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Rain Varney

Dr. Marianne Arini

English 102-04

March 28, 2020

Story of a Strong Woman Named Lisa Lesiewickie

Prior to interviewing Lisa Lasiewickie I had to do some research. I have known Lisa for

some time now through a mutual friend, so part of my research included learning about Lisa

through that friend, Rebekah. Rebakah gave me a broad idea of what Lisa's life story looked like.

This way I had a good idea of the questions I’d like to ask her. Then I pursued knowledge on

what Operation Desert Storm, the operation that Lisa was involved in, was. I also went on

Youtube because it helped me to visualize images from the war and Operation Desert Storm. At

this point, I had done all of the research necessary prior to interviewing Lisa. I was originally

supposed to interview the group “Up With People”, but that plan fell through right before I was

scheduled to interview them. Lisa was so helpful and agreed to let me interview her, despite it

being last minute. I ended up really enjoying my conversation with her and her story about what

her position was in the military.

Lisa Lasiewickie is a tough, strong, mother of two. She grew up with no direction, with a

rough childhood, and decided to join the military at a young age. I wanted to focus on Lisa in

this interview and show how strong she is and the experiences she’s been through. Despite these

experiences, she remains light-hearted, funny, smart, and kind; however, she has thick skin. She

is one of the toughest women I know, and her story shows that. Her story of not having any

direction in her life, to now having so many skills like fixing machinery, flying planes, obtaining

medical experience, and becoming an amazing mother is truly motivational. I think it’s important
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to show that times are hard and you may have to fight on your own, but things will work out in

the end, even for people like Lisa. Now Lisa has an amazing husband, two smart talented boys,

and a successful career that she loves.

Leisa: Hello this is Leisa

Rain: Hi how are you doing

Leisa: Hi, How are you

Rain: I am good this is Rain

Leisa: Hi, rain I’m out and about, so bear with me ok.

Rain: Is this a good time to talk or do you want to do this another...

Leisa: Oh no you got to get it done so I don't wanna keep you any longer

Rain: Oh no, Thank you so much for doing this again

Leisa: Ya no worries

Rain: OK well then we’ll just jump right into it and get it over

Leisa: Yeah, so you just ask because I'm walking around and doing stuff I’ll do the best I can.

OK, sounds good and I can always cut some stuff out so you just let me know.

Rain: So where did you grow up?

Leisa: Ok, umm, I was born in California. And then I was there for a few years till about three.

Move to New Mexico in a little village and for a couple years and then at five my family moved

to Missouri. And I was at Missouri from about five years old till tenth grade.

Rain: So then do you guys travel around a lot?

Leisa: Traveling around a lot yeah, yeah.

Rain: What was that like?

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Leisa: Ya so from then from Missouri then went back to New Mexico and Arizona. So not at

one place for very long. Missouri was the longest trip I was 13 years there.

Rain: Nice, did you like it there?

Leisa: Huh,

Rain: Did you like it there?

Leisa: I did, yeah, it was green and had boats. It was fun. I had a really good time in Missouri.

Rain: So, what was your dream job as a kid?

Leisa: I never really had one. Never really thought about it actually.

Rain: Ya.

Leisa: I never really thought about it as a kid.

Rain: No, I feel that one.

Leisa: Ya, I just I probably should've thought about it, I remember they would have career

counselors come into our school and talk to us about a hat we wanted to be there was a time I

wanted to be a professional artist because I drew a lot. Umm, I remember I wanted to be like, I

don’t know if you knew who Grizzly Adams is but he’s like lived out in the woods with this

bear. And I was like, ya I’ll do that. I wanted to be a truck driver, I had no direction, so.

Rain: I definitely think we have all been there, so what did you end up going to college for?

Leisa: Umm, so, I didn't go to college for years that was kinda late, I was a late bloomer in that

too. Um, I don’t think it was an expectation in my family to go to college so they never groomed

us for that. So when I was in the military they had classes that they would send professors out to

where we were stationed and they would teach us only if you were in the fire industry or in

healthcare and I happened to be in healthcare so I would drive my friends to go to class and I

would wait for them because I didn’t want to go to college

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Rain: Ya!

Leisa: And so they really wanted me to go so they thought well you just drive us because it's

about an hour’s drive and wait for us and then pick us up. So did that for a while and then they

finally caused me to get a class.

Yeah, might as well you're doing that much driving for them it sounds like.

Leisa: So once they kinda got me into the rhythm of going to school I would take a class here

and there. I ended up finally committing to it and I got my degree in my bachelor’s in health care

management.

Rain: Nice. So when did you become a paramedic?

Leisa: Was never a paramedic.

Rain: Ok

Leisa: Um, nope, so I was called a Corman in the navy. Its called a Corman so its, um, so I

would drive an ambulance and then work in the ED. And so I was stationed, I was stationary so I

was on a bass actually I did that in San Diego

Rain: oh, OK, nice

Leisa: Ya, so I did that in San Diego so we did everything we did suture we did things that

nurses were more administrative. And we would do more of the actual condition type stuff. Um

you know we would give shots we would see patients in the ED or on the rig, on the ambulance.

Because we would go, it was on a naval base so I would, we would go on ships if something

happened on the ship we would go to the ship and get them down and take them into the ED and

treat them so it was a Corman, it was a hospital Corman.

Rain: Ok.

Leisa: Ya.
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Rain: So, I heard you were involved in Operation Desert Storm, is that right?

Leisa: Ya, ya, I was in Desert Storm.

Rain: And how old were you when that first happened?

Leisa: Um, 22.

Rain: And where are you stationed during that?

Leisa: Well, I joined the military between 21 and 22 years old. And I didn't know what I wanted

to do. So you can go either its called non-designated so I was once called non-designated

meaning I don’t know what I wanted to do, find me a job. So they, so then I went aviation. So

you can go fire aviation or water, and I went aviation. So when I finished school I went straight

to, my home court was going to be Maine, Brunswick, Maine . But because we were in the

middle of deployment, my squad that I got directly shipped off to Signal of Sicily.

Rain: Ya.

Leisa: So at 22 or 21, ya I think it was 22. I flew, I found out probably two days before I

thought I was going to go to Maine. And I got my orders it was to Sicily. So I flew out of a, I

think it was a fifteen-hour flight maybe. So I ended up going to Sicily and I worked at Aviation.

So my first job was working in the tool room. So it was like a library but for tools so I would be

accountable for all the tools that were used on fixing aircraft. And then from there, I went to

playing caption is what it was called.

Rain: Oh dang, ya.

Leisa: I launched and recovered an aircraft that had weapons, exonabowies is we would fill

exonabowies up, send them down to the Russians. So from there to Spain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt,

all over.

Rain: Ya.
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Leisa: We were surveillance over the Mediterranean, and, so sorry I have to walk away, I'm

distracted over here.

Rain: Oh no, you’re all good.

Leisa: So, what I would do is I would have an aircraft over me so we, I would launch and

recover them. Make sure the fuel was good, Bombay doors were locked and weapons were

secure. So I was part of a silicon crew of seven. It takes seven people to operate a P3 or a Ryan

which was a type of aircraft that has large fuel lodges that fly low over the Mediterranean over

the ocean. You can go a long way without having to refuel. So my job was to, wherever they

went I would be the last one on the plane and the first one off the plane. So wherever we were I

would make sure all members were on board, the basic stuff...

Rain: Ya.

Leisa: Really you know, make sure the wheels were intact that the propellers were going, and

then I would do everything and then they would lower the ladder, I would get on the ladder and

we would fly. Wherever we flew and landed, I wouldn’t know where we would land. It's called a

lollipop.

Rain: Ya.

Leisa: They would land, they would keep the propellers going, there were four propellers. They

would drop the ladder I would climb down the ladder find my bearings and then I would taxi us

in to park it. And then you ground it you know you stop the propellers you ground it you lock up

the bombs and everything.

Rain: Oh, geez.

Leisa: You know that’s America territory wherever we would land, Lollipop was American

territory.
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Rain: Ya.

Leisa: So we were always relatively safe. That’s what I did for three years wherever we flew I

would fly with them and do that. I did that for twenty, we worked twenty-four hours because

you’re on call. So for, well, twelve on twelve off, seven days a week, six months straight.

Rain: That’s crazy, was it ever scary to you?

Leisa: Oh ya everyday!

Rain: Ya.

Leisa: So for one time it's called Pogo-ing. So every time before a plane would go off you had to

Pogo the fuel. You would Pogo the tanks because you can’t have any condensation in the fuel.

So you have to get all the water out. I would be dressed up in my GP-five gear because its jet

fuel it's very dangerous. And like I said that was American territory and in a Saudi Arabia. I

remember we, the squadron that was there right before us. We hit and killed one of the Before

military people Saudi Arabian. And so there was a lot of anger, which we didn’t know about

until we arrive. You know so that previous squadron was looked down upon and then we came in

and they were mad at us. So, I was down there early one morning pogoing and I see some

footsteps coming up and I just kept on doing my thing because I had, I was scared it was like

three or four in the morning I’m out there all alone, by myself, Saudi Arabia

Rain: Ya.

Leisa: Pogoing this plane knowing what had just happened so I see he had his AR with him and

he’s walking around the lollipop. So he stands there and I see his foot. I'm squatting because

when you're pogoing you're on your hands, you’re like on your knees looking up. And I see his

boots there and I heard him take a big loogie and he just spits on me. And I looked up and he had

the gun cocked right in my face. And I just looked at him and I went right back to work. I just
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focused straight. You’re good, you're doing nothing wrong that’s what I was telling myself. And

so he just walked off.

Rain: Oh my Gosh, that’s crazy!

Leisa: Yeah, so things like that happened.

Rain: Ya.

Leisa: And really, it wasn’t always scary, no, but the simplest things could be scary just flying

to Spain at twenty-two years old not knowing anybody. You know you're not who you are

because you just got your haircut, you are in a uniform. Normally when people go somewhere

you represent a certain Image. The way you do your hair, the way you do your makeup, the way

you dress. But when you go to the strange land, Military, all that is stripped from you.

Rain: Ya.

Leisa: So you have to, you don’t walk in with a proven identity of who you are, you are just

now here I am. You’ve got to prove yourself.

Rain: Ya, definitely

Leisa: Yeah.

Rain: So what was The Operation Desert storm like? because I never knew much about that

until I briefly heard the story from Becka.

Leisa: Um, it was, I don't know the details of the politics behind it but it was In the Middle East

it was in Iraq, Iran. I’m trying to think right now where a lot of the other squadrons went to. We

deployed, so we were in, we carried live weapons live bombs, um you know missals. We

deployed every six months so we would go back to Maine, was our particular home port. We

were never told what our mission was, we just at least at my level. I was really low so that I don't

need to know the politics behind it. I just go where I’m told. So we would fly and that’s all we
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did we were, we were aviation so we just flew. And there were submarines going on. There were

Russians, we would give information or supplies, we would send them down through the

exanabowies, those were attached to our P3 and we would drop into the Meditranion. So it was

the Adriatic (6:48) where our particular squadron surveillance. That was our primary focus was

surveillance of the Adriatic specifically. Yeah, how did that make you feel just having to go into

that without knowing much?

Rain: How does it make me feel?

Leisa: Yeah, they are just being told where to go. But not having a lot of information.

Well for me, I can only speak for me. When I decided to join the military I, I’m very patriotic.

And my, I trust that my commander-in-chief has the big picture and knows what the right thing

for us to do. Like we have a mission, my mission is for, my little part of is be part of the bigger

picture.

Rain: Yeah.

Leisa: And I, my personal believes is the actions of those that give themself in weather its the

peace court, the military, or helping the community you live in. We need to give our part and

make it run and to support each other.

Rain: Yeah.

Leisa: And so for me, it was a sense of purpose. I was proud, I would tear when I saw the

American flag.