Van served as an analyst during her 30-plus-year naval career, retiring as a captain, and holds a master’s from the University of Southern California. A Jersey girl, she worked summers on Ford Motor Company’s assembly line, and, after living overseas three times and visiting 30 countries, calls Norfolk, Virginia, home. She is the steward for Little Free Library #127998 and the founder of W3: Willoughby Women Writers. She created this essay during the 2021 NEA Military Veteran Fellowship, for which she is grateful, and it will be included in her manuscript, “WAVES to Warriors: The Transition of Women in the Navy from Support to Spear Tip.”