Vernice Armour

Our speaker for this morning totally embodies the principles of this
conference, and initiate and incorporate. And she also has a passion for
our country and for leading and for making a difference that will truly
amaze you. Before graduating from college Vernice Armour accomplished a
childhood dream of becoming a police officer. Still in search of a
challenge she was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United
States Marine Corps in December of 1998. She earned her wings in July of
2001, ranked #1 out of her class of 12, and of the last 200 to graduate,
becoming the United States Marine Corps' first African-American female
pilot. During Operation Iraqi Freedom she was recognized as America's
first African-American female combat pilot by the Department of Defense,
and she has completed two tours of duty in the Gulf before departing the
Marine Corps. Among her accomplishments Vernice has been awarded for
being a pioneering pilot and her role in technology and engineering. She
was the first African-American woman on the Nashville Police
Department's motorcycle squad, Camp Pendleton's 2001 female athlete of
the year, a two-time title holder in Camp Pendleton's annual strongest
warrior competition -- I would recommend not making her mad -- and a
running back for the San Diego Sunfire women's professional football
team. Please welcome to VeHU Vernice. There's a little bit more
information on her right now.

(video)

I was talking to a few of you before this started and I got the question
a couple of times -- oh wow, you're in the Air Force? No, I'm in the
Marine Corps. Marines have pilots? Yeah. But you're a woman. You're
black. Was it hard? Did you have any obstacles? I look at them, uh yeah.
But I have to say immediately after that, everyone has obstacles. The
key is acknowledge the obstacle, don't give it power. Say that with me.
Acknowledge the obstacle, don't give it power.

I remember flying over the desert, because I believe the team is so
important when it comes to something that's hard, when it comes to
overcoming those obstacles we work together. Everyone in this room is a
team. Actually you heard some of that stuff in the bio about first this,
first that. Okay, yeah. But really I didn't do anything by myself. The
team got me here, the team is going to get me there. You know what I
mean? The Marines. Now come on. They're a team Esprit de corps. Any
Marines in the house? Alright! There we go. The team is so important. I
am standing on so many shoulders. The Tuskegee airmen, Amelia Earhart,
Bessie Coleman. People have paid the way for me to be here. They gave
their blood, sweat, tears, yes, they gave their very lives for me to
wear this flight suit here today. So the team got me here, the team is
going to get me there. The team is going to get us there. Well the team
was out in Iraq, we were in Andijah, over the cemetery. It was August
04, hot, we were in the cockpit and if you know anything about the Cobra
aircraft, the one you just saw on the video, there are no windows that
you can open, only the ventilation that comes into the cockpit. So we're
sweating, it's rolling down our face, we have our gloves on because you
have to stay protected at all times. We were almost finished with our
time on station and we get the call. Viper, we have a mission for you.
We have Marines and soldiers north in the cemetery, they're pinned down,
and they need your help. Now right at that moment I'm thinking oh my
gosh, we only have one missile left because we'd already been out there
for a while, and only 20 minutes of gas left. That's not a lot of time
to set up an attack, find the enemy, and save our men and women who were
on the ground. So we report to the north of the cemetery, meanwhile
we're setting up our aircraft to make sure everything comes off without
a hitch. We get up there and we hear a voice when we check in and they
say Viper, we're down in the middle of the cemetery, we don't have any
ammunition to shoot back with, we don't even have any green smoke to
mark our position. Let us know when you see my mirror flash. I look
down, I saw a glint, I said Viper has you. He said Viper, do you see
that road in front of us running from east to west? He said Vipers
contact, follow it to the west. You're going to come to a road that runs
north and south. Said Viper sees it, follow it to the south. You're
going to come to a building that has a tower sticking out of it with a
blue dome on top. Call when you're contact that building. I scan down
the road, I came to a building, a couple of them with towers, I saw that
blue dome, I said Viper's contact. Break right, break right! I called it
out as quick as I can. There were small arms fire shooting out of that
tower at us now, trying to take us out of the sky while we were trying
to protect them. We broke off to the right, we flew out over the desert
floor, now we're setting everything and getting it armed because when we
pop back up over that ridge we have to get that missile off as quickly
as possible. We pop up over the ridge, we pop up, I acquire the target,
we're in the pop, I'm looking down, my finger is on the trigger, waiting
to come in range. Missile away! Nothing happened. Our last missile,
they're on the ground in trouble, they need our help. We have one last
try. We reset everything in the cockpit. Finger on the trigger one last
time because if it doesn't come here we're going to have to pull off to
the right and we can't even come around for a reattack because we're
almost out of gas. Pull the trigger one last time. Missile away! Missile
comes off the rail, impacts the target, Jason in the backseat follows up
with all 26 rockets. The aircraft behind us follows up, it's a Huey,
door gunners, we pull off to the right, we head back to base, we land,
we get out, we run out into the ready room, we get there, I said the
Marines and soldiers, what happened, what happened with the target? He
said ma'am, the target was destroyed, the Marines and soldiers were able
to carry on with the day. Teamwork. Teamwork. Teamwork. The team got us
there, the team is going to take care of us, the team will take us
there.

So I come back from my second tour, I'm sitting on the highway, I'm
headed north from San Diego on the 5, and it is bumper to bumper
traffic. But it's San Diego, this is great, I'm home. I decide to get
off the 5, head over to the Pacific Coast Highway, get over there,
bumper to bumper traffic. But now I'm sitting right next to the ocean,
the waves are rolling in under white puffy clouds, the sway of the palm
trees, the slight breeze on my cheek. I'm in a Jeep Wrangler
convertible. It was good to be home. I had up to Pendleton, I walk in, I
clear a few things off my desk, I head over to the hospital for a
routine check-up, physical therapy, and I'm standing in line. Well I'm
doing what I love to do. Talking. To the Marine in front of me. Hey
Marine, how's it going, what's going on? He was like well ma'am, I'm
just here for some physical therapy. I was like physical therapy, what's
going on with you? He's like well, I have some shrapnel in my left leg.
I said shrapnel? Were you recently deployed? He said yes ma'am, Iraq,
11^th^ MEU. I was like wait a minute, I was on the 11^th^ MEU, I was
your Cobra air support. He says oh ma'am, that is so cool, you're a
Cobra pilot? We were in the cemetery, we were pinned down, we didn't
have any ammunition, Cobra comes in, shoots a missile, and you know my
eyes started getting big. We paired up the days, same mission, same
missile. We are screaming and yelling, jumping and screaming, and we are
not in the psych ward! Yet. Then he just stopped and he stood there and
he looked at me. He said ma'am, you saved my life. Wow. One mission, one
goal, one team. That's what we are. We acknowledge the obstacles and we
don't give them power. When it's hard, it's hard. So what? Passion,
purpose, and positive steps. But we have to prepare for that passion.
And sometimes when we're going through it, when we're in the thick of
things, we have to remember you can't see the picture when you're in the
frame. We can be a floodlight, we can be a spotlight, or we can be a
laser, staying laser sharp, focused on our goals. That's my team. Miss
\_\_\_ Cartwright. Amazing woman and Marine. She's a Huey pilot, she's
still fighting the good fight out at Camp Pendleton, California,
training those guys in the right seat. She saved me many times in Iraq.
Just a cool picture of me in the cockpit. That's the aircraft I fly in
the back, the AH1 Whiskey Super Cobra, an amazing machine. This next
picture is not a political statement, even though I am from Illinois.
Again, I'm going to talk about the tangibility of the possibility. No
matter what your political affiliation or what you believe, when people
see Hillary, McCain, great American hero, fellow Naval aviator, and
Barack. What little kid now doesn't think that they could possibly be
the President one day? But this is who we're doing it for. I'm preparing
my shoulders for the next generation because I'm standing on strong
shoulders, so they can prepare the next generation, and show the next
generation how to prepare the next generation. Why did I change out of
the flight suit? Everything that was in this flight suit is now in this
flight suit. When our men and women transition, because we won't always
be in uniform, whether it's 30 years later or 36 years later like the
current commandant of the Marine Corps right now, at some point we have
to transition. What we have inside is what goes with us, and when we
transition into the VA system, thank you for making our lives easier to
do, easier to manage, easier to take care of our families. Thank you for
everything that you do for us. And again, why are all of us doing it?
For that next generation. So remember, acknowledge the obstacles, don't
give them power, and thank you for everything you do. Thank you for
having me here this morning. Thank you. Thank you so much.