Nicole McMinamin

I attribute my success to my family and friends. They've always had my back, they've always supported me. When I had difficult times, my peers are who I worked with in the current job is who I would talk to because they could understand what I was going through at that time. Never holding anything in is important to me, always talking about things that don't sit well with me or bother me, definitely helped me along my path. When we hold things in, eventually we become like a volcano that is ready to erupt. The more we talk about things that bother us then the more internal pressure gets released, and for me, it is been extremely beneficial.

The best career advice I ever received was from one of my sergeant majors. We had a situation where we knew something was going on in a particular section, but whenever she would go down and ask them, everyone was too afraid to tell her what was wrong. The best advice she gave me was, you can't fix something that you don't know about. So that made me look inwards and say, you need to speak up, and when there's something wrong, you need to say something. Nothing will ever change or get better if the people who can help fix the situation, don't know about it. You can't worry about hurting people's feelings, you can't worry about ruffling feathers. If it's wrong, then it's wrong, and there's a way to fix it.

Advice I would give to young women entering the military would be, always remember you are stronger than you think and you can handle more than you know. There are a lot of great things about the military that I love, and like anything in the world, there are negative things too. Just always trust your gut, keep an open mind, and be sure to have a solid group of people you can confide it.

Biggest opportunities in my job field is that who ever wants to, they can go through the classes to be certified in autopsies, and forensic photography. As well as being apart of something that is truly greater than yourself. There are hard days but looking at the bigger picture and the families I am assisting, is worth it. Not everyone can do this job, and it is a job I wouldn't change for anything in the world.

Biggest challenges in my field is the mental aspects of my job. It varies depending on where I was stationed. I have had very diverse experiences in the Army with the mortuary field that was challenging on its own for many reasons and then moving onto establishing convoy load plans while in Afghanistan, conducting risk assessments for missions in South East Asia, Europe and Solomon Islands, as well as having regular daily meeting with host nation officials in those countries. My personal challenge was becoming somewhat diplomatic, when I am a girl from Massachusetts who speaks her mind. I've learned to scale down my tone and attitude and become more respectful and tactful in speaking with others from different background across the globe.

The values most important to me is family. Family that is by blood and family which contains certain people added to it. On any establishment that I work in, I know I will eventually leave it. But family, is always going to be there.