Why Not Me?
Jane Brennan served a total of 27.5 years in active service with the U.S. Army.
When Jane enlisted in the Army Reserves in 1989, she saw the service as a way to supplement her education while maintaining her full-time job as a high school teacher. Shortly after completing basic training, though, Jane realized that the Army was where she truly belonged.
After more than 27 years of active duty and being stationed at 11 locations across the U.S. and Afghanistan, she decided she could have just as great an impact in her own community of La Crosse, Wisconsin, as she had throughout her years of service across the globe.
Two years ago, Jane saw an advertisement for Neighbors Day, a program created by Habitat for Humanity in which volunteers work with their neighbors to do yard work for elderly and disabled members of the community. She recalled how the Army has always forced her to be her best and kept her from becoming complacent. She thought back on all the times she worked with a team to accomplish something extremely tough — something she thought was going to be miserable — only to find that she and her team had fun working through a challenge together.
“My service told me to never listen to that critical inner voice inside my head,” Jane says. Rather than deciding that she was too busy to help, Jane said to herself, “Why not?”
Since that first Habitat experience, Jane has participated in three Veterans Builds and Neighbors Days, and she’s proud of the way she’s used the skills she learned in the Army to help her neighbors in need. Jane says her time at Habitat embodies what she likes best about the Army: mutual trust and friendship among peers working together for the common good.
