Dashae Engler and her younger brother Dozmen Lee weren’t too familiar with the military world, apart from their grandfather being a veteran himself. But even he didn’t speak much of his service.
It wasn’t until Engler’s junior year of high school that their mom insisted they do the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps.
Their mother wanted to “whip” the two “into shape” after one too many failures to do the dishes, “or something silly like that,” Engler said. But to their surprise, Engler and her brother found more than just the discipline and intense military training the federal program in high schools is known for.
“We ended up really actually enjoying it because of that community,” Engler said. “Even though it’s not the real military, it has those aspects of the real military.”
The JROTC program, Engler said, prepares young people for soldierhood right in high school.
“I did that and I really enjoyed it. But that was Marine Corps, and I’m not a Marine Corps girl,” Engler said.
Engler was born in Chicago and, from the age of nine, grew up in Davenport, Iowa. Feeling lost and unsure about what she wanted to do with her life post-high-school graduation, she did “maybe a semester” of college, but ended up taking a break and taking a year off.
“It was rough,” Engler said. “I was like, ‘Oh, I want to go back to college, but I don’t have the money for college.’’’
Eventually, her mom suggested she give the military another try. After some reluctance about leaving Iowa and being far from her family, that ended up being what Engler did.
“I’m really happy I did because it helps with my [current] schooling, it helped with my house, I still get [Veterans Affairs] benefits like hospital stuff,” Engler said.
Today, Engler is a senior at Drake University, and has earned the spot of editor-in-chief on the publication, Urban Plains. The publication is a digital multimedia magazine produced by Drake seniors in a capstone class. Engler studies magazine and brand media, with a concentration in people, power and politics.
With the passing of Veterans’ Day, an annual holiday to honor service members on Nov. 11, Engler shared her story as a student veteran.
At 19 years old, Engler joined the military as a 92 alpha, an Automated Logistical Specialist 92A in the U.S. Army. “92” represents the career branch and “A” identifies the specific role.
Upon Engler’s decision to join the military, she chose the Army instead of the Marine Corps, which her previous training had been based on.
“Army was a better fit for me personally, because I didn’t want to be a full-time soldier; I wanted to be a part-time soldier,” Engler said.
In the six years Engler was in the National Guard, she was on drill status — the ability to be on duty for one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer.
“I did that for six years, but then when you’re about to deploy, you have to do a longer [training] — it’s called AT, which is annual training,” Engler said. “So I had to do two months, and then I went to Texas and we did three months in Texas. And then that’s when they shipped us out. We went on our deployment.”
In her fourth year, Engler deployed to Iraq and Kuwait for about a year on a tour. After the year it took to get back home, she decided not to re-enlist.
“I was ready to get out,” Engler said.
Back home, being overseas worked out “fairly well” for Engler and her partner, Sean, during her first deployment, since he worked the night shift. The two met while working at Hy-Vee when Engler was 17 years old and today recently married.
“I had a very easy, beautiful deployment,” Engler said. “I know that there’s people who don’t, so I kind of want to keep that in mind whenever I talk about my deployments.”
With that caution in mind when discussing fellow veterans’ experiences, Engler said she still finds many service members are willing to share a lot.
“Even my grandfather, before he died,” Engler said. “He found I was going into the service and he was just — I just never saw him so ecstatic, like happy about that … He was a happy man, but I’ve just never seen that like, wow — because he was a serviceman and he never talked about his service.”
Outside of the military, Engler said bonds with other service members are easily nurtured because the military in itself is an experience you have to be there for to really understand.
“If there’s anyone who’s in the military, I could talk to them for at least an hour about being in the military,” Engler said. “There’s just that connection that you always will have, like close to being a soldier. And not even just a soldier, but a service member in general.”
For that same reason, Engler is still very close with the four girls she befriended in her time serving, staying in touch with them at least weekly, she said.
Having served during her formative years, Engler said, she struggles to differentiate between what she learned from the military versus what skills and qualities she naturally would have developed.
Undoubtedly, she learned a lot about herself from her time in the service, Engler said. Timeliness for one, was not something inherent for her — she used to believe her personality would carry her — now, being on time is a value she holds with dedication.
Much like college, the military has a heavy drinking and partying culture, a habit Engler has since broken off. The sense of community felt in the military is another similarity to college, Engler said.
“It’s very similar to living on campus in college because you’re with people all this time. And then you wake up, you probably see them. You eat, you see them,” Engler said. “You just kind of grow some type of bond with everyone that you’re constantly interacting with. And there are just so many different walks of life.”
She left the Army in February 2020, graduated from massage school, and then the COVID-19 lockdown happened “like a week after my graduation,” Engler said.
“My brother was actually the reason I went back to school because I was talking to him. I’m like, ‘I’m just so unhappy.’ And he’s like, ‘Well, go back to school,’” Engler said. “So I did go back to school, I went to [Des Moines Area Community College] for two years, and now I’m at Drake for two years.”
In those two years at Drake, Jennifer Wilson, a magazine journalism professor, has come to know Engler well, having her in classes since she first transferred.
Engler’s professionalism made her stand out from the start, Wilson said. She made a point to stop by and introduce herself in her first days on campus and strived to accomplish the goals she set for herself.
“In fact, I can’t think of a time when Dashae wasn’t in class early… and I’ve had her in a lot of classes,” Wilson said. “There are times this semester that have been challenging [at the Urban Plains publication] — but the advantage of being a student who has lived a few different lives before coming to Drake is that you have a deeper perspective. Sweating a deadline or solving a staff problem doesn’t feel like the end of the world; it’s just another problem to think your way through.”
Engler has always been a big people person, always asking questions. Her mom called it nosiness. Engler calls it inquisitiveness. During her deployment, she kept a notebook to ask people questions each day, write down their name, word-for-word response and reasoning.
“I remember one [question] was like, ‘What would you consider yourself? Are you a pot stirrer? Are you a peacemaker?’ And I would hear their answers and would write it down,” Engler said. “I did nothing with it. I just… I think I’ve always been inquisitive, asking questions. … I don’t want to be a therapist. I just kind of want to get a rounded story of them.”
Now, as a student journalist who has come to fall in love with the media world of telling stories, Engler spoke directly to her counterparts in the Drake community.
“Support your veterans instead of saying thank you for your service … find little, tiny ways to appreciate your veterans. Have them tell you their stories,” Engler said. “Marty Martin actually said this to me. Like … you make the choice to be a veteran. It’s a choice that not everyone makes. So it’s something that you should be proud of as well.”
