No Quit
By: Eric Thomas Webb
Tags: New Orleans, Veterans, Military, Army

No Quit.

Shantel Reddick is no stranger to adversity. Raised by her grandparents in New Orleans’ impoverished Lower Ninth Ward, she has always been a survivor.

(Reddick’s childhood church)

Reddick grew up in the church, where her grandfather was a Baptist deacon. From an early age, her grandparents knew she was special — and their tough love helped set Shantel on a path for success.

Excelling in parochial school and sports — Reddick was a three-sport captain in high school. After graduation, she accepted a college scholarship to attend school in Georgia, where she continued to excel both on and off the court.

After college, Reddick returned home to New Orleans, where she graduated top cadet of the Orleans Parish Sheriff Academy. But two days after graduation, Hurricane Katrina hit.

Reddick and her family managed to flee the city just hours before the levee broke, and flooding devastated the Lower Ninth Ward.

“Our neighborhood had 26 feet of water, and the floodwaters carried our house up the street.”

Reddick spent nights sleeping on air mattresses with friends and relatives in Houston — uncertain when they would be allowed home.

When they were finally allowed back into the Lower Ninth Ward, life as they knew it would never be the same.

In addition to the destruction of homes and personal belongings, Reddick began to sense a shift in the city’s personality.

Convicts who escaped the prison during the chaos of Katrina roamed the streets, and the sense of community that once wove her tight-knit community was slow to return.

“It was every man for himself.”

Reddick soon felt the need for a fresh start. With no employment guarantees from the Orleans Sheriff Department, she moved back to Georgia, and made the decision to enlist in the Army.

“I’ve always felt that if you’re capable and able-bodied, you should give back to your country.”

Reddick excelled at the pace and structure of the military. And when the opportunity came for her to apply for special forces, she jumped at it.

But first, Reddick was advised to undergo minimally invasive surgery to mend a nagging back injury. After being promised she would be ‘jumping out of airplanes in six weeks,’ she agreed to the operation.

But when Reddick awoke from surgery, numbness and tingling radiated down her leg. Two days after being discharged from the hospital, she felt so unwell while watching Monday Night Football she turned the tv off and went to bed.

Reddick woke up short of breath and sweating, feeling like she was being stabbed with a knife. She was taken to urgent care, where they discovered a massive pulmonary embolism (a blockage caused by a blood clot in one of the lungs’ arteries).

From there, Reddick was transported by ambulance to a trauma hospital and immediately intubated. Family and friends, along with the Army’s chaplain, were called in and informed that Reddick might not make it through the night.

A year after recovering from the ordeal, the Army’s Medical Evaluation Board determined Reddick’s health was no longer fit for duty. Her career in the Army was over.

Within a year, Reddick had gone from “I’m joining the special forces” to “What am I going to do now?”

“It was like the rug was pulled from under me.”

But Reddick isn’t going to let an early military exit discourage her from her dream of making a difference in the world. Her tenacity (and the GI Bill) has her ready to knock down the next roadblock that makes the mistake of getting in her way.

She is now back in college, taking honors courses (she has a 4.0 GPA) and figuring out what the future holds for her. And whatever that turns out to be, one thing is undeniable — it doesn’t pay to bet against Shantel Reddick.