Tammy
Tyree
Tammy Tyree
Photo by David Cronin
When Tammy Tyree enlisted in the army at the age of 22, she had 60 hours of college credit, landing her ahead of her peers as a private first class. She went in because she wanted a career, a steady job, and discipline. More than anything, she was looking forward to the travel and expansion opportunities.
When she was in basic training, Tammy’s leaders often turned to her. Platoon guide, squad leader, cadence caller - she found she was a natural born leader in the making. However, it didn’t take long for her to discover that being a woman in the military, no matter how much experience and charisma she carried, was not going to be easy.
A dark turn of events…
Not long into her first assignment, Tammy quickly found herself the constant victim of sexual harassment at the hands of her commanding officer. For six months, the barrage of his constant comments was relentless. Eventually, Tammy got a new post at a different station, a medium security military prison. Her first sergeant was cut from the same cloth as her previous supervisor. Tammy soon found out that her new assignment had landed her in succession of a long line of women that her commanding officer had victimized. She pled with the man, “All I want to do is keep my job.” Sadly, as she held out against his advances, he began demoting her and giving her humiliating punishments. Even the prisoners remarked to Tammy that they were being treated better than her.
Opportunity knocks…
The All-Army Talent Competition came to her base, and Tammy had the chance to get out. A performer all her life, Tammy blew the audience and, most importantly, the judges, away with her singing. She was told she’d been given a slot to tour with the USO. Six weeks later, still having not heard anything back about her transfer, she went to her supervisor with papers in hand and a lot of trepidation. The man tore her notification up and threw it in her face! He laughed mockingly, letting her know that he was sworn to make sure she wouldn’t go anywhere but prison if he could help it.
The escape hatch…
A chaplain finally helped Tammy escape the army, although it was not without consequence. More than just her promising performance career had been stolen from her by then. Over three decades later, she has suffered debilitating depression, anxiety, and PTSD as after effects of her experience in the military.
Taking the stage of her own life again…
These days, thanks to opportunities like attending the ACSS CareerWorks program for veterans, as well as the ability to stay at Ft. McPherson Domiciliary, Tammy is starting to live life on her own terms again. Plus, she just landed a new job! She has a lot of hope for recapturing and reclaiming all she’d wanted for her life, including the ability to perform.
What does Tammy have to say about her life now?
"The Universe has its way of working things out and lining things up for me: in the exact way that I prayed for...and for that, I am light-years beyond grateful. Please understand, for 3 decades I have been swimming through the mud of the cycles of major abandonment, depression, anxiety, PTSD, trust and esteem issues. Always smiling, in darkness. Always a beaming light...for others. Just soldiering through seeking no pity. Just existing. The outstanding clergy and staff at the Domiciliary-Fort McPherson Atlanta removed the mud, put a blanket of love around me, helped me to overcome my injuries and introduced me to ACSS."
What does she want to say about ACSS?
"ACSS made me take a good, hard, honest look at myself, and to eat my portion of the situations that brought me to my lowest points. ACSS gave me financial help, financial guidance, renewed my self-esteem, got me to singing again and gave me a stage at Truth and Consequences. That event came at the exact same time that I was painstakingly regurgitating my entire Army experience into writing for my claim to Veterans Affairs. Deadline approaching, telling my story on-paper was a necessary evil that took 6 years of dredging memories, chase dreams and nightmares and then I had the opportunity to take it to the stage and bear it all. After leaving all those years of pain on the stage, I have self-love, perspective, clarity, life-tools, confidence and a mad vengeance toward living a life with more hope and less fear."