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6 Invisible Veterans population in the nation (Goldstein, 2017). However, women veterans also have enormous potential after service, bringing technical leadership and access to educational benefi ts with them. Creating an inclusive, respectful military and veteran culture is possible— many of the women veterans I interviewed lived it. I lived it. Most women interviewed were proud of their service. For many, negative experiences stood out in particular because many of the women were aware of what the military could feel like when relational identities are reconstructed in a posi- tive way. When I asked women about leaders whom they admired, many told of men they worked for who actively mentored and sponsored servicewomen and worked to create inclusive environments. They described transformation through the reconstruction of relational identities: “Men and subjects in gen- eral need to construct their identities through recognition of similarity, respect, interdependence, empathy, and equality with others” (Duncanson, 2015). So where does it go wrong? Standing Out on the Yellow Footprints 3 Servicewomen are fi rst informed that they are outsiders at accession. At initial training, recent high school or college graduates (depending on the training pipeline) are psychologically and physically militarized, recondi- tioned to be able to react in combat, give and follow orders, memorize codes of conduct, and commit violence if necessary. Basic training is gender integrated in the Army, Navy, and Air Force recruits and offi cer candidates have sex-specifi c berthing areas but often live close together and train together. In these environments, where uniformity is key and individuality is suppressed for military indoctrination to take place, recruits are often referred to by their last names, by nicknames, or simply as “you,” “recruit,” or “candidate.” Lacie Bentley, an enlisted Navy veteran, noted that female recruits were specifi cally singled out for their gender: “[at boot camp] They’re always shouting ‘Female, female, female recruit, females!’ ” 4 Male recruits were simply called “recruit,” while “women are largely seen as ‘odd’ bodies in the military, as they historically and symbolically do not belong in the male ‘normal’ ” (Dyvik, 2014, p. 418). Mary,* an active-duty Army offi cer, reiterated the narrative in initial training that male is the stan- dard female is the “other.” She recalled: I have a very high pitched, kinda silly voice—and I remember the senior instructor saying before I commissioned saying maybe I should do some- thing about my voice prior to commissioning, or maybe do speech therapy. I just brushed it off. 5