NORTHAMPTON — Casey Fowler has been working on the speech she will give Tuesday morning as the keynote speaker during Northampton’s Veterans Day Parade — a speech she expects will revolve around her four years spent in the U.S. Navy during the early 1990s and her transition to being a nurse at Cooley Dickinson Hospital.
From 1992 to 1996, Fowler was stationed on the submarine tender USS Holland (AS-32), what is essentially a floating garage used from 1963 to 1996. Throughout her four years in the Navy she traveled from San Diego to the rainbow-colored skies of Guam, and was immersed into Japan’s rich, traditional culture.
Fowler’s journey to the Navy began on a beach in Devens, Massachusetts. Though she had a post-high school job lined up as an aerobics trainer on a cruise line, Fowler really wanted to train to be a nurse but couldn’t afford college. Then lightning struck when her mother said during that beach trip, “If you join the Reserves, they’ll pay for college.”
Fowler, who describes herself as “somewhat of a risk-taker,” replied to her mom that she might as well go all the way in, and enlisted in the Navy the following Monday.
“It was the best thing I ever did,” she said. “Women in the military didn’t have the best reputation in the early 90s. But I’ve never been the type to care what people think.”
In addition to visiting far-off lands, Fowler also nurtured timeless bonds with others as she worked in the medical department upon the USS Holland. The first modern submarine commissioned by the Navy was unique, she said, because it was an experimental vessel, staffed with 60% women and 40% men.
Among the tasks she performed were conducting audiograms, doing physicals for people leaving or being discharged, giving immunizations, and carrying out HIV testing every six months.
“We bonded unbelievably, the whole department,” she said. “It’s a hard life, but I loved it.”
From her travels she remembers that, “Everyday, Guam was sunny and 85 degrees with a rain shower and a rainbow.” As a fan of the heat, she added that, “Sometimes I kick myself for coming back to Northampton. What was I thinking, it’s so cold.”
Japan, she said, “was a completely foreign land. I had no knowledge of Japanese culture so it was very interesting.”
Low storage and crammed conditions she said make life on a ship different. But she said among perks are the fact that one becomes accustomed to the gentle rocking of the ship, something she missed once on land.
And at night, “There are more stars then you could ever imagine.”
Fowler recommends anyone with “commitment” to join the military and serve, highlighting that to be a veteran is an increasingly “exclusive club.”
“We’re getting rarer and rarer, people who have served. It used to be 50% of people, at least 50% of men who were drafted,” she said. “And so it’s getting to be a more exclusive club to be a veteran.”
Back in Paradise City
When she came back to Northampton, Fowler entered nursing school and decided to focus on drawing blood, or phlebotomies. There is a certain intensity and challenge to drawing blood that appealed to her.
“It’s a challenge every time. Some patients have ropes, some have skinny veins. It’s always like a challenge with yourself, like, ‘can I do this?'”
Now she holds the title of “Acute Care Nurse Practitioner” at Cooley Dickinson in the general surgical care department and specializes in post-operation care and dermatology procedures.
Fowler views it as a her duty to care for veterans who return home from service with mental and psychological damage, something she never experienced.
“Veterans will always, always have a special place in my heart,” she said.
One of her roles at Cooley Dickinson as a nurse practitioner is to be a liaison to veterans.
“It can be difficult to care for because of their experiences,” she said. She notes that 70% of veterans don’t have access to health care or benefits through Veterans Affairs.
In her spare time, Fowler also divides her time serving the Northampton Council on Aging, as a member of the Western Massachusetts Veterans’ Outreach Project, and as president of the Northampton High School Alumni Committee.
Fowler will take the mic in Trinity Park after Tuesday’s parade steps off at the Florence VFW at 11 a.m.