By Jeff Troth, U.S. Army Medical Department Activity -- Fort Carson PAO
FORT CARSON, Colo. -- Life in the military as a woman isn't easy, but it isn't impossible.
This was the message the 10th Medical Group commander told Soldiers, Airmen and civilians during the latest Women's Leadership Forum held at Evans Army Community Hospital August 22.
"My life has been a little unique," said Col. (Dr.) Leigh Swanson, commander of the 10th Medical Group and command surgeon for the U.S. Air Force Academy. "But I do not complain about it because what has happened in my life got me to where I am today."
Swanson began her military career in 1994 as part of the Health Promotions Scholarship Program while she received a Doctor of Medicine degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin. Her first duty assignment was in family practice at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.
"I then went into flight medicine, which was a little unique for women back then," Swanson said. "I went to the Air Force Special Operations Command and during the interview process I had a cranky old colonel point at me and say he already had a woman in his unit."
Despite him, she joined the unit and quickly proved herself to the flight crews. Part of her responsibilities as an AFSOC flight surgeon was to log flight time on an aircraft.
"I had a 60-pound backpack I had to take with me on the flights," Swanson said. "The all-male flight crews were surprised I carried it on the airplane by myself since they had to help the other female surgeon who was smaller than me."
Swanson told them it was her backpack and she was capable of carrying her own flight gear. She said it was something they were not used to.
While that earned her the respect of the flight crews, her gender hampered her ability to do her job after 9/11 due to Army regulations.
"AFSOC sent me and a male flight surgeon to Uzbekistan to take care of all the people deployed to Afghanistan," said Swanson. "Our mission was to fly into Afghanistan, treat the casualty in the field and then fly them to the closest medical treatment facility in country."
At the time, the Army did not allow females to fly on their medical evacuation helicopters during combat missions. So Swanson's male counterpart took all the missions that required evacuation by helicopter, while she took the Air Force fixed wing evacuation missions.
In March of 2002, during Operation Anaconda, the decision was made to position a flight surgeon in the Shah-i-Khot Valley to expedite care to the wounded. Swanson said on her trip to the front line they landed at night on what they thought was solid ground.
"But the aircraft wasn't on solid ground, it was in sand. During the night the aircraft sunk and became stuck," said Swanson. "On that mission we got pinned down by the Taliban and had a casualty. I stabilized them and I had to fly the casualty out on an Army helicopter. I was told I was the first female to log combat time on an Army medivac mission."
Over the years, she has logged more than 545 flight hours as a flight surgeon, 55 of them during combat.
Swanson said, being the only female on missions had drawbacks such as having to share a tent with all her male teammates when in the field.
"But the nice thing was when we were at a hotel," Swanson said. "I always got my own room since I was the only female."
Once she became a commander, the male to female ratio didn't change for her.
"I was usually the only female commander," Swanson said. "During meetings I was the one female sitting at the table with 20-30 men."
According to her, some of the biggest challenges she faced as a commander was not in the office, but at social functions. Her husband, a retired special operations Airman, was not usually accepted by the other commanders' wives.
"We just don't seem to fit in when all the squadron commanders were men," Swanson said. "The wives don't want to talk to me because I am military and they thought they had nothing in common with my husband because he is prior military. And the male commanders don't want to talk to him either because he is a spouse."
With her new command at USAFA she hopes her baking will help break down some of those barriers. During her initial brief in June to her staff she told them if they invited her to a potluck lunch or dinner she would bring her triple chocolate Bundt cake.
Major Meredith Hettinger, chief of Evans' Hospital Education and Training, was disappointed Swanson didn't bring a cake to the forum, but was still glad she had accepted the invitation to come to Fort Carson.
"She was wonderful and very down to earth," said Hettinger. "She told us what we need to know, not just as females in the military, but as future commanders as well."
Hettinger said she was glad to see men in attendance at the Women's Leadership Forum since Swanson had good information all could benefit from.
"We hold these forums every two months and normally our speakers are from Evans. This time we thought we would do something different," said U.S. Public Health Service Cmdr. Renee Pazdan. "Since we are part of the Colorado Springs Military Health System market, we decided to have one of our market partners talk to us. She offered some good life experiences that generated some good discussions."
The group discussed the differences for most male and female commanders when it comes to home life, raising children, and how the availability of training is different now for women.
"In 1976, when women were first admitted to the Academy, their self-defense classes were on how to protect their purses. Last year, for the first time, female cadets were allowed to take boxing along with the male cadets," Swanson said. "Boxing teaches the cadets how to take a punch and how to fight back as they are getting punched. It also builds a lot of self-confidence. Things have changed a lot for women in the military."
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