7-3-24 *INTERVIEW* Navy Veteran Beth H Macy on Why It Took Years to Comfortably Say She Served

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
All right, I'm gonna move awayfrom politics now. I want to do
something different and more fun and andand important going into our July fourth Independence
State holiday. I am so pleasedto be joined. We're on We're on
zoom, so I can see her, you can hear her. Beth H.
Macy is a US Navy veteran andan artist and an author the Moscow

(00:23):
Knights Spy trilogy. And boy,we have a lot to talk about.
So Beth, welcome to Kaaway andthanks so much for being here. Oh,
thank you so much, Ross forhaving me on your show. I
wanted to let you know both myparents are retired US Navy officers and my
mother is a retired rear admiral.Wow. Yeah, you don't hear that

(00:44):
every day. So you know,when I when I heard about you from
the person who told me about you, there was a really interesting story that
I wanted to ask you about aswe're heading into this Independence Day holiday,
and that is and I want youto tell us a little bit about your
military service, and I want youto talk about how, let's say,

(01:06):
coming out of the Vietnam War,there was a very different feel among veterans
about whether you could be proud aboutit in public, the way World War
two veterans were in the way let'ssay, Iraq War veterans are, but
not so much the folks in between. That's exactly right. Yeah. I
served just after the Vietnam War,and we were still hated anyone who was

(01:34):
in the military. At one point, I decided to go for my master's
degree at my alma Mada, andI one day showed up for class in
uniform because I didn't have time tochange, and I was jeered, I
was taunted. I left the campusand I withdrew from my master's program because

(02:00):
of that, and because of thattreatment, I kept my service uh quiet
and didn't even talk about it afterI got out. Uh you know,
so I was like, well,that's the past, that's my my own
little secret. And uh, itwasn't until one day, not that long

(02:23):
ago. Maybe it was before thepandemic. You know, everything was before
pandemic, after pandemic, right,and uh this I was going to the
highway store and this man who lookedlike he was, you know, an
ex Vietnam War era hippie, walkedup to me and said, thank you
for your service, and I criedit was just amazingly healing. And I

(02:51):
had thought, you know, thatthose words were so trite, thank you
for the service, thank you foryour service. But this man really meant
it. And he was someone whowouldn't have thanked me back in the Vietnam
War days and shortly after, Soit meant one heck of a lot.
And I'm feeling a little teary justeven telling you about it. All Right,

(03:14):
I have many questions. I havemany follow up questions. So first,
what did you do in the military. Well, probably I'd probably have
to kill you if I told you. And I went into the military,
so I wouldn't teach math. I'dlearned something else. So I did this

(03:35):
bizarre stuff that would never get mea job. And then they sent me
to teach math at the Naval Academyprep school, fifteen minutes from where I
grew up. I was like,why, it's joined the Navy c of
the world. It's not just ajob, it's an adventure. I'm next
to New Bedford in Newport, RhodeIsland. What was your alma mater?

(04:00):
Did you go to Brown? Where'dyou go? I went to Bridgewallas State
College? Right, it was Fordableyeah, you know so again. The
person who introduced us told me thestory about the person saying thank you for
your service at the hardware store.But I thought that that would have I

(04:25):
thought that was thirty or forty yearsago. I didn't realize you're saying you
went forty years, fifty somewhere betweenforty and fifty years without really feeling that
you could be I'm sure you werealways proud of your work without without feeling

(04:46):
that you could be proud of yourservice in public. Yes, I wouldn't
even you know, I didn't useany of the VA services, so the
veteran services. After that happened.I started parking int in only parking spots.
But before that, no, itwas just hidden. How did the

(05:09):
guy who thanked you for your serviceknow that you were a veteran? I
asked him that, and he sawmy plates. I do have veteran plates.
That was my one little concession toget the Navy plates, And that
was only because a friend had soencouraged that I do that. At the
time I was getting plates and hadactually gone with me, and he spoke

(05:34):
up and asked for veteran plates forme. Well, tell us a little
about your Moscow Nights series, andthen I want to come back to your
own personal story. Sure. Sure, I am a right brain, left
brained. I worked in high techas a civilian, and I've always wanted

(05:57):
I'm an artist, though I dooil paints, and I've always wanted to
write a Spye novel. And soI think everyone wrote during the pandemic,
or so says the editors and thepublishers and so forth. But I finally,
since I wasn't traveling. I usedto travel every week for business,
and I wasn't traveling, so Ihad all these gobs of hours. Uh,

(06:19):
and so I started writing the firstMoscow Knight's Return, and it just
spilled out of me. It wasjust I couldn't stop it. I just
kept writing and writing and writing.And I got to a point where I
thought it would be good to havean editor. And I got Dory,

(06:41):
who juries people into before she'll editthem, and she said, you can
write, well, wow, great, And so that inspired me to keep
on going. And I worked withher on the book, and while book
one was being edited, book twostarted and I mean, these characters weren't

(07:04):
done, They just kept on kepton going. And so and then while
book two was being edited, bookthree started. It was like I couldn't
I couldn't stop the flow, andI decided to keep all three together before
I published them because I wanted tobe able to get the edits. I'm

(07:26):
a perfectionist. I wanted to beable to get the edits from book three
rippled back into book one, etcetera, et cetera, and I've been
getting good reviews. It's fantastic.And so I took a little break because
my sister is an artist and shewanted to do a Macy Woman show and
I needed to paint up some paintingsfor that. And then book four is

(07:50):
now my editor, so they keepon going. I'm always so impressed with
somebody who has the time and thediscipline to sit down and write a book.
Folks, if you're just joining muchless three books, we're talking with
Beth Macy. She's a Navy veteran, she's an artist. She's the author
of the Moscow Knights Spy trilogy.And by the way, all of this

(08:13):
stuff is linked on my blogs.If you just go to Rosskominsky dot com
and click on today's Wednesday blog.Note all the links to best stuff or
books or personal website are are upthere? How did you? I want
to go back to your story fora second and just make it maybe a

(08:33):
little bit more personal in that.So, my mom was already in a
military family and we lived on andaround military basis for a long time.
So, and my mom was career, right, so she didn't have that
thing of spending a long time inthe civilian world where she wasn't respected or

(08:58):
thanked or whatever for for her service. And then even after her time in
the military, she was at nihfor a while, which is still government
and they'll still even wear uniforms therein the nation, in the public health
service sometimes. So what was that? What was that like for you to
go forty plus years without feeling again, I don't I don't want to word

(09:20):
this wrong, because I'm sure youare very proud of your service without without
feeling like you could be publicly proud, or without feeling like other or wondering
like are these people actually proud ofme? That couldn't have been easy.
No, No, I felt likethere was a part of my history missing,
a part of me missing, AndI also felt a little less than

(09:46):
when people would mention veterans. Yeah, I wouldn't even think of myself as
a veteran, and it, youknow, so it I didn't feel whole.
I think that's one way to describeit. And I think I somehow
I felt a little guilty about it. Do you think having served when all

(10:11):
these people during that time frame hatedthat you did? So? Do you
think so? I get that.I mean I was alive at the end
of the Vietnam War, but Iwasn't really aware of what was going on,
but obviously well aware that when soldiersand sailors and airmen and marines came

(10:33):
back they were not popular, theywould be spat upon and so on.
But moving ahead, like twenty yearsfrom there, do you think that the
ongoing psychological impact of feeling disrespected?Do you think there's a difference between men

(10:54):
and women in terms of that.Do you think your experience would have felt
differently if you were a guy.I think it might have. I know
that women tend to think more,uh that their impostures in what they're doing,
and beat themselves up quite a bit. The the female ego is different

(11:18):
than the male ego, So Ithink, you know, part of it
was being female feeling that I thatyou know, hadn't been under fire,
and you know, I was lessof a vet because of that. And

(11:39):
then I got busy. You know, when you're in high tech, you
get you get busy. So uh, it just went by the wayside until
just a few years ago and thenthat random moment in my life. And
now I've got a you know,maybe veteran parking sign my way. Yeah,

(12:01):
there you go, there you go. Well, Beth Macie, I'm
very thankful for your service, thankyou for serving our country, and thanks
for your time today. And congratulationson being a published author, which is
something I doubt I will ever beable to do. I'm quite in awe,
so thank you so much, andhave a wonderful Independence Day. I

(12:24):
will thank you so much for havingme on the show again. I really
appreciate it, all right, veryglad to