Veteran Salute: 20 years of service in Navy Medicine helping our country and other servicemembers

TOPEKA (KSNT) – A Kansas woman joined the Navy six months after graduating high school. In this week’s Veteran Salute, how she spent her career helping other service members.

Originally from Washington, Wendy Charboneau spent her 20 years of service in Navy Medicine. But a lot has changed since she first joined the military.

“In the beginning, it was a little bumpy,” said Charboneau. “There weren’t women on ships. When I first joined, I don’t think we had women pilots. I know we had no women submariners, but now all of those fields have females. And so that was a huge thing to be a part of.”

Breaking barriers for women wasn’t the only struggle Charboneu faced in her career. She was stationed at Camp Pendleton in California, treating wounded soldiers during the September 11th terrorist attacks.

“I was in line going to work, and all of a sudden the radio interrupted because the line to get on the base was 2 hours long,” said Charboneau. “By the time you got up to the gate, they had dogs and mirrors, and they were searching everybody’s cars, and the towers had been hit, yet the Pentagon hadn’t been hit yet. And then our lives changed. They called up everybody able-bodied and said, Go home, kiss your family, pack your things. They were doing flight line, you know, wills and powers of attorneys, and sending them on their way. It was scary. It was intense because it was on our soil, you know?”

Despite the hardships, Charboneau will always be proud of her time in the Navy and beyond. 

“I was always proud in my uniform, and even now I do still kind of get a little snarky when someone says to my husband ‘Thank you for your service,'” Charboneau said. “But it’s me. I did it. Being a woman and being in there during those kinds of things, like integrating to ships and submarines and combat and just getting to do those, some of the things that it wasn’t all work.” 

Wendy lives in Lebo with her husband, Nathan, who we will get to meet in an upcoming veteran salute. Currently, she volunteers at Meals on Wheels and works locally with the American Legion.

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