Photo By Arthur Hylton | ABC6/FOX28 News Anchor Stacia Naquin (center) delivered the keynote at the Defense...... read more read more
From Lawton Fort Sill, Oklahoma to Columbus, Ohio, ABC 6/FOX 28 News Anchor Stacia Naquin has made it a point to support the military wherever she goes.
She spoke about growing up in a military family and how she gives back to the military services through storytelling, during the Defense Federal Community and Federal Women’s Program Women’s Equality Day observance Aug. 30 at the Defense Supply Center Columbus’ Operations Center Auditorium.
Stacy Son, deputy site director for Defense Finance and Accounting Service – Columbus opened the program by speaking on the day’s theme, “Forging Ahead, Creating A Legacy.”
“For me, I don’t have to look much further than my own family tree to find inspiration and fortitude, grit and determination, strength and servant leadership as demonstrated by my mother and grandmother during my childhood,” she said.
She explained that her grandmother was a trailblazer for her time as she was a nurse in an era when women did not work outside the home and her mother was a single mother who taught at the local school district for over 36 years.
Naquin found similar inspiration in her military parents, who sacrificed many things to serve. She said her dad served in the Navy and her mom in the Army. They lived in many places from South Carolina to Guam and when her parents got divorced, her mom was sent to Lawton Fort Sill and Naquin went with her.
Growing up in tight knit military communities like Lawton Fort Sill motivated her to give back whenever she could throughout her career as a TV journalist.
She said that being a military kid really set her up to be in front of the camera in TV news, a career which was not her first choice – but she learned to love it because of the deadline-driven environment, the moving around to different news stations and meeting new people to tell their stories.
“Throughout my career wherever I moved, I looked for my extended military family,” she said, adding that she would support them in whatever ways she could from teaching Army personnel about transitioning to civilian life to volunteering at the local USO.
“It’s really influenced the work that I do every single day and the focus that I have to tell the stories of today’s military,” she said.
And she has done just that through and hour-long news documentary, “Duty First,” that tells the story of deployment through the viewpoint of those going through it and the ongoing series “She Serves,” which is focused on the stories of women in the military.
In “Duty First,” she wanted to show a different side of deployment, the side she was most familiar with, watching her Navy father leave home for months at a time noting that the news covers the send-offs and the returns but nothing in-between.
“Life happens in the middle for the family, and that’s what I wanted to show, what I wanted to focus on,” she said.
“Duty First,” had no narration. It was completely told from the perspective of the family.
“They know true sacrifice personally and professionally and they serve too,” she said.
For the series “She Serves,” Naquin wanted to shed light on the lives of local women who serve in the military.
“Originally the goal was to just show women right here in our community and how they serve,” she said adding that the series has expanded to telling the stories of Ohio women at other bases and Ohio’s women veterans.
“I don’t think it is a coincidence that my focus throughout my career has been on military voices, because for me it’s really at my core and I think that is what has kept me in this business for so long – to raise the profile of the voices that are important to me,” she said.
“That’s why I’ve made this [TV news] my career,” she added.
Coleen McCormick, Equal Employment FWP champion and deputy director of DLA Land and Maritime’s Strategic Acquisitions Process Directorate presented a memento of the occasion to Naquin after her remarks.
Jose Gutierrez from DFAS - Columbus rendered the National Anthem, Laura Leeper Branham, electronics engineer at DLA Land and Maritime provided the invocation, Caroline Watson, Contract Pricing Division chief for DLA Land and Maritime’s Procurement Support Directorate served as the event’s Mistress of Ceremonies and Shelby Rose-Hayes from DFAS - Columbus delivered the closing remarks thanking everyone for attending the event.
According to the National Constitution Center, Women’s Equality Day is officially observed annually on Aug. 26 to mark the day the 19th Constitutional Amendment, giving women the right to vote, was certified by then U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby in 1920.
| Date Taken: | 09.08.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 12.29.2023 11:53 |
| Story ID: | 461020 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 156 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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