 This is Stink Tech Hawaii, Community Matters here. Aloha and welcome to Sister Power. I'm your host Sharon Thomas Yarbrough. Today we are honored to have as our sister part of VIP guest Brigadier General Suzanne P. Verizlum. Today's topic, what is women, peace and security? Brigadier General Lumb is the Mobilization Assistant to Director of Strategic Plans and Policy, U.S. Pacific Command at Camp Smith Hawaii. She has a key role in the Pacific Command's effort to shape and maintain regional security through development of diplomatic, economic and military policies. This includes building and maintaining military-to-military and political-military relationships among the 43 nations within the Pacific region, covering over 51% of the globe. Activities include disaster, management, humanitarian assistance, homeland defense, appropriate oversight of reserve component matters, and as a senior leader within the directorate oversight of strategy and policy issues that influence the Pacific region. Brigadier Lumb is the 19th general officer and the first female general officer commissioned from the University of Hawaii at Minoa, ROTC program and was inducted into the ROTC Hall of Fame at Fort Knox. She is the first female of Hawaiian ancestry to achieve the rank of Brigadier General in the National Guard. She is active in Pan-Pacific American Leadership Mentorship Hawaii Chapter and has been a speaker, panelist and active mentor for a multitude of community events including high school veterans, jobs, corps, and ROTC events. General Lumb, welcome to Sister Power. Thank you, Sharon. It is a pleasure and honor to be here with you today. Oh, I'm so happy to have you here. And before we touch on our topic, what is women, peace, and security? What does that have to do with the military? You know, great question. And most people ask that question. What does women, peace, and security have to do with the military? And what is it? A lot of people think women, peace, and security has to do with the number of women, women's empowerment alone, but it's really a broad scope. It includes women's empowerment, but really it is based on the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 Women, Peace, and Security. In year 2000, the UN said they realized that women and children are victims of conflict more than any other population and they also are disproportionately represented in the peace process. They really are not included in that peace process. So women, peace, and security looks at, has called the member's nation, member's state in the UN, to look at how women can be part of conflict resolution, management, and prevention of conflict. So many nations within the UN have adopted a national action plan, and the United States has adopted the national action plan as well, which is very exciting. And that really includes not only empowerment of women or involvement of women, but it has to do with protection, also including them in anti-terrorism, including them in conflict resolution, reconstruction, and recovery. So there's a lot of areas in which women, peace, and security covers. And also, I have a, while I don't have the slide here, I wanted to talk a little bit about, there's several resolutions under that that deal with sexual violence as a war crime. Women in peacekeeping, women in the peace process, violence against women and children, sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict, women's role in conflict prevention and resolution, and women as peacekeepers, and women countering violent extremism. So you can see already by those titles of those other resolutions under 1325 that deal with conflict. And so why are we in the military interested in that? That it has shown throughout all the statistics that a country's peace, prosperity, and stability is directly linked to how women are treated. And all you got to do is list the names of the countries that are prosperous economically, that are stable, that have, you know, people are laughing, people are happy. Well, how those women are treated, access to education, healthcare, involvement in the government, involvement in business, protection against violence, those are direct correlations to peace and stability. And of course in the military, we want peace and security. You know, our objectives here within the U.S. Pacific Command is to ensure peace and prosperity and stability for everyone, and when peace and security falls right into that. Sounds wonderful. Who do you consider your greatest mentor and why? You know, that's a great question, because I can't share and pick just one. Okay. That's a hard one, because there have been many throughout my life. And as we go through these seasons in our life, you know, growing up, my grandparents, my dad is from Maui, and I spent a lot of my summers with my grandparents, who were from Paella and the Huelo area. And they moved to Kahului after the plantation shut down, and I spent most of my summers there. I learned a lot about hard work. I learned a lot about you're not going to get anything for free. You're going to work for it to treat others with respect, share what you have, all of those values that kind of set me up to as I was growing up and having other these other coaches and teachers throughout school that told me that it's okay that you don't have a lot of money, that you come from difficult circumstances, but you can do it if you work hard in education. There are people there to help. And that really inspired me. And so when I went into the military, ROTC at the University of Hawaii, a lot of professors at the University of Hawaii, as well as professors of military science there at the ROTC program. And then when I went on active duty, great leaders. My first, actually my first unit was a field artillery unit. Very few women were in combat arms at that time. In 1989, I went on active duty. I went to Germany with station at a field artillery unit. I was one of two female officers. And yet all of these male officers that were field artillery for a military intelligence officer provided me a lot of mentorship. They taught me some of the difficult tasks and taught me a lot about perseverance and never giving up. And then later on in life, when I went into the guard came home. Colonel retired Walt Kaniakua, who was the military executive for Senator Inouye, was actually a great mentor of mine and has been as still is. He continues to help me along the way to remind me that anything is possible. You're prepared for opportunities and give your all, no matter what, selfless service. So those are a lot. They're a lot more. I'm sure. The audience can't see that Senator Inouye was a mentor of mine as well. We're both looking at a picture of him and I feel you on that. Another question for you, why didn't you want to move up the ladder? You know, I never really thought about moving up the ladder. I would not have envisioned myself today sitting in front of you as a Brigadier General. That was never in my mind. What I wanted to do was do something meaningful, to serve and use my talents in the way that would be useful. And it just turned out that opportunity presented itself and doors opened. And people convinced me that, no, you can use your talent at a higher level than you have to believe in yourself that you can do it. So that's kind of how I viewed it. I didn't view it in terms of rank, but in terms of continuing to drive forward and believe that you can have a greater impact even when you don't think you can. Looking at you, Susie, my friend Brigadier General, I'm looking at all of these beautiful accessories. Just very quickly, can you go over them with... They're just gorgeous and it means something. Each one means some type of accomplishment, am I correct? Well, you know, it's sort of our... When we wear our dress uniform, it kind of identifies some of the things that we've been through, where we've been, if we've been deployed to Iraq, or what kind of decorations or rewards we've gotten, and we don't always wear them, or that we've been to certain schools like Air Assault or Airborne, or that we've deployed with a unit like the 29th Infantry Brigade to Iraq during OIF-3, or the unit I belong to, U.S. Pacific Command now at Camp Smith. So it kind of tells a story, or that's your military intelligence and that your unit has the distinguished unit citation. So it kind of all... People who are in the military can quickly identify some relationship. And over time, when you see Vietnam era, Korean War, World War II, you can see their badges and you'll know, you know, my dad's a Vietnam veteran, so, you know, having that being on there. So it's kind of a bond, unspoken bond. You don't have to say anything, you just kind of look and you know. Eye candy, absolutely. Why is it so important for women in the military to maintain a sense of self? You know, I think that's always a challenge for everyone, because women are clearly identifiable. When we talk about diversity, we often look at the exterior, but really diversity has so much more. Diversity of thought, your experiences, your culture, where you came from, those things bond each other. And women are one element of that diversity. So I think it's important that they come and embrace their talents that they come with, because I like this idea that, you know, women make up 50% of the population around the world. And we come with different ideas and different talents, and each one is unique, and I think we have to embrace that and see how that contributes. So maybe we might, you know, bring a certain perspective, a gender perspective, and that's part of Women, Peace and Security by the way, a gender perspective based on your experiences that you've grown up with. Experiences in terms of seeing the needs of other women across the country, across these countries where you can relate to. So I think we need to embrace that and bring that as a strength, that those differences, you know, equality doesn't mean sameness. That means that we all come with something unique to offer to the table and in the military to accomplish the mission. I like that. We were speaking earlier about statistics, and as of July 2017, Active Guard Reserve for the Army, we have now 45 female generals. And we're going to go to break, and we want to come back and talk about that and tell us how far we've come, and we still have more work to do. I'm looking forward to that. Stay with us. Keep yourself motivated and powered, and don't touch that down. We'll be right back with Sister Power. Aloha! My name is Steven Philip Katz. I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist, and I'm the host of Shrink Rap Hawaii where I talk to other shrinks. Did you ever want to get your head shrunk? Well, this is the best place to come to pick one. I've been doing this. We must have 60 shows with a whole bunch of shrinks that you can look at. I'm here on Tuesdays at three o'clock every other Tuesday. I hope you are too. Aloha! Hello, I'm Helen Dora Hayden, the host of Voice of the Veteran, seen here live every Thursday afternoon at 1 p.m. on Think Tech, Hawaii. As a fellow veteran and veterans advocate with over 23 years experience serving veterans, active duty, and family members, I hope to educate everyone on benefits and accessibility services by inviting professionals in the field to appear on the show. In addition, I hope to plan on inviting guest veterans to talk about their concerns and possibly offer solutions. As we navigate and work together through issues, we can all benefit. Please join me every Thursday at 1 p.m. for the Voice of the Veteran, Aloha! Welcome back to Sister Power, and we're here with General Suzanne Lum, and our topic for today is What is Women, Peace, and Security? Before we went to break, the CITICS, as of July 2017, Active Guard Reserve for the Army, we have now 45 female generals. What does that say to you? That says that we've made significant progress, and that's just the Army alone and the other services as well. We've seen amazing progress. Women throughout time have served. In our nation's history, if we look at some of our past heroes, and I have a picture here that maybe I'd like to share that has some of those heroes of our past, and if you look at, you can see Margaret Corbin, who was wounded by operating the artillery, that little statue that's there in defense of Fort Washington during the Revolutionary War. And right next to her is that picture of Dr. Mary Walker, who received the Medal of Honor for her services at the First Battle of Bull Run, the only woman to receive that award. And right next to her is a small picture that represents World War I, over 400 Army nurses, believe it or not, made the ultimate sacrifice, and people do not remember that. The picture right next to her is a famous one on Life Magazine after December 7th, 1941. You can see the women coming to the call of duty to put out the fires. But World War II really opened up a huge opportunity for women of all ethnicities who were mobilized, and you can see that in this picture here, of women in the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps, women accepted for volunteer emergency services, and the women's Air Force services. Pilots there, in the center, you know, 38 female pilots lost their lives because they ferried planes from factories to bases and transporting cargo and participating in strafing and target missions and millions of miles. So those are the unsung heroes that we don't hear about, as well as the African-American women, Army nurses and Asian-American women who served also in the intelligence services for translating. They are often not talked about, but they quietly served in a way that inspires me and inspires so many others. And that has led to an amazing, significant movement of opportunities for women in the military. And actually, just in 2015, former Secretary of Defense Carter sent women to go into all combat roles. And so this past March, we've had our first in the Army female infantry and field artillery enlisted personnel go into the courses. And last year, if you remember, we had our first two female Army Rangers who graduated from the Army Ranger School. So a lot of significant progress. But we also have a lot of stars who've paved the way and have another picture to share with some of our stars. Our trailblazers, as we call them. And as you can see there, there's a picture on the bottom, the first rear admiral, amazing Grace Hopper. Definitely historic role model for so many. And directly above her is General Dunwoody, who was the first ever female four-star in 2008 in the Army. And I was fortunate enough to meet her. A few months ago, she was inducted into the National Defense University Hall of Fame, along with Senator McCain, General Shinseki. So she was one of them that was acknowledged. Also to her left is our first female four-star admiral, the African-American descent. So very proud of her. And then to the right, General Robinson, who was the Pacific Air Forces Commander here in Hawaii. First female Pacific Air Forces Commander. First female to be a combatant commander for U.S. Northern Command, which is all of the America, the continental U.S. And I was able to see her the other week and I told her that I'm always so proud of her and that she's paved the way. And of course she said, I'm proud of you because she's all, and so did General Dunwoody when I got to meet her. But that's the whole idea of, as they achieve their rank, they're pulling down and bringing up everyone else. You know, as we reach for the summit, we're bringing people with us. It's not alone. We do it together. That's what it's all about. Paying it forward. Another question for you. One of my girlfriends who's promoted a nurse army of the year. And she asked me to ask you, what was the most significant experience you had in the field of combat war? I would say, during OIF-3, 2005, 2006, I was deployed to Iraq. I was the commander of the Joint Intel Center. So we had Army and Air Force to try to get to the problem of a lot of the IEDs, improvised explosive device, a roadside bomb. There was a significant number on an average day, maybe 30 within our area. MS, the main supply routes, we called them, that went up and down. For everything from a little coke can to larger munitions that were dug down deep, remote detonated, I mean, just the whole range. That's extreme danger to our coalition troops on the road. So we had intel analysts going out. We had analysts in Anaconda. We called it, but Air Force called it Balad Air Base. And I think for me, losing one of my own soldiers, Sergeant Dacin Carriaga, he was very young. He volunteered. Amazing hero. Great family here in Hawaii. Our first casualty from the Hawaii National Guard since Vietnam, since the call-up of 1969 of the 29th Infantry Brigade. So for me, it was dealing with that loss and seeing how our team was going to deal with that loss and how do we continue the mission, everyone's hurting inside from that amazing loss. But he's a hero, and I will never forget when I think of young people, and again, he wasn't 21 yet. He was not 21. And yet, he was not afraid. He knew what he had to do to gather an intelligence to support the mission. Was that one of your memorable experiences in the military, or just one of them? It was one. There are many. But to me, that's a powerful one. When we lose one, you remember that somebody said the reason why the military oftentimes is hesitant or thinks very carefully about how we get in. It seems very carefully about conflict and peace. That it's strength through peace. It's through our strength and our deterrence that we can achieve peace. But to me, that understanding of loss, these are serious consequences for decisions that we make. So I think that was very significant. I'm sure. What information did you find out after receiving rank that you today would pass on to another woman? I would say, sit at the table. Don't be afraid to sit at the table. Don't be afraid to give your opinion Don't be afraid to try something new. And if you get shot down, you dust yourself off, you get back up, and you go it again. Don't give up. Don't give up. Just pull those banks up. Absolutely, absolutely. Wonderful. If you could give one message to other women considering the military as a career, what would it be and why? You know, the military is about service. It's about loyalty, duty, respect, honor, integrity, selfless service. Those characteristics that you learn from the experiences in the military transcend all aspects of life. And I think if you live your life in uniform, out of uniform, in that way to serve others, there's such great joy in that. There's a peace in that to know that what you're doing and you wake up in the morning like I'm doing something that I feel good about. I think and now there's so many opportunities for women. I would say when I came in 30 years ago, as I said, I didn't imagine myself to be a Brigadier General, but I thought it was exciting. I saw the excitement and people being willing to go into really austere situations and not thinking about themselves, but thinking about the mission, thinking about what I'm doing. And at that time, I saw this scope, but now where I'm at, I'm seeing a broader scope, what it means to peace and security around the world. And that seems counterintuitive to people sometimes, you know. Military peace, you know, but peace through strength. And I think that's what people don't understand. At the military, you want peace more than anyone. Exactly. And just briefly, take us there, take us on the mindset of the military when people have this concept that the military is about fighting and winning, and I know it's more than that. You know, there is only a small percentage of our force's combat arms and infantry and actual fighters. The vast majority, you know, 80 plus percent are their combat support, cyber, space, nurses, doctors, intelligence, you know, air transport, you know, our ships, servicing. So, you know, when we think of the military, we think of that percentage. And we're there to support those fighters. But that has to be there in order for us to have a credible deterrent against those who seek to do harm against the U.S. and our interests. So, when we understand that, then we see that we're here to provide that deterrent so that we can live the lives that we also deserve. Everyone deserves to have that peaceful life, to be able to go home, to send your kids to school peacefully. You know, all those things, it'd be great if nobody else wanted to do harm against the United States, then we wouldn't have to do that. But the fact remains, we live in a world where there are a lot of challenges and we have to be ready for those challenges. Well, in 10 seconds or less, just sum up what we should know and leave him with. You've given us so much information, but give us in 10 seconds or less some empowering, inspiring words. I would say that never give up. And for women out there who are considering military as career, it's a great opportunity. And what a way to challenge yourself, to serve, and to feel great about what you're doing every single day. I love that. But thank you so much, General Lung, for joining us here at Sister Power and again, our topic, What is Women, Peace and Security? And you've answered those questions for us. Again, Oceans of Alaha, Peace and Love. Thank you. Thank you so much. It was fine. It was. Very informative.