AARP Hearing Center
Under heavy mortar fire in Afghanistan, Gretchen Evans was thrown headfirst into a bunker while trying to get her troops to safety. Days later she woke up with a traumatic brain injury and permanent hearing loss, ending her 27-year military career as one of the most decorated women veterans in U.S. history. Despite these setbacks, she persevered and applied her unwavering determination to civilian life, where she now serves as a mentor, coach and community activist.
Evans enlisted in 1979, at 19 years old and just 5 feet tall, with the intent of supporting herself and learning new skills.
“But very soon I knew that serving in the military was going to be a career for me,” she says. “I loved the camaraderie, the structure, the sense of mission and purpose, and that I was contributing to something greater than myself.”
After basic training, Evans became a counterintelligence agent and learned to speak German and Italian fluently. Her small stature helped her to go unnoticed as a spy in counterterrorism operations throughout Italy, Central America and the Middle East. She also undertook leadership roles in multiple combat engagements and was deployed in many capacities, including as a paratrooper.
By the end of her career, Evans had worked her way up to command sergeant major, the highest rank an enlisted soldier in the Army can achieve. In 2006, during her final deployment, she oversaw security and personnel for all U.S. military bases in Afghanistan, which included 30,000 ground troops.
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