Dr. Kamin Samuel is this week’s special American Legion Tango Alpha Lima Podcast guest where she shares her “thriving to surviving” journey from the military to civilian life.
Dr. Kamin Samuel went from trying on her older brother’s ROTC gear as a teenager to becoming the U.S. Navy’s first Black female helicopter pilot, flying the CH-46 Sea Knight.
“I was really blessed to be the first,” she said. “One of the reasons I say that is because nobody had any prejudices. They had no preconceived notions about whether I would be good or bad because I didn’t fit a particular category.”
She got thrown into the public eye for speaking engagements, but all Samuel wanted was for the Navy to “let me be excellent. Let me be the best I can so that from this point forward, any female behind me, especially any Black female behind me, had to sit up into that and they would expect that. I knew any female behind me, they would have to sit into that accomplishment.”
Samuel went on to serve as a flight instructor, but it was following her military transition into the civilian world where she went from thriving to surviving, as she shares on this week’s American Legion Tango Alpha Lima podcast.
Samuel found herself with suicidal thoughts when her business closed and she had to file bankruptcy, foreclose on her home and the IRS was after her. Putting her faith and military discipline into action, she “chose to survive this and chose to not contemplate suicide again. Doesn’t mean the thought is not going to come in, but I can’t ruminate about it.
“One thing I took too seriously was failure. I had failed therefore I am a failure. And not realizing that what I had tried did not work. That’s all. Let’s try again. Let’s keep moving. Learning that over time has been one of the saving graces.”
Her journey forward involved identifying what she loves to do – mentoring people. Now, Samuel is an international rapid business transformation coach and therapist where she is helping people shift their mindset of what they believe about themselves and what they believe about their possibilities.
“I have no limiting beliefs about what somebody can create. I am a yes for people creating, growing and achieving whatever it is they want in their life, and I can help them figure out how to get there.”
She is achieving this with the help of identifying one’s character strengths through the test viacharacter.org. “Most people can tell me their weaknesses,” Samuel said. “They can’t tell me their strengths,” Samuel said, adding she uses this to help her nieces and nephews know how to talk about themselves during job interviews, along with military leaders and even with executives at Pixar. “It’s such a great way for people to re-regulate themselves if they are out of balance. Most people will say it makes sense. They just now have a language of what they can be counted on for.”
Podcast hosts Stacy Pearsall, Adam Marr and Joe Worley took the character test. See who had honesty, humility and bravery as their top three.
“We are so good at what our weaknesses are,” Samuel said. “If we can live in our strengths, that’s the best we can do.”
Also, co-hosts Pearsall, Marr and Worley:
· Share post events on Legiontown.org
· Give a happy birthday to Rosa Parks and celebrate Black History Month
· Share the special exhibit at the National World War II Museum honoring Black servicemembers.
· Read funny mail carrier stories in recognition of National Thank a Mail Carrier Day
You can also check out the nearly 300 Tango Alpha Lima podcasts available in both audio and video formats here. You can also download episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other major podcast-hosting sites. The video version is available at the Legion’s YouTube channel.
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