I was on my way to Mobile for a weekend conference when my phone rang.
A Deputy Sheriff from Calhoun County was calling about a woman veteran he’d been checking on — repeatedly. Her 12-year-old son had just been arrested again. Theft. Breaking and entering. A boy fighting his own battles while his mother was barely holding on to hers.
She came home from military service carrying PTSD, military sexual trauma, and depression. Then her ex-husband used her as a punching bag before walking out entirely. Left her alone. Left her to hold her son together while she was falling apart herself.
She did what so many women veterans do — she went looking for her people. Women who would get it without her having to explain. What she found instead was a nightmare. She was drugged and raped at an event where she had hoped to find safety and sisterhood.
She was done. Suicide was no longer a distant thought — it was close.
"She went looking for her people."
Women who would get it without her having to explain. What she found instead was a nightmare.
The only resource for women veterans in Alabama
The deputy did everything he could. He turned to Google. He searched for women veteran organizations in Alabama.
He found nothing.
Nothing, except us.
Invisible Warriors was the only women-focused veteran organization that came up. We were the only ones standing ready.
I spent the car ride and the next morning pulling together every local resource I could find near her — crisis contacts, support options, anything within reach. I sent it all to the deputy with one urgent message: get her connected online today. Not tomorrow. Today.
"Invisible Warriors was the only women-focused veteran organization that came up."
We were the only ones standing ready.
What women veterans in Alabama actually need
But here’s what kept me up that night.
We are two hours from where she lives. We have no one on the ground near her who could drive over, sit beside her, and just be there. The best we could offer was a phone call and an online connection — and as important as those things are, they are not the same as a hand on your shoulder from someone who understands.
The gap is costing lives
This story is not just about one woman. It’s about a gap that is costing lives.
Alabama has no statewide organization dedicated exclusively to women veterans. None. The organizations that exist are largely male-dominated, slow to respond, or offer responses that amount to just push through it. Women veterans deserve more than that. They deserve their own space, their own voices, their own support — and they deserve it to be accessible, wherever they are in this state.
We need volunteers across Alabama. We need funding to create local touchpoints, host events, and build the kind of statewide presence that means no deputy has to Google his way to help at midnight.
The gap is real. The need is urgent.
If you’ve been waiting for a reason to get involved — this is it.
When a Phone Call Changes Everything
Invisible Warriors
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