DiCarie Williamson
I plan on attending the weekly MVP sessions until they get tired of me!
“My father retired from the Navy after 21 years of service working in the Intelligence field; therefore, I was a ‘Navy Brat.’ Growing up, I loved airplanes, and I wanted to be a fighter pilot—especially after seeing Top Gun! My dad’s first assignment was in the Philippines when he met my mother. He turned down an opportunity for Officer Candidate School in Japan when he found out she was pregnant with me. He asked his superiors to reassign him back to the Philippines so he could marry my mother and where I was born. He used to describe himself then as a Missouri country boy and a loose cannon.
“When the family moved back to the U.S. in the late 80s, it was hard sometimes for my immigrant mom to raise two kids—my younger sister Jasmine and I—mostly alone when my dad was away. I grew up in many places as a child but called Maryland my home. I had an awesome childhood. Without the family military influence, I might have pursued my interest in art, but during my senior year in high school, I met with a recruiter. He asked: ‘What do you want to do? I don’t care as long as it has to do with jets, I replied.’ I enlisted in the Air Force after graduation when I was 18. Without a college degree, the closest I could get to my dream job was as an Aircraft Armament Technician, loading and maintaining weapons systems on aircraft. I thought this job would get me closer to flying. As a tech, I sometimes got to sit in the pilot’s seat to make sure everything was working right—it was a transformative milestone in my life to feel what the pilots would experience.”
After basic training, DiCarie was assigned to the Air Force Flight Test Center on Edwards Air Force Base, CA, where he spent his entire air force career from 2002-2006. “My experiences provided me with enough information to know that serving my initial enlistment would provide me enough satisfaction to move-on to the next adventure in my life, and I elected not to re-enlist. I knew that other opportunities would open up on the civilian side, and I just had to be patient and wait for my turn.”
“When I was discharged in 2006, I only had a high school education and no real transferable marketable skills. I applied for jobs working as an aircraft mechanic, and did odd jobs and collected unemployment until I could get hired. Little did I know that the hiring process would take almost two years. When I was finally hired, I mainly did the same job with the air force at Edwards as a civilian working an 8-hour shift with no overtime. A new post 9-11 GI Bill became available in 2008 that offered me a college education through Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University located on the base. I was able to go to college while still working at my job. I was able to buy a house off base and get my B.S. degree in Aeronautics. I applied to pilot school, but my timing was wrong—ironically, years later, they would be begging for pilots.
“I still had some G.I. benefits left, so I started graduate school. I was now too old for fighter pilot school, but I still wanted to fly. I contacted the Navy Reserve, but they didn’t return my call; the Marine recruiter laughed at me. When I told the Army Reserve recruiter my dreams of flying, he told me to ‘talk to our commander, who is an Apache helicopter pilot.’ Just like that, I signed up for a two-year college ROTC program, and the army would help pay for me to earn a master’s degree. Becoming a commissioned officer now became more important than becoming a pilot. So, it was back for a 20-week basic training program, then reserve training in Bakersfield once a month and two weeks in the summer. Once complete, I had to juggle my mechanic job during the day, college at night, and my Army commitment on the weekends—all while being an effective provider for my little family.
“Before I enlisted in the Army Reserve, I married my girlfriend of seven years who had a child from a previous marriage. We also had a child together, and the army frowned on having a child out of wedlock. I had been killing myself with this schedule to get my family to a better place. My work-training-reserve schedule put a significant strain on our marriage and family, which led to a divorce six months away from completing my 2-year program. She took my daughter and all the furniture which sent me into a tailspin. At the lowest point in this phase of my life, my best friend moved into my house with me because I was too fragile to be living alone (I had contemplated suicide).
I didn’t realize how sad and depressed I became. I had a trajectory that would provide a different quality of life for my family while achieving somewhat a lifelong milestone—to actively placing safety nets in my life because I thought of suicide almost casually. “Keep up the fire!” is a motto I adopted on my Army journey. And that’s what I did; I kept my fire going to push through the darkness. Things didn’t get better—I did. I also went from a maintenance job to engineering. I now work on F-16s in flight test as an engineer, but leaving the army was bittersweet since I never became a pilot. I am ‘over the moon’ in my new career as a Human Factors Engineer and college professor.
“I met the love of my life—Alicia—back when we were both at Edwards in 2003, and I had a big crush on her. She went on to college and became a first-grade teacher. We reconnected when I had a food prep business on the side, and I had been delivering meals to some of her teacher colleagues at her school. At the time, I didn’t know she was working there. On one of my student deliveries, she saw me when I turned the corner. She had also recently gotten divorced.
“I first met MVP members at the Bear Grylls Survival Challenge, where we were playing soldiers in a War-Torn Village scene. This is where I met Denver Morris, and we had a blast together. On the staging area, he kept on making announcements to “MVP Members,” and when I turned to ask him, ‘what is MVP?’ he gave me a brief introduction and mentioned that he could show me better than explaining it. So, I came out for a session. At that time, it was on Thursdays at 2:00 p.m., so I started going to the weekly sessions.
“I don’t know what it was at the time, but for some reason, I had an overwhelming sense of calm and familiarity. Like I’ve been there before with all those people. It did take a couple more visits to wrap my mind of the power of the post-workout huddle. It genuinely was a powerful experience. I just thought I had a fun time working out at a new gym with new people.
“THE HUDDLE (a.k.a., Fireside Chats) is one of the most important components of my week. The MVP Huddle made me put things into perspective, and over time, I realized I hadn’t addressed a lot of issues I had been holding on to. Suck-it-up and drive-on had been my mantra for years, and never once did it occur to me to open up and talk about it. Vulnerability and my understanding of mental health had been so misguided; it’s embarrassing to think about, but others had stories and experiences that I’ve also endured. We can find common ground in the “issues” and just being able to unload amongst each other is truly a breath of fresh air at times.
I experienced extremely toxic supervision, which drove me to hating the A.F. at the time. I was emotionally detached, no faith in my leadership, and subsequently lead me to making some irrational decisions.
“I’m allowing myself to find and experience the joy that came in the form of faith, reading, and connecting with others. I worked myself to death and didn’t allow myself to feel. I can see that I have come a long way, and I’m now finding pieces of myself that I didn’t know were misplaced. Love and understanding are the main ingredients to a healthy recovery or transition—this is what we have in MVP.
“My story and background are nothing in comparison to some of the other veterans I know. I love MVP because they have created a space to allow me to be the voice and/or motivation for my brothers and sisters that are still going through the process. I want to convey that message. MVP gives me a purpose in that regard. I plan on attending the weekly MVP sessions until they get tired of me!”
(DiCarie was featured on the Rachael Ray show (https://www.rachaelrayshow.com/:Season 14, Episode 45, Nov. 8, 2019) as a part of MVP’s ‘Dress Vets for Vet Day.’ He was sent suitcases of clothing from the MSX Collection by Michael Strahan from JCPenney. He chose his favorite ensemble for his appearance on the show. “I feel good—it feels natural.” He got to keep all of the clothes! His fiancé Alicia’s comment about her man’s new look—“He’s mine, and that makes him special!” )