The Path Less Traveled: From 14 and on her own to helping Veterans at VA
Navy Veteran Amy Hensen was supporting herself at 14 and now passes those same life skills on to her fellow Veterans. The journey that fills the gap between the two is one of persistence, patriotism and learning.
At the age of seven, Hensen’s single mom moved Hensen and her two older sisters from Massachusetts to California. Despite living 30 minutes from the beach, Hensen’s love of books and pursuit of knowledge earned her good grades. That is, until she turned 14.
“My mom decided she was going to live for herself because she had never been able to do that raising three daughters alone,” Hensen said. “Unfortunately, she decided to go in a direction that I didn't agree with and told me ‘either you come with me in my new life or find your own place to live.’”
Hensen chose the latter. High school instantly became a balancing act of work and study, with her need to financially support herself. When a lack of taking a math and a science course during her senior year led to poor SAT scores, she had to make a hard choice with little guidance.
“I really didn't have a good school counselor to advise me. I thought my academic options were limited to community college, which felt like an extension of high school. So, in 1993, at the age of 17, I joined the Navy because that was the military branch that both my uncles were in.”
Hensen’s decision set her on a journey of self-discovery and service to her country, including helping other young females consider a military career. After boot camp, she took advantage of a little-known recruitment initiative for new sailors to visit high schools and talk about their experience. Her focus was on speaking to female students, as there was a significant gender imbalance in the military, with women making up roughly 12% of personnel at the time.
Hensen served on the USS Cape Cod in San Diego as a storekeeper until it decommissioned two years later. Her deployment across the western Pacific took her to Hawaii, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bahrain and Dubai. Not all of those stops were pleasant, especially considering it was right after the Gulf War so the Persian Gulf was still considered hostile waters.
“Being a Westerner and a woman, Bahrain and Dubai were a culture shock. Women are just not respected there, and that was hard to see. Women had their headdress all the way up so you could only see their eyes and they couldn’t talk at all.”
Even amidst cultural differences and moments of tension, Hensen fondly remembers her tiger cruise, a Navy tradition allowing family members to join the crew on the final leg of a voyage. She chose the very person whose life went in a different direction when she was 14.
“I chose to fly my mom over to Hawaii at the end of deployment and I bought her a bunch of stuff with my ship's name on it. That week, she followed me around the ship to see me do my job.”
After returning home to California, Hensen got married to a fellow shipmate, completed her Navy service and had a son as a Navy spouse in Japan. She chose to be a stay-at-home mom because she felt early growth and education were important in a child’s development. Hensen learned sign language and worked at an after-school program just to get out of the house.
“As a sign language interpreter, you're invisible. You're facilitating communication between the deaf individual and the hearing community. I always struggled with this because I knew of resources that could help my clients but that would be overstepping that boundary.”
This thirst to share knowledge led Hensen to becoming a vocational rehabilitation counselor for the state of Illinois after returning to the states. She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Phoenix in 2009 and a master's degree focused on the deaf and Veteran communities shortly after. The lack of those math and science classes her senior in high school hardly seemed to matter.
Her journey came full circle in 2020 when she joined VA as a vocational rehabilitation counselor with the Rockford Compensated Work Therapy program. She supports Veterans with physical or mental barriers secure and maintain competitive employment.
“I jumped at the chance to serve this underserved Veteran community. We support our Veterans from day one in their employment search to on-the-job support until they don't need us anymore.”
Through it all, Hensen remains a role model for other Veterans, female or not.
“I am a proud Navy veteran. I love the camaraderie, especially with my female vets who are appreciative that I'm a female, so I get them.”
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Learn more about Compensated Work Therapy and Women Veterans Health Care. For more information about the Madison VA Hospital, visit www.madison.va.gov, www.facebook.com/MadisonVAHospital and subscribe to our newsletters.