Jennifer Rudquist recalls her arrival at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas on Thanksgiving Day 1996.

Now the recruiting trainer with CalVet’s California Transition Assistance Program (CalTAP), she stepped off a bus that day, into basic training and her brave new world.

“It was already really late when the bus pulled up to our building. I couldn’t see anything out the window—the only sign that we had arrived was that the bus had stopped and a big, tall man with a big hat entered the bus screaming at us to get off the bus,” Rudquist said.  “As we filed out seat by seat, I thought to myself, ‘What did I sign up for?’ When it came my time to walk down the step of the bus and pass by him, I did everything not to look at him. He must have noticed because he looked at me and screamed, ‘You are going to be my runt, aren’t you!’”

Who was she to argue with a drill instructor?

“(I was) 19 years, old barely 5-feet, 1-inch tall and 120 pounds,” she said.  “I looked up as my feet hit the pavement and all I saw was the mid-section of a man. I had to keep looking up to see the rest of his 6-foot-4 stature. As if that wasn’t enough, I looked past him at the building and I saw a giant mural of a Tasmanian Devil with the words, ‘323 House of Pain.’ In that moment, I was full of regret for my life choices.”

A month later—her consternation replaced by confidence—Rudquist celebrated her first Christmas with her newfound kinfolk: her Air Force training comrades.

“I spent my first Christmas in the day room of my basic training dormitory wearing not matching family jammies, but fun matching white Air Force (physical training) gear,” Rudquist said. “You would think this was depressing, but it was actually nice. The Air Force has always been a part of my life, being a military dependent. But sitting there with the other girls wearing the uniform of the day gave me a strong sense of belonging. There was no tree, no presents, or music, but there was my Air Force family.”

Today, she helps California veterans and their dependent children understand all that is available to them under their GI Bill education benefits, plus more. She treats them like a relative. “I am the granddaughter of a veteran, the daughter of a veteran, the wife of a veteran, and the mother of three active-duty servicemembers,” Rudquist said. And, of course, a veteran herself. “I understand better than anyone that wearing a uniform is not the only way you can serve. When I am helping someone, I am helping my family. I can empathize with each person I speak with because I have had a similar experience or a friend or family member has lived that experience.”

Like them, she has experienced hardships and sacrifices they made while serving, but also as one who has supports servicemembers through the moves, the schools, the career struggles, the deployments, the missed holidays, and family events. 

“These benefits truly are EARNED benefits,” Rudquist said. “I get excited when I have opportunities to share the ways counties, the State of California, and their country say thank you. I know how much these benefits change lives and there is no better gift than to share and to help my military family access these benefits. Truly it is an honor to serve my military family, my gratitude is unending for the opportunities to continue a life of service.” Indeed, she epitomizes a veteran serving veterans.

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This is one of a series of CalVet Connect posts introducing you to CalVet employees who are veterans of the United States Armed Forces—thus, “Veterans Serving Veterans.”

Visit CalVet’s Veterans Services page at https://www.calvet.ca.gov/VetServices to see the range of services CalVet provides.

Would you like the opportunity to serve veterans in your work? Join the CalVet team! We are dedicated to ensuring that veterans from every era, along with their families, receive the state and federal benefits and services they have earned and deserve due to their selfless and honorable military service. At CalVet, we prioritize serving veterans and their families with dignity, compassion, and a commitment to helping them achieve the highest quality of life. See our current career opportunities at www.calvet.ca.gov/careers.