The 105th Airlift Wing recently welcomed two new civilian employees to support Airmen and their families.
Their roles, sexual assault response coordinator and Airman and family readiness program manager, are essential to helping Airmen and their families both during deployment and stateside.
Scotti Veale was appointed as the new SARC for the 105th Airlift Wing at the end of last year.
The Colorado native was raised in an Army household and was an Army Spouse, but she worked as an Air Force civilian for years, with marketing positions at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mississippi, Ramstein Air Base, Germany, and the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado.
Veale left marketing to pursue a Ph.D. in psychology and worked as the SARC for Keller Army Community Hospital.
As the new SARC for the 105th Airlift Wing, Veale has an important role to play in training Airmen and being a resource to help those affected by sexual assault.
Veale said in order to serve the Airmen she will have to do more than just develop a sexual assault prevention and response program for the Wing—she will have to become part of the Stewart Air National Guard Base family.
“I have to become part of a family from the outside that’s been established for 20 or 30 years,” Veale said.
Veale said her job is tough because she has to get Airmen comfortable enough with her to open up, so she can get them the help they need.
“If you wouldn’t tell your best friend that secret, you certainly would not tell a stranger. So I have to not be a stranger,” Veale said.
Kelly Williamson, the newly appointed airmen and family readiness program manager, joined Veale as an addition to the 105th Airlift Wing’s civilian workforce earlier this year.
Williamson was born in Massachusetts and raised in Greenville, South Carolina and received her bachelor’s degree from Clemson University in 2006 for sociology and then her master’s degree in social work from Boston University in 2016.
Six years ago she married her husband, an Army officer, and was swept into the military lifestyle of moving from place to place.
“We lived at Fort Bliss, Texas, then we went to Benning for about nine months, then we went to Fort Riley in Kansas and now we’re here,” said Williamson.
Fortunately, Williamson was able to find employment every place she lived, most recently with a Head Start pre-school program outside of Fort Riley, Kansas.
Williamson has also volunteered in different capacities including as a family readiness group leader.
Now Williamson will advocate for the military spouses of the 105th Airlift Wing and help them with problems that she wished she had help with while her husband was deployed.
“I had gone through some very difficult times,” said Williamson. “My husband was deployed and there wasn’t someone there to reach out to me and say ‘hey, how are you doing?’”
“It’s hard to be on the other end of the deployment.” She added.
Williamson’s experiences during her husband’s deployment has given her insight into the problems that the spouses of 105th Airlift Wing Airmen may face. She wants to use what she learned to help the Airmen and their families.
“My role is when the Airmen are deployed to be a liaison,” said Williamson, “because you’re not there physically and so, I’m going to try to be an advocate, more of an advocate for the spouses, because they are taking additional duties when their spouse isn’t there.”
Williamson also acknowledged there will be some challenges to face and adjustments to make in her new position.
“I think having to unlearn some of the stuff I know about, like the Army and active duty, and relearn Air Force and National Guard, that’s going to be a challenge for me,” said Williamson.
Veale and Williamson are available to help Airmen during the week and on drill weekends.