilize my, my leave that I've accrued and I end up putting in for 30 days of leave and I want to get my family off the island, go back and, like, visit grandparents and just get them out. We, we were being shuffled between seven different hotels over the course of three months. It was a disaster, and two like congress needed to know what was going on. And so I you know, my attorneys and I we flew to. We flew to Virginia and Washington DC and we did a whole congressional trip and met with several congressional leaders.
Speaker 1:And when I got back, oh, by, the way I was gonna say your fitness report. Right yeah, your evaluation, your fitness report right, yeah, your evaluation.
Speaker 2:So this was all in like February. My OER, my officer evaluation report, was due on the 1st of December, so long before, you know, before. My family was impacted by this and they waited and they sent me this subpar like shoddy evaluation. It was supposed to be a top block OER to set me up for success. It would be the last OER that would go in for my Lieutenant Colonel board and it was a mediocre at best. Like I don't think I've ever received such a shitty evaluation in my life, you know, in all those years. And my senior reader sent it to me and said Major Fine, I'm tracking that you might be on lead today so we can discuss this, you know, when you get back, good timing.
Speaker 1:And you've been waiting for this. That was the whole part that was really interesting to me. You'd been waiting, waiting and waiting and waiting to get this thing signed and then suddenly it's suddenly available, right, and they knew you were going to DC, right?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and they knew about you, know my congressional trip and then we were going to meet with Congress people and I felt like it was just one more way to try to like intimidate me or silence me, like they knew how important that evaluation would be going into my board, and I just felt like it was one more way to kind of stick it to me one more time, maybe to like break me down so I wouldn't say anything, I have no idea.
Speaker 1:But it didn't work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was just. You know, I was like I was finally not, I was finally like getting my family to safety and taking a break from all the hostility, and that was my work environment at that point. And they just like one more jab before I, literally before I boarded the plane to start this leave. And so when I came back, clearly I wanted to talk about the evaluation and I went into the. You know, I went to my senior editor's office and you know I basically asked him, like I've had it wasn't quite 30 days, we came back a little bit early, but I've had all this time to think about. You know, I want to get, find a way to get back to where we're at. Why is all this happening?
Speaker 2:And the conversation was just, he was so cold and you know he essentially blamed me for everything. You know, I asked for this to you know, make you blowing this out of the water, taking out all the way to Congress and, you know, speaking to the media, and I said, sir, what would you do if these were your children? And you know, like, our daycare facility wasn't even deemed safe at this time by the Hawaii Department of Health, right, and he said, you know I would find a daycare to find out, get my ass back to work. And I just said like for one all the listeners, your listeners, who have ever been stationed in Hawaii, to find a daycare anywhere in Hawaii is like months to a year of a wait list. And oh, by the way, I had a daycare facility. I had an on base daycare facility that we did quite some time to get my kids on and it wasn't safe, like it was not deemed safe by the Hawaii department of health.
Speaker 2:So, and he knew that you know it's just such a jerk thing. But he, he really honed in on my congressional trip and speaking with congressional leaders and he sort of essentially said that everything that was happening to me my evaluations and just the way things that were, you know, the way they were at work was was my fault. And that was kind of the last straw, the next. So that was on, I think, on a Friday. I spent the weekend with my attorney drafting a DOD IG whistleblower complaint and we submitted it that Monday and that was in February of 2022. And fast forward three and a half years later, because it takes three and a half years later because it takes three and a half years to investigate this issue.
Speaker 2:Takes three years, teresa. What it takes is three and a half years of people that you've made a complaint about. It gives them enough time to, you know, retire from the military with their career intact. That's, that's what.
Speaker 1:Three and a half years. That's crazy. I didn't even think about it like that. Uh, I just because this investigation should have taken 60 days. I mean really that's interesting, the investigation on the retaliation. I'm not talking about red hill, I'm talking about just to determine whether or not you were retaliated for your advocacy. Six, yeah, come on, three and a, really.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it is, that is the timeline for it, and then every so. Then they have to do 180 day memo every time that they don't meet it and that a memo is dressed, addressed to the secretary of defense and the secretary of whatever branch that you serve.
Speaker 1:So what is the timeline? I'm sorry to interrupt. What is the timeline that it has to be done in? By?
Speaker 2:no more. So they can't go more than six months without doing one of these 180 day memos.
Speaker 1:Okay, Okay, so they would just keep doing memos for you know, four or five times until they had the and so they come back. And what are the results of the IG report?
Speaker 2:Yeah, july 4th weekend they sent the results to my attorney and it was found substantiated in my favor, which is wild, because I think you know I do. I've done some work with Walk the Talk Foundation. In fact, they've been extremely supportive of Red Hill in general and I think it's less than 2% like 1.7% are found in favor of the service member, and I think that's a testament to how corrupt the system is and how the regulations are currently written to only protect the command Absolutely. But, yeah, so I say that negatively. Those are facts, but I am, you know, obviously my attorney was floored. Like you know, he's a. He's a pessimist, he's cautiously, I guess, optimistic and he never believed that we would win this one, if you will, and so, um, yeah, we're celebrating it as a win. Um, do I think anything will happen? So you know the recommendations with the, was that the secretary of the air force? You know? Uh, punish this person if you will, as they see fit. This, this person, who was my senior staff, yeah, he's now retired?
Speaker 1:Yeah, who retired? Yeah, so we don't know. I mean, maybe there'll be more, more that comes of this, but and time will tell, but who knows one way or the other uh, what comes of it. But I do think that that is a win and you got to, just like you say, be grateful for the wins that you do get and when, when they do get it right and in this case, three and a half years later, they got it right, at least on this issue. So I do think that's a win.
Speaker 1:But there's still much more work that needs to be done to compensate the other families, to own this issue and, like you said, to carry out the recommendations of not only the Red Hill IG report, but the recommendations of your only the Red Hill IG report, but the recommendations of your own IG retaliation report. And meanwhile, you're still serving, andy, you're still on active duty, you're still a major and you're still involved in a lot of these causes. I mean, I believe you're still part of a committee, as I read in the bio that checks up on this issue and is constantly involved. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So the EPA, about a little over two and a half years ago, took the advice, or heard the cry, if you will, of the community and said you know, the community needs more transparency and the military has to do that. And we need we as a community need to be involved with what's going on with Red Hill. And so the EPA set up this thing called the Community Representation Initiative, dla, and epa um on all things drinking water safety and remediation and things like that, and so, yes, I've been sitting on that for about two years. I also um.
Speaker 2:Another win that we can talk about is, you know, I did a lot of advocacy and still continue to do on the hill, but one thing that was recommended to us was get a National Academy study as soon as you can. So that was recommended by the Camp Lejeune community and also by the Byrne-Pitts community, by Rosie Torres, who is another really great friend of mine and the founder of Byrne-Pitts 360. And that's how, through a National Academy study, that's how they were able to get presumptive conditions assigned. That went, you know, with the PACT Act, and so that's something that we fought really hard for. A good friend of mine worked for Senator Moran. So Senator Moran and Senator Schatz of Hawaii got that verbiage put into the NDAA and in January of this year the National Academy study on Red Hill launched and I serve as a community liaison for that study as well.
Speaker 1:I love it. That's awesome. That's such a win.
Speaker 1:So there's so many wins in this story, mandy. I mean, there's not only our friendship that brought us together. I mean, I don't think you know, you wouldn't have. You might not have gone to DC if this hadn't happened. If I wasn't really passionate about military reform, I probably would never have been introduced to Bill Brown through my friend, suzanne Lesko, and we wouldn't be here today. So it's just so fascinating how all of our stories interact with one another. And you've also taken this cause even further and use this as a catalyst to better yourself and tell us a little bit about how you got involved in the Warrior Games and this whole other path now that you've gone down.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know, I kind of talked about it earlier. It was just a lot. It was really heavy between what was going on medically with our family, retaliation, all of those things. And you know, I'd like to touch on something really quick. I didn't go to the VFW conference this year but I listened in and I didn't go because I was doing booger games but I did listen in and Ryan Swayze, president of Walk the Talk Foundation, touched a little bit on suicide, on veteran suicide, and he, you know he's really interested in finding out the root cause. So going upstream is what he talks about.
Speaker 2:To me that I found interesting and could relate to is that one third of our veterans who are committing suicide were involved in some sort of legal or administrative issue with the military at the time or previously. And again, that really resonated with me because I, having gone through this whole like duty whistleblower thing and the retaliation, the legal battle, the federal trial, the advocacy, my family being sick, the betrayal, like I have, definitely you know it's been really heavy and I have been really angry and bitter and that institutional betrayal, you know, risking your life for this country and then coming back and having a military asset poison American civilians, my children included, on American soil and being treated like collateral damage, like there's something that's very, that's a tough pill to swallow, and that was all very, very heavy and for a lot of years I just was just so angry and I I just, I don't know, I woke up. For one, I was recharged with the transition to the new administration and I was recharged with the transition to the new administration and I was very happy that, you know, we got Secretary Hegseth into office and I think that was like a turning point. You know, I was motivated again and proud again to serve in the military and optimistic about what was to come in terms of like military accountability, what was to come in terms of like military accountability Me too and that folks like him and our president celebrated warriors of, you know, folks who had the answers to material or the courage to speak up those things are being celebrated and so I that was kind of turning point.
Speaker 2:And then I really tapped into my faith and you and I talked about this briefly. I really started to prioritize these faith based events and also really tapped into like mental health and addressing the PTSD that I was experiencing and that betrayal, and so I did. The first thing I did was a excuse me was a 12 week faith based trauma reboot course. Faith-based trauma reboot course that was the crisis edition, if you will with my chaplain through my unit, and she put on this amazing course and so that was, you know, like that was kind of the plant of the seed. And then I did this moral injury retreat, which talked a lot about PTSD and betrayal and moral injury, and that was really helpful.
Speaker 2:And then, um, a really like a big turning point was that I went to home base. I went to a two-week intensive outpatient facility that so home base is in boston and their sponsor, the biggest sponsor, is the boston red sox and they are ptsd and tbi wellness and research center and, for anyone who's not familiar, please go check them out. It was life changing and it really I was really able to tap in and like get to the root cause of some of the things that I was feeling and find positive outlets to sort of deal with the things that I was dealing with and to kind of get me out of that dark hole that I had kind of sucked in and that bitterness.
Speaker 1:And then, after home, base hold on such a second. Can you tell me a little bit, cause I we didn't talk about any of this this past weekend. I didn't know you did all this other healing modalities before you did the warrior games and so this is home base though, right?
Speaker 1:No, no. And I remember I thought I told you about my EMDR and how life-changing that was and how it, like, helped me really lose that emotional charge that I had towards towards a parental figure and and after that I just didn't feel it anymore. It was just to this day. It's like I don't know if it was some voodoo magic, because it it really did what, and I really trusted my therapist and I and I allowed myself to really go into those places. So I'm really just curious. Sorry, I don't mean to slow you down, but what was the modality that they used there that really helped you? I'm just curious.
Speaker 2:There were very. So you went through, you did some like pre-op stuff, if you will, before you went in, so they kind of got to know you. And then, once you were placed in a cohort, which I was really happy there is a wait list but because I'd been in a special operations unit, I had priority, I like met qualifications and so I was in a. I was the only female, of course, but I was in the like special operations cohort and I. It was actually like really wonderful. I was a little bit nervous because the folks I complained against and had this whistleblower complained against were operators and which was these people's community. But they were I mean, most of them are dads like they totally got it and they knew some of these folks that were part of my similar complaint and they were just extremely supportive. Um, and so the different it was a different modality. You know there were about three or four different tracks that you could go down and so, um, you know you got therapy, one-on-one therapy, every single day, which you don't ever get that Right.
Speaker 1:No no.
Speaker 2:Yeah and um, you know it worked on like all the pillars, if you will, of of healing and um, going through the PTSD, like treatment, if you will, and it was life-changing. It was too, too intense, it was really hard I was able to define, like really get to, like I said, get to the root cause of things I was feeling and for the first time, teresa, which was a major breakthrough. So at that point it had been, you know, three, three and a half years or whatever, since Red Hill had happened, and I had, at that point, I'd never drank water from an unknown water source. So, like my water bottle, for example, is filled up with like bottled water. We've always had an alternate water source in our home. I would never you know what I mean Like, yeah, because it's so traumatic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, like, so there, I know that's crazy, but there was like a significant amount of PTSD associated with water. My daughter, for example. We had to put her in trauma therapy because and get a special thing on her IEP to be able to bring in her own water bottle because she was not drinking water. She was so fearful of it. Like we had to deal with dehydration and constipation with her, like she just would not. So a lot of people in our community have never drank water again unless it comes from like a bottle or a known source. So so I drank water for the first time with my therapist on like the second to last day that I was there, which was like pretty huge and it was just so emotional and which, you know, thinking back on it now it's pretty wild.
Speaker 2:But anyways, so that you know, I also was able to find and make a list of ways that I could, things that I could tap back into, to use some of the energy that I was having, that even like the negativity, like find a healthy outlet for all of these things that you were feeling. And so two things kind of came out of that. One I um, found and utilized adaptive sports, tried out. For the fourth, first I tried out for the Fort Belvoir team, then I went out to El Paso, fort Bliss, tried out for the army team, made, made that.
Speaker 2:And then, like you said, I competed in DoD Warrior Games this summer, which was awesome. And then I found writing, which I'm not a writer but I started writing at home base. And if you ask what's next, one of the things on the list is you know, I'm going to do the Red Hill book and we're going to talk about institutional betrayal and we're going to tell the right whole story, and so that's something I'm currently working on but will not be published until I retire next year because I just don't want to deal with any more retaliation.
Speaker 2:No, I hear you but yeah, so a lot of just on a personal front, just a lot of positive things that really just tapping into. You know, I'm a master resiliency trainer. Was, you know, in the military prior to us shutting down that, that service? But um, even as a master resiliency trainer and having all of those tools, you know I couldn't find a tool when we're going through a red Hill Like I was not prepared, no matter how much training I'd had to deal. There wasn't a playbook for what we dealt with that red Hill in the aftermath. And so this past year I've really worked on filling back up that toolkit and finding healthy, positive outlets to put, because I'm still angry and I still feel betrayed and I you know I will continue to have these emotions with all this. Well, but I think it's really important when you go through a crisis to and it's different for everyone but find a way to get that out of your body in a healthy way. So I'm really fortunate to have had that breakthrough.
Speaker 1:I'm so proud of you and I'm so happy that you did that work, because healing work is such a beautiful experience and having done it myself a couple years ago in London, I mean I'd get out of there and I'd be crying and it would just be so painful. But to not have those emotions anymore and to see my family and know exactly what that relationship was and not still be mourning what it could have been or be resentful anymore, it's just such a relief. It's like you said, it's a weight that's been lifted off my shoulders because I went through that work and it's beautiful to hear that you did the same thing and I'm so proud of you. I really am and I'm honored to be your friend. I really am, Mandy.
Speaker 2:The feeling is mutual. I'm honored to be your friend.
Speaker 1:I really am, mandy. The feeling is mutual. Thank you, teresa, you're welcome. So what is next? Now, for the rest of the time that you're on active duty, what are you going to focus on as you move forward.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so two other quick things I wanted to update you on and, just for your listeners, or even for my Red Hill friends, the community in general, a plug. So National Academy study huge win launched in January. The results of that will come out after being peer reviewed sometime in 26, which is just big, and again I'm hoping that that allows space for presumptive conditions for those that have served in the military and just helps the VA and the Department of Defense continue to monitor. So long-term monitoring, mandatory medical monitoring, is something I hope that comes from that. Another thing that was congressionally mandated and we got funding for this year is a Red Hill registry, in the same way that they had, like the burn pits registry and other toxic seizure registries. The University of Hawaii presides over that. They've taken that on and so that launched just this summer, which is, you know, another huge win for our community and a way for us to stay connected and distribute information put out, you know, like educational things for us and our providers. It's just a really great way to get everyone in the same database, if you will.
Speaker 2:And then, literally last week, after about two years, another health study came out. So the CDC Center for Disease Control and ATSDR. They've done two studies that were like self-report survey type studies that they've published which showed continued, persistent or long-term health issues within our community. But two years ago they were given access by the Department of Defense, dha, to do a medical records review and so they didn't have very long. So there was definitely some you know parameters and issues that they had, but they had about three weeks to look. They got through. You know about 600 medical records who were flagged for toxic.
Speaker 2:You know Red Hill, the Red Hill water crisis exposure, and that the results of that were just published, I think like last week, and it found that more than half of the folks that they hold were having new or worsening symptoms. And why that's important is because we still need care for our people. We still need this to matter. We need medical providers to know about what the hell Red Hill is and we need more folks to be involved. On the medical standpoint and just from a lawsuit standpoint, that's also huge too. The military can no longer use the narrative that there's no indication of long-term harm. Like we know, that's not true. But now we have all these different resources through national academies, the registry and all these health studies, um that kind of debunk, that narrative, which I'm I'm really grateful for.
Speaker 1:So I mean in informal conversations with doctors, I've heard that there are long-term effects that people are, are, are, are having uh, you know I don't want to say who or what at this point because that's just the position that we're in, but I believe that this is something that they need to be very, very like. The ones who are looking into the Afghanistan withdrawal Stu Scheller and all the group that's looking into that they're not going to let this go. Just like me with the due process issues and Darren Lopez who's even on the call, we're not going to let this go because we want to see a reformed military that people want to serve in. And these are readiness issues. I mean, I love what I see Hegseth and the team doing with foreign policy. I love seeing what they've done to make merit-based standards, bring those back, all the great stuff they're doing with PT. But now we want to see some changes. We want to see some changes in some of these due process issues, some of these IG issues, some of this Afghanistan withdrawal issues, some of these ways that we're not welcoming service members back with the COVID mandate in the ways that we were expecting those to happen.
Speaker 1:So we'll be following all those stories on the Stories of Service podcast and we'll be continuing to give people a voice to talk about what their concerns are there. I just had a guy last week talk about the housing issues and barracks issues and food issues and I'm confident. I did see a post from the Navy that just came out, I think today, addressing the housing issues. So I'm hopeful, I'm really hopeful. This show has never been about poking the military in the eye. It's always been about creating positive change and I hope to see more of that as time goes by, and I know you do too, mandy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know it's interesting really quick, because I know we're getting close to time, but in my conversation with with Stu today, I, you know, I said that, or with my text messages to him, I said, you know, 2021 was a dumpster fire for the military. Like, if you think about it, you had the now has out the unlawful COVID-19 mandatory vaccination. Then after that, you had, you know, abbey Gate and the shoddy withdrawal from Afghanistan, and then a few months later, you had Red Hill. Like those are three pretty major things that impacted the lives of many. And what's wild is, you know, we're hitting the four-year anniversary of all of those things.
Speaker 2:Not a single person has been held accountable, not a single senior leader. And so I am, I think this is the year, like I'm just so grateful that we're starting to get, you know, the right people in the right places at the right time that can hopefully change that, because I just think that no time is better than now, like we are in desperate need of change when it comes to military accountability and yeah, so I'm just I'm really hopeful and looking forward to potentially being part of some of that stuff once I retire next year. So you ask, like, what's next, or what, what's what's next? So you know, obviously I told you that we're writing the book and I am preparing for retirement, so I'll retire in 26. And you know that's bittersweet, obviously.
Speaker 1:Training for the New York City seal swim yes.
Speaker 2:I'm working on a piece of legislation that really it's like a Red Hill transparency bill that basically, when we start talking about like root causes. So what's happened with Red Hill is that all we're doing right now is training, treating the, the symptoms of like. What's going on with people? They come in and like oh, you have a headache, let's just treat your headache. You have this gastro issue, let's just let's just treat this.
Speaker 2:But what we're not looking at and what's something that's been frustrating with me before some of these health things happened is why are people who are, who are living on the drinking water system today as you and I sit here, teresa, not like me and several other folks who have pcs'd off the island or did compassionate reassignments? There are people today even the navy says that the water system is safe and they flush it a million times over. There are new people, new residents moving into housing that have no clue what red hill is. They don't know the history of their own drinking water system and they don't know that their plumbing in their home or the hot water heaters or the appliances like the person who used plastics that are in the appliances have not comprehensively been replaced, and so there's been all this money that's been, you know, sent, you know, through Congress to address the environmental issues at Red Hill the facility, because it is being shut down, which was a huge win, obviously.
Speaker 2:So there's been a lot of money applied to that, but not to address what potentially could still be making people sick, why there is still sheen on people's water, why kids are still getting rashes after showering, and I don't, as a parent of young children who has experienced this, I don't appreciate the lack of transparency in the sense that, um, I believe that every new resident reserves the right to know you, you know what has happened and to know these things like that. None of these things have been replaced and they all have a potential for for risk. Um, that water test results today, as you and I sit here, are still showing trace amounts of TPH, total petroleum hydrocarbon and other harmful contaminants, and folks aren't, they're not're not, they're not. Those results are being sent to anyone when you come in the leasing office.
Speaker 2:There's no special addendum on the lease that says anything about red hill. So folks are going in blind and we have not, for the past three and a half years, advocated for all this, for this to continue. And so you know if, if the military is not going to replace the plumbing or the hot water heaters, let me tell you one thing about that too Just how deceitful this whole thing has been. When you say you're a resident and you're like, hey, my water has a sheen, smells a little funny in my house. My kid's getting this rash. Can you come test my water? The military will come in, the Navy presides over the testing and they will flush your system. So they'll run all the faucets in the house. And they will flush your system. So they'll run all the faucets in the house and they'll dump the fall you know the spigots outside and they'll run them for 20 to 30 minutes. This is before a test even happens, right, and then, when they test, they will only test the cold water, which oh, by the way, bypasses the hot water heater. Okay, so they're flushing this stuff out and they're bypassing the hot water heater.
Speaker 2:Why? Why is that? Because they haven't replaced any of the stuff and we know that. You know jet fuel is sticky, the contaminants leach onto porous materials and they've not been replaced. So it's just really deceitful in my opinion, and I think that we have an obligation to notify folks. So the bill will be a transparency bill. If you're not going to replace, then you have to notify or be part of the lease for current and new residents. If you're some sort of facility on the drinking water system, whether that's a dining hall or a gym where people shower or what have you know where you go get your teeth cleaned at the dentist. You know none of none of that stuff has been replaced and you should have to post water test results, and you know we have signage out that talks about it, and so I think that's the least that we could do for folks to be informed.
Speaker 1:I love it. I love it, Mandy.
Speaker 1:I just I know that you're going to stay in the public eye as a voice for change, whether it be on Red Hill, whether it be in some other capacity. This is just where I see you going. We will stay in touch and stay friends and see each other hopefully next year, like I said at the swim, and I just can't wait to see what you do next. And I thank you so much for coming onto the podcast and telling our listeners a little more about this issue and updating us on everything that you've done. Since the last time we've talked, I feel like we just talked in January and now it's August, and we talked in person while we were in DC together, and now you've just moved forward in so many initiatives. It's like, oh my gosh, rapid succession of things that have happened, so I'm so proud of you. Anything else you want to add before we get off the call?
Speaker 2:Goodness. No, I think we've covered it. That's enough to talk about for now.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Thank you to everyone who joined us during the call. We really appreciate it, always appreciate the support. We did lose our stream to Facebook, so sorry about that. Thank God, mandy, you put that YouTube link on there. But yeah, we are on the YouTube, streaming live, facebook and LinkedIn, and then, of course, the voice part of the podcast goes out to wherever you listen to podcasts. Please give my YouTube a like. I think I'm almost to a thousand subscribers. I'm like five, ten away, so please consider becoming a subscriber. But with that I'm going to go full screen and I will meet you backstage. So thank you so much, mandy. Thank you All. Right, folks. That's a wrap for Tuesday.
Speaker 1:So, as you guys know, I have one more week left on active duty. That is, this week, september 1st. I will be a civilian with a DD-214 in hand and at that time I will be going to a two a week podcast lineup. I have decided, with my skill bridge ending this week, I have the time to do a Tuesday and Thursday show, so that will be my new ideal lineup. It won't always line up those those days, but that is.
Speaker 1:That is what I'm looking at doing for the time being, and so this gives me an opportunity to do even more shows and cover more truth tellers, tell people who's doing amazing things for the military, or doing things in our community that are speaking up and speaking out, as I always do. So with that, I got another show this Thursday talking to Damo from the permission to speak freely podcast, aptly titled, and can't wait to talk to him about his work on behalf of the sailors. He's really getting in there and having those hard conversations and those important conversations regarding the enlisted sailors, so can't wait to talk to him about that as a sailor myself. With that, I hope you have an amazing evening. As I always say, please take care of yourselves, take care of each other and bye-bye now.