Finding Her Wings: Criminal justice career goal sparked by military service
Growing up, Rachel Watson's father wasn't around. Her two older brothers were her father figures.
So when they joined the U.S. Marines, Watson wanted to serve her country too — signing up with the U.S. Air Force.
Now 26 years old, the Herman resident works for the county government through the Butler Alcohol Countermeasures Program, a nonprofit. There, she interviews people who were arrested for driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol to evaluate their degree of substance abuse and which type of treatment they may need.
Her evaluations are used to help county judges tailor sentences for the offenders.
Watson said that she originally wanted to join the Marine Corps too, but her brothers warned her against it.“They kind of told me that as a female I would be treated badly,” she said.Instead, in 2012 she joined the Air Force, a military branch that she said is more welcoming to women.“And even with the Air Force, I had trouble with male higher ups who didn't like females, who didn't think women should be in the military,” she said.During her service, she served as a military police officer.At one point, she was sent to Niamey, Niger's capital city. In the West African country, she was assigned to run security on an air base where the American military stored and used drones.The former French colonial city, which has more than 1 million people, sits along the Niger River. Situated between the forests of southwestern Africa and the Sahara desert to the north, Niamey's average temperatures are around 100 degrees, and during Watson's six-month assignment there, she stayed in a tent.
Her shift started at 6 p.m. and went on for 12 hours. During that time, she was tasked with maintaining security at the base and making sure nobody sneaked in.She said that during her time there she never had any real problems but would often deal with locals in the area who didn't speak English and would stumble onto the base by accident. With nobody on base who understood one of the handful of languages spoken in Niger, the encounters posed a struggle.Once her shift was over at 6 a.m., Watson was faced with one of the hardest parts of her time there — trying to sleep in the Nigerian heat.“Hot as hell,” Watson said. “As soon as I walked off the plane when I first got there, it smacked me in the face. It was incredible. I wasn't use to those temperatures. Literally out of breath.”And sleeping at night, she said, was “nearly impossible.” The air conditioner in the tent she shared would often go out, and even when it was on, it could hardly contend with the temperatures of Niamey, which sits on the continent's Sahel. The designated ecoclimate is used to describe a transitional region that sits between the Sahara to the north and the more moist tropical savanna to the south.Despite the harsh conditions, Watson never wavered in her decision to become a military police officer.“I chose it off the bat. I knew it was something I wanted to pursue — criminology was always something I was interested in,” Watson said. “And I wanted to continue with that back in the civilian world.”During her service, she had a daughter.
When she left the service in August 2018, she came back to her hometown to be near her family.“I had my daughter with me and I wanted her to be close to everyone,” Watson said.She went back to school full time at Butler County Community College and soon after joined the nonprofit working with the county alcohol program staff as a way to continue pursuing a career in criminal justice.As a court reporting network evaluator, her days consist of sitting down with DUI offenders. She's tasked with finding out what substance a drug user prefers and how severe of an alcoholic the drunken drivers are. With this information, she helps judges come up with a treatment plan that will then be enforced by the court.“I love my job. You get a different viewpoint on things. You have one-on-ones with these people and you get to know them,” Watson said. “They're regular people who get caught up in a bad situation.“And it's awesome seeing that side of the system. We're more of a health instrument.”She said that the job helps her understand people better.“The ultimate goal is to get across to them that a second DUI is really bad,” she said. “I try and get them to think, what do you need to do to make sure you don't automatically go back to these things.”And she can offer many suggestions to help people stay off substances or alcohol.“We're surrounded by so many natural, outdoor adventuring, so the shutdown is no excuse. I try to set them up for success,” Watson said. “A lot of them just need somebody to care about them. They come in there very embarrassed, and you want to be there to lift them up.”Watson plans to graduate from BC3 in the fall with a degree in criminal justice. She then intends to continue her education and pursue a bachelor's degree at Slippery Rock University. Her goal is to become a full-time adult probation worker.
