Jeannie Liedtke served 12 years in the Air Force. On 9/11, she was part of rescue efforts at the Pentagon, bringing lights so that operations could continue all night.
Then, she deployed to Iraq where she drove convoys, saying she wondered "Am I going to blow up today?" as she navigated through the desert.
But you would never know she served from walking through her home in San Antonio.
Only one photo from the military, a picture of her at basic training, sits in her bedroom. She never wears her Operation Iraqi Freedom Veteran hat nor asks for a military discount.
When she left the service, she didn’t even tell people she was a veteran.
"I really refused to have any affiliation with the military at all because I felt like they just pushed me out the door and said, 'Okay, have a nice day,'" she said.
She said she felt no support for the PTSD that began on that day in Arlington, Virginia.
"I remember them hanging the flag on the side of the Pentagon," Liedtke said. "I remember them bringing bodies out of the building in body bags."
She said her mental state worsened during her wartime service, as she saw several of her fellow troops die. But when she got out of the military, she said neither the Air Force nor the Department of Veterans Affairs helped her — and that it felt like entering into another war to get treatment.
"It's like pulling teeth in some of the systems to get healthcare that you absolutely need," she said.
Hesitancy to seek health care at the VA is common among female veterans. The VA says that about 45% of all women veterans are enrolled, meaning over a million women are missing out on their earned benefits. Hesitancy exists — but is less common — among male veterans, with about 51% enrolled in the VA health care system.
Laura Koerner, chairwoman of the Texas Veterans Commission, said for women who had a less than ideal experience in the service, entering back into a veteran-heavy environment like the VA can be difficult.
In addition to experiencing PTSD or gender discrimination, an estimated 38% of women service members and veterans reported experiencing military sexual trauma, according to a recent VA report.
"There are quite a few that had some kind of sexual trauma or some other type of trauma that also prevents them from wanting to go forward and maybe even walk into a VA facility," Koerner said.
The VA has begun an outreach initiative through its Center for Women Veterans. It's planning to hold five summits across the country to introduce the VA to women veterans. The first was held in San Antonio, where the agenda included discussions on how the VA can help PTSD and military sexual trauma survivors.
Jacquelyn Hayes-Byrd, an Air Force veteran and the executive director of the Center for Women Veterans, said the VA also is trying to reach women who are hesitant to use the agency's services, like she was at one time.
"Back in the day, I didn't see myself as a veteran, and then I thought, well, you know what? I'm going to save the VA for somebody who really needs the VA, ignoring the fact that my ears are falling off, my arms hurt, my knees hurt," she said.
San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, the former Under Secretary of the Air Force in the Biden Administration, also attended the VA conference. She says it comes at a critical time, as the Trump Administration is reviewing whether women should continue to serve in combat and has removed or blocked promotions of several female senior officers.
"It has a deleterious effect on others seeing their ability to serve and do well in an organization that really needs diversity of thought and lived experiences to make sure we're addressing our nation's challenges and win our nation's wars," she said of the Trump Administration's actions.
Still, Jones says the VA is sending the right message with the women's summit. And for Jeannie Liedtke, the summit was the first time she recalls personal VA outreach to her.
"It was kind of comforting because I felt important," she said. "I felt like I mattered again."
Liedtke said she eventually found the care she needed with a female VA doctor who served in the military, and she's now focused on connecting other vets by volunteering to drive them to appointments through a local veterans organization.
This story was produced by the American Homefront Project, a public media collaboration that reports on American military life and veterans.