Determined Society with Shawn French | Adversity & Mindset - Exposing the Dark Side of Military Service: From Homeless to Hero with Janae Sergio

Episode Date: February 10, 2025

In this riveting episode of The Determined Society, host Shawn French sits down with Janae Sergio, a best-selling author, philanthropist, and former servicewoman. Janae shares her courageous journey from homelessness to becoming a social justice advocate, revealing shocking truths about systemic issues in the military, notably about sexual assault and violence. Tune in to hear her discuss the challenges she faced, the stories she's elevating, and her transformative work in military justice reform. Don't miss out—hit subscribe and follow our journey! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When it comes to what your family eats and drinks, you know your choices matter. You're the expert because you know what fits your life. And getting it right starts with good information. That's why America's beverage companies are sharing more information about our ingredients at good to know facts.org. No spin, no judgments, just the facts straight from the experts for more than 140 beverage ingredients. Visit good to know facts.org. We had a case a couple years ago. Her name was Denisea Montgomery. She was in security forces, and she had been attacked by a few members of her unit. She got home and she was bruised up.

She had some marks in her as if she had been kind of stabbed. And she told her parents, I'm afraid for my life, I'm afraid for my safety. Next thing you know, she was found dead in her barracks room, and the army told her parents that it was suicide. Coincidentally, the cameras had been turned off right before it happened. Her roommate was one of the people who had attacked her in the car, and so there were some concerns that maybe she allowed access to the room while she was gone.

There were some bruises inside of her legs. So spent several months raising awareness for her, trying to really elevate the story so that they can't shove it under the rug. French, what else? You just know I'm a go for mine because I earned it.

They watch and I know it's time. I confirmed it. A whole society determined. What's up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of The Determined Society. I'm your host Sean French, and if this is the first time you are listening to the show, please hit subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts, follow the journey along, start at episode number one and just listen to the growth because we've made some crazy,

crazy leaps and balanced quantum leaps in the show over the last four years. So super happy. Today I have an amazing guest to share with you. Her name is Jenae, Sergio. She's a best-selling author, former service woman, doing amazing. things in the community to bring a lot of light to certain subjects. She's a bestselling author and a philanthropist and welcome to the show, Jeney. Thank you. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited you're here. It's like, I feel like I know you already. Right. Because it's like, that's the power of social

media, right? You get connected through people that you already know love and trust and it's like, when you meet somebody else and you brought into the circle. It's like, okay, I already know that person. Yes. Right. So, I mean, it's pretty cool. But you just flew in. Yes. You had a nice flight. I did. Yeah. Yeah. You look happy. You don't look like it was too bad. I got a good little cat nap in. Did you? You can sleep on a plane? I don't normally sleep on planes, but whenever I travel, especially for like speaking engagements

and events like this, I struggle to sleep at night because I stay up all night kind of preparing myself. And so once I get on the plane, I'm like, all right, I'm going to have to take a cat nap. Oh, yeah. I'm pretty sure I had my mouth open on the flight, and I'm pretty sure the guy next to me might have filmed it. So if you see me going viral later for that, I'm here for it. Just as long as he tags you.

Exactly. Like, send a collab, dude. You can be here, send a collab, so that's why she gets all the analytics. I'd love that. And all the people that want to learn her sleeping journey. And she's a mouth breather. I didn't know it until I woke up. It was like, oh.

God Almighty. This is funny because I said like, oh, you can sleep on a plane. Like, I know, I can't. Yeah. I have to have, like, my nerves ride me when I'm, you know, traveling. Now, recently over the last couple years, they've gotten much, much better. I had this job that I had to travel for. I had to go to Portugal.

I was white knuckling it the whole way. As I was like, dude, this plane goes down, like, we're in the water here. I'm just going to be like, there doesn't need to be a serious rescue mission going on, right? But I just think of all the bad shit. And over the last couple years, like, now, like, it used to affect me going through TSA. Like, I swear my wife probably hated traveling with me because every time I say something like, oh, why don't you just be nice about it? Like, I'm just like, I'm not happy about getting on this plane. But now it's like, it's cool.

It's getting a little better. I've had anxiety on flights as well. I think I remember one time I was flying over the Great Lakes. because it's the body's the water that get me as well. Because I'm like, there's no emergency landings. Yeah. Except for what was that, that aircraft that landed in the Hudson a while ago? It's like, I always have like hopes that my pilot can do that on every flight that I'm flying over the water.

But I remember I was flying over the Great Lakes once. And I kept looking down. And, you know, the thing is from the sky, everything looks like a lake. So I thought we had like passed Chicago and we were still going. And I'm like, I was like looking for the stewardess. I wanted to tell her like, excuse me. I think we can't, I think we went too far. Hey, hey, turn this shit around.

You guys are going the wrong way. And you're like, oh my God, is this thing hijacked? Like, what the fuck? So you're sitting there and you're looking for the air marshal. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I'm probably a little bit like you. I probably sit on there and just start thinking all the things that are about to go wrong. Like, you know, that one bump.

And I'm like, we hit a bird. I just know. Yeah. The engine's blown out. We're so screwed. Why is this bird flying this high? Yeah. Crazy.

You want to know something that's happened to me recently? I'm not going to say his name because I don't want him to get in trouble. but but like I where was I? Oh, I was coming back from where when I met Michael and Tim in Traverse Michigan when we were hanging out of Eric Thomas so I'm way back

I hop on a flight all right it was my connecting flight no it was my first flight I'll get this right I promise you I will sorry guys hang with me you know I'm not very smart so I get in travel I get on the plane and Traverse in my connecting flight with Charlotte

and like I'm sorry like every time you connect that night in Charlotte, you are fucked. Yeah. Like, so, but I, I roll up to my seat and it's like right against like the front part and it's like where the bathroom is and like, so I couldn't do this. But there was this gentleman sitting there on the end and, you know, he gets up, you know, and he's got a, you know, like a sweatshirt on, had some slick back hair, a cool little goatee. I'm like, this is a fucking badass.

I like this guy. But he got out of super kind. And, you know, we didn't have anybody in the middle of us. And we were able to have this amazing conversation just getting to. know each other. I'm thinking, this motherfucker's in hair, Marshall. Like straight out. And I said to him, I looked at him, I go, you take the first shift? I'll take the second shift. And he goes, you're going to, why are you quoting bridesmaids? I'm like, you know why I'm quoting bridesmaids. He goes, he goes, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, he goes, I'm not. He goes, no. Okay. Sure. Sure,

buddy. I know how this goes. So we just start having great conversation. You know, he asked me what I do and I told him about all this. And he's like, whoa, this is fascinating. Can you show me your page? So I show him my Instagram and he goes, can I follow it? I'm like, absolutely. And he goes, hey, do you mind? I go, dude, I'm going to follow you back.

Don't worry. And so I followed him back and we started like having this friendly conversation, talk about our families. I'm like, so man, what do you do? And I just, I just, he's like, well, you know, I'm in, I'm in Department of Defense. I'm like, no shit you are. I'm like, of course you are. And he starts laughing.

He's like, no, it's not what I do. But I do gun trainings for organizations and things like that. I'm like, so you're the Department of Defense and you gun trainings. Yeah. For like corporations, but sure, not an air marshal. Yeah. He goes, correct. I'm like, cool, man.

And we just had this great conversation. And before we get off the plane, he gives me his car. He's like, hey, just give me a call some time, man. You got my cell number in your phone already. But here are my other numbers. If you ever have any questions, give me a call. He's like, it's a little bit more involved than what I told you. And I didn't even think to look at it yet.

I'm like, all right, man, I'll be in touch. Because I was late for my next flight because we sat on the tarmac for an hour and a half. So long story short, I get back to the hotel room that was conned because Americans screwed it up. They have enough people working so we can get off a plane. I looked at the car, senior Air Marshall. I texted him like, you motherfucker. And I knew it. He's like, oh, yeah, you're a regular FBI agent.

To this day, me and this gentleman speak every day via text, absolutely adore him and his family and yeah so that's so cool that's a really cool story you're like but you know you could have played along with me that

yeah we could have run with it and so I said like hey dude did you know that I knew he's like yeah I knew that you knew but I can't tell you especially while he's there like doing the work right and I said

how many like how many times have I been on a flight with an air marshal and he's not known and he goes probably one probably never because it's very rare that you're actually on a flight

wow right the percentages, right? All the flights in the world, all the people taking him, you know? He texts me, picture everywhere he goes. Everywhere he goes, like, oh, I'm in Germany, and the next day he's in Maui. I'm like, what the thing's going on.

But that's not what the show's about, right? Still sounds like... Shout out to my guy. It's pretty cool. But, I mean, if I earn you an air marshal... I got a guy. You got a guy. No, I know who to call.

Well, listen, when I make it big, he's going to be my security. There you go. I already told him that. He's like, I'm hiring you. I'm hiring you. He's like, you say... I see that they.

Oh, well, you know, I don't need bodyguard yet. You might. I know you do. Every once in a while. We'll get to that. Might hear in Norfolk. We don't know. Oh, shit.

I don't know. Oh, yeah. I was thinking I've done some pretty salacious stories here. And I was like, you know, come to think of it. You might be on the hit list here. Some of my worst stories are actually here. So I was like, how. I should have probably better prepared for that.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe like a disguise or something. Yeah. Well, no, because I'm, the thing is, is that when I do the travel, like, so that's kind of where you get into the issue with the work I do is that also with speaking engagements or events I have to market them. Yeah, I know. And so people know where I'm going to be. I can't even, you know,

you know, you know, you know, and they can just buy a ticket to the event and show up. Yeah. Shit. Remind me not to stand next to you at all tomorrow. So listen, okay. Well, so I was actually going to ask you to stay right there. And I speak. Well, hey, listen. I need protection. So we're already on it, right? Let's hit it. So you talk about the work you do watch to the audience, the type of work that you're talking about that is leading to this conversation. Okay. So I am a social justice warrior, uh, is, is what I define it as. And really a DD214 social justice warrior. And so I served in the Navy for eight years active duty. Um, after I got out, I, you know, I have my career and I have my book. But then I, I got moved very

quickly into advocacy, but also a little bit of activism. Um, I elevate stories of, uh, injustices that happening in the military and and I'll I'll do it for other organizations as well like colleges some like that but more so with the military typically sex crimes violence in the military any type of like suicides like suspicious suicide so we had a case a couple years ago it was actually about two years ago a soldier in Germany and she was in security forces her name was Denisea Montgomery And she had been attacked. They were security forces, so like military police,

and she had been attacked by a few members of her unit coming back from a water park. They were on Liberty, and they were at a water park. And she got attacked in the car, and it's actually recorded of her being attacked. And she got home and she was bruised up. She had some marks in her as if she had been kind of stabbed by something.

And she told her parents, I'm afraid, I'm afraid for my life, I'm afraid for my safety. and then a few weeks later, she was packing. She had posted a video of her bag in the corner. She was going to be able to go home. And next thing you know, she was found dead in her barracks room. And the Army told her parents that it was suicide. As her parents started digging a little bit deeper,

some of the details surrounding her death didn't really add up to suicide. First off, the first thing they said was that it was suicide by suffocation. How do you suffocate yourself? I mean, she's not a toddler. Exactly. And so her parents were like, that doesn't, you know, really makes sense. That doesn't add up. And then they said that she hung herself from her locker.

And so her sister, who's also in the service, showed an example of what it would look like and was like, there's no way you can hang yourself from your locker. It's not high enough. Coincidentally, the cameras had been turned off right before it happened. Her roommate was one of the people who had attacked her in the car. And so there was some suspicious. She had been gone.

but there was, you know, some concerns that maybe she allowed access to the room while she was gone. There were some bruises inside of her legs. So spent several months raising awareness for her trying to to really elevate the story so that they can't shove it under the rug. Because what happens a lot in the military, and this was more common, especially before December 23, or December of 2023, where commanders had the authority to make a case go away, to say that we don't see any validity to this. We're not going to send them to court-martial. So that's why I elevate the stories so that you can't shove it under the rug.

You can't hide it. Everybody knows about it, and you have to take action on it because there's just a lot of injustice that happens. You join the military so that you can serve and you know the risk, but the last thing you expect is that the risk is going to be the people that are serving to the right and left of you, those are going to be the people who are sexually insulting you, or those are the people who are going to be, you know, raping children, right? You don't want to serve next to somebody who's doing that, or those are going to be the people who are committing

violence against you. You shouldn't have to worry about that within your own unit. And so that's what I work to push out as a military. Wow. Yeah. I mean, like, honestly, like, that's just sad. It's really sad. And like, you know, as a civilian, I've never really, been, you know, a service member, but, you know, as a civilian, you look at the United States military and you look at the overall mission is to serve and protect. Yes. Right. And it's just unfortunate, I'm like thinking like this whole time, I'm like, you know, I've got two beautiful daughters. I got a son also, right? 11 year old son, eight year old daughter, six year old daughter. And it's like, wow, so you mean to tell me that the service may not even be a safe

place for them. Yeah. Yep. So I'll tell you the statistics for, just for, sexual assault or sex crimes in the military. It was in the, I think, the 2021, the military has to release because they are a public entity, right, they have to release the statistics. And so the report in 2021 showed that they had about 36,000 members who were estimated to have experienced sexual assault. Of those 36,000, 16,000 of them were men. So then when you get down and you start to like dig into the amount of people who were reported only about 5,000 were reported, less than 2% of those 5,000 actually were convicted of sex crime. So if you take the amount that were reported and then you weigh that against the estimated amount, less than

1% of the people who committed sex crimes in the military were convicted. What kind of message do you send? That's wild shit, man. That's wild. It's scary. It's really scary. And then And 33% of the people who actually reported it got pushed out of the military. So if you commit a sex crime in the military, the odds of you getting convicted are less than 1%. But if you have a sex crime committed against you and you report it, you have a 33% chance of getting pushed out of the military. So why do you think people stay silent? And then you have these people who are committing them promoting within the ranks. And then they're the ones who are suppressing the stories.

So myself and a group of advocates, and, you know, we really are activists if you really think about it. Myself and a group of advocates work together as well as the Vanessa Guillen family to help with the executive order that President Biden signed in December of 2023, which sends major crimes, not just sex crimes, but homicides, manslaughter, sends major crimes to an external entity. so it doesn't even give the commander the authority anymore to make a decision. So they're not, because they may not necessarily protect them because it's like their friend, but it could just be a really outstanding soldier that they're like, I don't want to ruin his career, it wasn't that bad, or I don't have enough details like a commander who doesn't, who's not an expert in law, will say, oh, well, there's not enough evidence in the case to prosecute.

Well, how would you know that? You're not the prosecutor. You're right. You know, you're not the expert in law. So now they've pushed it over to what's called the Office of Sports, special trial counsel, and those are legal experts. And so they investigate it and then they go through the process. So we're watching to see how that trend is changing now. And so we, yeah, so not only do I do the work that you see online, where I've advocated for about over 200 cases.

I have about 11 million reach, a reach of about 11 million per month on some of these stories. But not only do you see the work that I do online, but we also go and we meet with our legislators. I testify in front of Congress. And I bring other people's stories, right? I bring those, that human factor. I love that shit. Yeah. That's fantastic.

And you're saying, to go back real quick, though, President Biden's the one that signed that. He did. Well, there's something good. There's a win. There's one. Literally the one, right? The one. We had been pushing for that, though.

So Vanessa Guienne, I believe that was in 2020. And so since then, the advocates have really been pushing for that. So that's how long it took for that to finally get pushed through. And I think it had been introduced probably even prior to that. But it was just relentless advocacy and bringing these stories to the forefront and look at the, you know, the military justice system needs reform. And on some of our teams, we even have retired judges from the military who have seen on their end. And so they're like, I have, you know, children. in the service or I have daughters and I don't want my daughter to go through this so I'm now an

advocate as well so yeah he did he signed that we'll still give it to him right we'll see it's one thing give him one thing wouldn't he he didn't he do his his exit speech and he said you know all these things we accomplished and I'm like I mean we've got the one you've got the one dude like it's fun so I like it's so funny I never leave a bad comment on any type of social media except when I see Biden's aim on Twitter or X, whatever the hell it's called now. And Obama said something today, or yesterday, tweeted that Joe's presidency was amazing and everything. I said, my response was, huh?

What? Like, what are we talking about here? And I'm not a, and everybody will admit, I'm not a big political guy. You know, like, this is the most, like, you know, that realm I've talked about on my show, but I'm excited about it, right? Because it's not like, are you a Trump or are you a leftist, right? Like, it's not that. And I just truly feel that what we really need to do is come together as America, right?

It's not about the party, but it's about the mission of our country. And are we doing things for our people? Yes. Right? Our people. Now, I'm not saying that we don't need to help out, right? But I'm saying, hey, we're hurting right now. America's hurting a little bit.

And I know it probably started way before that. And, you know, the pilot light was already lit, but COVID exploded it. It did. You know, it's where, you know, there's family members that don't consider themselves family members anymore. There's friends and don't speak to each other anymore because one's a Republican and one's a Democrat. How fucking dumb is that? Yeah. And then you see Trump and Obama chopping it up. Yeah. It's all an act. Yeah. It's all an act. He commented that on social media. They said they don't hate each other. They don't. They don't hate each other. Yep. They're getting. So if you look

at like the WWE complete in the WWF completely unrelated, but it's a soap opera. Yeah. Well, what do you think this is? Exactly. What do you think this is? You know, a lot of it could be staged. She's like, we don't know what's going on. But my favorite is, is always when Trump was debating with Biden. He's like, yeah, I just don't know what he said. And I really don't think he does. Oh, yeah. Oh, that was a good one.

That was a really good one. Funny story. Have you seen the new Jamie Fox special? I have it. Okay, on Netflix, do it. He does the best Trump impersonation. He does the better Trump than Trump. Oh.

It's incredible. That's fucking hysterical. But your work, your activism, right? What you're doing, your mission is very brave. right and you know we can go we're gonna i want to go into you know you being one of the first people deployed after nine 11 right but but first it's like you're not just a single one you have you have kids right you married daughters um recently divorced okay so but you have a family i do and like you are putting yourself at risk for the betterment of the country so you're out of the military

you're no longer putting your life you know on the line there but you still are yeah that's that's a real soldier. Thank you. I appreciate that. And, you know, I feel like we have a moral duty to speak up. And, you know, the first thing is I'd have two daughters. And so the last thing I want is for my two daughters through what I went through. And, and I'd like, you know, one of my daughters was to follow in my footsteps and join the Navy, but I can't allow her with what I know. Yeah. And, but it's not just my daughter. I think about other people's daughters. And I think if I had known these things before I joined the military, it may not have swayed me away from joining. the military because it is a great opportunity to change your story, and you'll hear all about that

this weekend. It is a great opportunity, but the problem is that you have people who come into the military and we let our guard down because we think we're all brothers and sisters. Yeah, we can all trust each other. And next thing you know, that's the person that's hurting you. And then I compare this to combat the way that you get treated after. And I'll continue to talk about sexual assault, but again, there's other types of that happens. And, but you, but you, You just say, for example, you get sexually assaulted by somebody in your unit. I compare it to trauma or to combat. When you're in combat, what do they do?

They immediately remove you from the threat, right? And then they deal with the threat, and then they validate that what you went through was a real experience. And then they rehabilitate you, and they try to help you get back into society and be rehabilitated. Well, when you get assaulted by somebody in your unit or harmed by somebody in your unit, they don't do any of that. It's like the opposite, right? It's the opposite. They leave you right there with that person. They leave you right there with that person. They ostracize you. They dismiss what you experience. They re-victimize you. You don't see justice happen. You have to fight in order to get your benefits in order to get some sort of benefits or rehabilitation. And so it's like you basically leave that person right there smack in the middle of combat and you're just compounding their trauma. And all these people want to experience is valid. that, you know what, my leadership knows this happened to me. And yes, things like this might happen. But the people who are here to protect us from this, from even each other, are going to

step in and make sure it gets taken care of. And even that doesn't happen. What do you think fuels all this? It's systemic. It's systemic. We talk about it, you know, I hate to say it this way, for especially with sexual trauma. First off, the mission you heard Pete Higgs-eth, right, is to be lethal. That's the focus. That's what the focus of the military is. It's not to create an equal culture and all of that in their mindset, right? And so we'll start with that. It's like the focus is over there.

The next thing is when you don't value the what someone brings to the mission, when they have issues, you may not take those issues seriously because they're dispensable in your mind, right? And so if they view first, if they view something, sexual assault as a woman issue, which it's not, as I explained earlier. But if they view it as that, and it's a polarized conversation, then they say, well, it's a woman's issue. Women are a little bit dispensable in the military. This man over here, though, he's part of the lethal force. We need him to stay. So, you know, maybe we'll kind of just let this go so that we can keep him and he can continue to go do the mission. So I feel like that's it. I think that also it's just the reform that needs to

happen and it's happening, but it takes time to get that reform going. That's crazy, Jene. Yeah, and one of the big goals that I have is to really depolarize the conversation and to get people to understand that this also happens to men. But when it happens to men, oftentimes it's downgraded as hazing, not just by the military, but even by the man, right? Because no man wants to say. He doesn't want to say that Jimmy sexually assaulted me.

And unfortunately, when you have that, then you're not getting treated for the right type of thing. So then the man is going on and he's living his life, not understanding, why am I angry? Why are certain things triggering you? Why do I want to do certain things that I didn't want to do before? It's because he's not addressing the fact that he experienced sexual trauma. Yeah, it's a different trauma. Like, we, I mean, that's just like, you know, people can be traumatized from losing a grandparent or a parent. But the sexual trauma, you know, sexual assault trauma is different.

It is. Same with hazing. It's like it's all a different type of shit. All three of them suck. Yes. You know, very much so, right? But the fact of the matter is, you know, and again, I don't want to, I don't probably shouldn't say this, but I would say like getting over a grandparent passing or a parent

passing and even, you know, being hazed, depending on the level of the hazing, I don't want to be insensitive to that. But like those two things there, I think in my mind are more conceivably, like, easier to work through through therapy. But when you're sexually assaulted and you're not even that that root problem, that root thing is not being, you know, helped through, you know, medical attention. Like that, that's how people kill themselves. Exactly. So let's go there like that. I mean.

Or even others. Thank you. Yeah. I mean, now I'm not saying like hazing in school and bullying. doesn't get kids to kill people. I don't, you guys know what I'm saying, right? Like, I'm not here to make any definitive statement, but it's just like I'm looking at it.

I'm like, if it's sexual trauma, sexual assault trauma, you can't treat it like hazing. No, you can't. It's different. Exactly. Because, you know, it's a power thing, right? So that person took a piece of your power. Yeah.

And so if you don't acknowledge that and you don't work through that, you go through life trying to figure out why can't, you know, they took maybe a piece of your identity. I mean, the reality is men, they, you know, because of the work I do, I hear this all the time, men don't want to acknowledge it because it feels emasculating, right? It feels, and, you know, they're treated differently, too, when they admit that it happened to them or they come forward. I'm covering a case right now. I don't know if you saw it, but Major Stockin up at JBLM, he was an army doctor who sexually assaulted 41 men, 41. 41 different minds. I saw you speaking on something maybe if right after the election. Yes. What was that?

That was major stock in. Okay, yes. Yes. And you were catching heat about something and I think you were rebuttling it. I watched it. I don't remember the details, but because I mean, it was like three, four weeks ago, right? It was. Yeah.

Four term memory. Yeah, because he was a physician and people would come in and they'd have like neck or back pain. And he would tell them to take off their clothes and he would fondle them with bare hands. And the thing about it is in the military. And so when I shared the story, the first time I shared the story, this was a year ago when it came out. There was only 23 victims. And that's still a lot. That's still a lot.

And at that time I said, and at that time I said, this is what's getting, this may be one of the biggest sexual assault cases in the military. And when I shared it, I shared all the commands he worked at. Next thing you know, 41 people in total have come forward. And he's looking at only getting 13 years for it. He was facing 300. Yeah. So how old is he? I would say probably in 40s. So he would still have a life. He would still have a life after.

And all these people, he robbed their life, right? Because they're going to have to live with this forever. 41 people. And like you said, right? Who's to say there's not more victims that have already taken their life because they couldn't live with it? And these were all men. All men. All men. And so when the story, and I believe that's why the, that's why the, that, this wasn't taken as serious because when the story came out, people were like, well, why didn't they just say no? Yeah. Um, or why didn't they report it? And so I'll kind of explain why.

Because in the military, it is a hierarchy, no matter which entity you go to. So if you're, if you're in the military and you're an E4 and you go to a military hospital, even though it's a hospital, a major outranks you, there's still a power and ballot. And so if you go in there and this major who outrinks you tells you you have to take off your pants and he you have to listen yeah and if you try to push back against it he can actually go to your command and have you disciplined and say that you're you know denying the treatment that you need you can actually i've advocated for people who have actually been counseled for um advocating for themselves medically and so uh because the doctors called their command and had a power uh yeah yeah issue right where they were

like, oh, he's not listening to me and got him in trouble. So the thing is, because it was all men, people were just kind of saying, well, why did you let him do that to you, bro? Why did you let him do that to you, bro? And it just, it invalidates it and it makes that person feel even worse. I think most people, I mean, I think probably everybody that's asking that question doesn't know shit about the military. Exactly.

Or the ranking system, right? It's just, it's just wild to me, man. So if you were to go in, right, and like one of those men, if they fought back and said, no, can they be sent to the brig for that? So not immediate. Well, I mean, if it's something where they think that you're not necessarily the brig, but if it's like a mental health type of thing and you fight back, they can abuse their power and they can get you, you know, committed, right?

And then they can go down that road. And actually we stuck there. Yep. And, you know, it's interesting because remember I told you earlier about the statistics and I said 33% of people get kicked out. I've actually had reports of people who their command and the doctors, they believe worked in unison to say that they had mental health issues before they came in the military, so they pushed them out. Yeah. So.

But none of it came up when they were getting screened. Exactly. But it suddenly comes out after they report a sexual assault, but it was before they came in so that they can't get the benefits. And so they just get pushed out. So, but there's definitely opportunities for them to abuse the power and for that person to be admitted. and like I said, I've advocated for people who have experienced stuff like that. In one case in San Diego, the sailor, he got committed into a hospital. And his family said that he didn't have these issues before he came in the military. They said that it was before he came in preexisting. And they just threw him out on the street and he was actually homeless.

They didn't give him his documents or anything. And so she was doing go-fund means to try to get him back home. home and to get him the support he needed. So there's just so many stories of abuse. And that's what I take. I take the names. I take the stories and I take the names and we get them in front of our legislators. And sometimes it's by way of social media. Yeah. And you're giving them the voice, right? You're fighting for them. Like, you're putting a name to the trauma. You're putting a name to the story. You are fascinating. I'm so grateful you're here right now. You know, when you do these, you're like always looking forward to the conversation. But this is,

I mean, I don't know if you realize, but like almost 45 minutes has just flown by. Yeah. It's amazing. Like, this is great conversation. And I think I know my audience is really going to love this. So what can we expect from you this weekend? I am going to be sharing the message of the hero mindset. And so I'm going to share my story about how I was actually.

And the reason that I give a voice to people is because I was silenced. Okay. Okay. See, I thought that I had. So it's fun. Not to interrupt, but like I thought I read that or learned that on your page, but then I got it mixed up because the same day I listened to my buddy's podcast, and he had a woman on there that was also silent.

So I told my team, I'm like, wait, no, no, no, maybe I got this all fucked up. Hopefully it comes out naturally and it did. So perfect. It was. So I joined the Navy from a homeless shelter when I was 16 years old. My mom dropped me off at a homeless shelter. I was homeless in Hollywood for about two and a half years. joined the Navy from a homeless shelter. And when I came in, I was so excited that, like I said, I finally had a family. I could let my guard down. Six months after coming in the Navy, I went on a Navy-sponsored trip, and I was sexually assaulted on that trip. And immediately, in the moment, I created a scene because they had put us all in a room, like five of us in a hotel room together. There wasn't even enough beds for us yet. It was gross negligence on behalf of the leadership, right?

And like I said, because we were subordinates, we had to listen. And so I ended up getting sexually assaulted in that room, woke the leader up right there. In that moment, when it happened, I was reporting it, and he threatened me because he would get in trouble for all of the things he allowed us to do while we were on this trip. So he threatened me, and he said, if you call the cops, because we were all drinking underage, if you call the cops, you're going to get in trouble for drinking underage, and you're going to be back on the streets where he came from. And he silenced me in the moment. and I get back to the base and somebody else reported on my behalf. So it did end up going to court martial

during the time that it was we were waiting for this case to go to court martial which by the way it took about a year and a half, two years to finally go to court martial I had to actually stay in the classroom in class with the person who assaulted me and I was leaving class every day trying to go to medical because I couldn't stand

to sit in this classroom with this person I was ostracized like I said, re-victimized. It affected me. And it affected me throughout my career because now all these people that I want to trust, I want to let my guard down, but I can't. I'm living in fear with people who could be helping me. And then it's affecting my career. And so after that, I just, I knew that eventually I was going to be able to come back and help people. I didn't know how grand it was going to be. after I got out of the Navy, I promoted very quickly within the Navy, or within the Department of Defense, actually. I'm now the chief of Air Force lodging, so I oversee 88 Air Force hotels.

Look at you. Promoted very quickly. And I just still felt like there was a sense of purpose missing. And that's what I'm going to talk about this weekend is, you know, the hero mindset is you often see that victim mindset and then you see survivor. And survivor's still passive. Sure. Hero is, no, I'm going to step up. up and be my hero, and then I'm going to come back and I'm going to be a hero for others.

It's amazing. And so that's what I'm going to be talking about is just I felt that sense of purpose was missing, got on social media, and I was just thrust right into it, and here we are. I had goosebumps right there. Unbelievable. I'm excited to watch your keynote and to cheer you on, and I, you have a new fan. Like, for real, like, no bullshit. Like, for real, like, I am, like, I cannot wait to dig into your socials more and your stories more

And whatever I can do to support you along the way, hey, I'm in. Thank you. Because this is important. So where can the audience find you? How can they support you? Buy your books, all that kind of stuff. So you can find me at janeasurgeo.com. I am on all socials at jane underscore perfectly flawed.

My book is also available on Amazon. It was a number one bestseller on the day I released it. It's called Perfectly Flod, a Veterans Journey from Homeless to Hero. I want one. Do you have some with you? Absolutely. All right. for you. Oh, come on. I would have brought it in, but I was running out a little bit late,

so it's still in the car. No, it's okay. No, like, amazing. And thank you so much for coming on and sharing what you're doing for the world, right? It's a, guys, it's a brave thing. She has two children, right? 11 and 14 or 16? 17 and 12. 17 and 12. I was close. I was close. But to do something like that really shows where her heart is and, you know, what she's focused on is bringing light. to really, really bad situation so people can live their lives in peace and be healed. So please go check her out. And if this episode made your hair stand on end

or if you know something or you've been a part of something, please reach out to her so she can help you and share this show with someone you know, love and trust. And as always, please, hey, leave a review. Let us know what you like in what you'd like to hear from from then on. But until next time, stay determined.