Quarterly gatherings allow women veterans at Colony, Texas, Post 21 to share stories of their service, successes in their current lives.
An American Legion post in Colony, Texas, realized that normal meetings and events weren’t allowing the nearly two dozen women veterans in the post to get to know each other better.
That changed last year and has continued to evolve during Holley-Riddle Post 21’s Women’s Quarterly Meetups. The meetings are an opportunity for the women veterans at the post to learn more about each other’s service, as well as what’s going on in their lives now.
After the initial meetup in 2024, a second one took place last June to coincide with Women Veterans Recognition Day. “Everyone enjoyed it,” said Post 21 Adjutant Patricia Zuczek, who retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1996. “We talked to the ladies, and they said, ‘Yeah, we would like to get together more often.’”
Zuczek said the idea for the meetups came as a way to accommodate those members who cannot always attend monthly meetings. “We’ve got about 20 women in our post. Not all of them actually live close by,” she said. “We got to realizing that we get to see each other so little at some of these events and that we needed to find a way to connect a little bit more. Have a way to get together and talk with each other and learn more about each other.”
As the women veterans began to get to know each other a little bit more, it created a series of revelations.
“It was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I never knew that this person was so interesting. I never knew what their life was like and some of the things that they’ve done,’” Zuczek said. “We have two women working on their PhDs right now. We were kind of excited to know that there’s somebody here in our post that we can call or we can talk to or we can get together with and learn more about each other. And be inspired.
“And also, to see some of the amazing things that we are doing. It just kind of makes us feel good as women veterans: the things that we’ve accomplished and the things that we’re still doing in our lives.”
The meetings are attended by members of all war eras. Three were members of the Women’s Army Corps, which was established during World War II. Some were Vietnam veterans, while another member is a teacher working toward her master’s degree while raising a family.
“That’s what’s cool about us getting together: some are younger, some are older,” said Zuczek, who has added another component to the meetups: guest speakers.
At the most recent meetup on March 8, North Texas Patriot Anglers’ Michelle Pope and Lyndsay Holcomb shared their organization’s mission of supporting veterans through the therapeutic benefits of fly fishing. Also speaking that day was U.S. Army veteran Eva Fulton, who shared her journey of walking the Camino de Santiago, an extensive network of ancient pilgrim routes stretching across Europe and coming together at the tomb of St. James in Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain.
A previous guest speaker was Post 21 member Lisa Bass, the owner of Combat Boots Jewelry and a retired U.S. Army major. Bass joined the Army at age 30 as a private, completed both a bachelor’s and master’s degree while in the service and was the first female commander in the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team in Europe.
“She was a grandmother when she was jumping out of airplanes,” Zuczek said. “She showed us what she does. She told us her story.
“We think, ‘What did this person do? What did that person do?’ This is just a good way of getting together and sharing our stories.”
Zuczek said the meetups have had an impact on her as well.
“It makes me feel good that there’s a way for us to get together, and we kind of learn to trust each other,” she said. “When I went in (the U.S. Air Force) in 1976 and am out there with all the guys … you kind of felt you had to be tough because you’re trying to show the guys, ‘Yeah, I can do the job.’ It’s nice to know now that I can get together with other women who had similar experiences.
“And we can say, ‘I was really scared out there as a 19-year-old. I was afraid and I was lonely, now it’s nice to know I wasn’t the only one feeling that way.’ It doesn’t diminish my career when I say, ‘Yeah, when I was out there, I was afraid.’ But I managed to work through it … and hopefully because of me being able to do my job, women coming in after me are able to do their job.”
- Women Veterans