Maj Katie Rose Fabbri USAF Oral History

title:

Maj Katie Rose Fabbri USAF Oral History

creator:

Fabbri, Katelyn "Katie" Rose (1987 November 21 -

subject:

Air Force | Air Force Reserves | Cultural Support Team (CST)

description:

Katie Fabri was born in Framingham, Massachusetts on November 21, 1987 and joined the Air Force in May 2009. Her father was in the Air Force, her grandfather on her mother's side was a Master Chief in the Navy, and her two brothers are in the Navy and Army. Katie was commissioned through the Air Force Academy, starting there in 2005 at age 17. Her father had wanted to go to the academy himself but chose to enlist right away instead, so she followed through on his plan, especially because there were more women entering combat roles in the Air Force at the time. Once she graduated from the Academy, she was a communications officer and served at the Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany. While there, the primary sexual assault response coordinator deployed, so she was allowed to get certified for that role despite it being outside of her job in communications, and she pursued it because she'd always done her best to support survivors since she was a cadet. At Spangdahlem, she was attached to the 606 Air Control Squadron for two years, and her job was essentially to pack up radio equipment, put it somewhere, read the sky, and get those images to pilots. She also learned more tactical sides of communication in different positions as well. While in Germany, she was deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan with her unit on a six-month rotation. She was on night shift, monitoring the maintenance operation center. While there, there was an attack on the base that was relatively mild and didn't succeed, which felt odd to her because it was happening while she was in a rather normal meeting that felt so separate from combat. Her Chief there set a standard for her because he never asked someone to do something he wouldn't do himself. After the attack, she checked in with people around the base to ensure they were alright and that everyone had handled it responsibly in the moment. It was hard to return to Germany after her first deployment, because they had created such a deep bond in Afghanistan that went away a bit upon returning to Germany. To make sure they all saw each other and had fun, she and another woman made sure to throw a Halloween party with a costume contest, a band of men from the unit, and steaks they managed to get sent over. It was tough at times for her to work with other officers because she was the only woman among them, and with enlisted soldiers because she was about the same age as all of them. She learned to put her foot down when NTOs pushed back against her orders to ensure that people respected her rank as an officer. Once, while they were in Germany, a tech sergeant did not do their work after repeatedly being instructed to do so and she had to file formal paperwork for the first time. Although she was hesitant at first because it felt more serious, she wrote it up and her a senior officer told her to be harsher: she had to formally present it to him in her office. While it felt uncharacteristic to herself, she knew it set the tone to be taken seriously by enlisted troops, especially as the only woman at her rank. After serving one more year in Spangdahlem, she changed her duty station to Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, working in the Joint Space Operation Center in air and space communication. She got there in 2012 and stayed there until 2014 when she left active duty and joined the reserves. In that time, she went to Fort Bragg to be part of the Cultural Support Team. Katie saw an announcement when the program was first made and immediately decided to join. After getting to Fort Bragg, they went through assessments that Katie did well on, and she was sent through Direct Action training. The training was incredibly difficult, but she always knew that her mind would give out before her body, so she could push herself physically further than she thought she could. She was also conscious of how her individual success or failure would impact how people everywhere would view women and their abilities. Going into it, she knew it was very competitive and was worried that people would be hyper-competitive and possibly view her, as an Air Force woman, as someone taking an opportunity from someone more deserving, but once they got going she was surprised to find the environment incredibly supportive and friendly. She thinks this is partially because they all came knowing everyone was qualified and capable, and they all were interested in having the same positive impact on the world through their service. The day before she was meant to ship out to Kandahar, the Air Force told Katie she couldn't go. Some people told her that they only sent her to training because they didn't think she'd be selected. They also took her Air Force deployment and gave it to a male captain, so they blocked her from being deployed both with the Air Force and as a CST in a single period. This prompted her decision to separate from the Air Force, which they also tried to stop. If she got into graduate school, however, they would have to let her out, so Katie took the LSAT and applied to law schools to force the separation through. Although she initially planned to go, she decided not to and took some time to figure out what else she'd like to pursue. Last minute, she applied to social work school and got in, studying domestic and sexual violence policy. No transcript of this interview is currently available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Poe, Amy B. | Henn, Jessie

date:

2022-10-07

type:

Moving Image

format:

Born Digital

identifier:

1361; 2022.1361

source:

CST - FTP

language:

English

relation:

NR

coverage:

Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan)—2001-2014 | 2009-2014 | 2014-present

rights:

Unrestricted