Mission Beyond the Uniform: Veterans Day Reflections on Inclusion, Service, and Opportunity

by Kathy Mahoney , Specialisterne USA

This is my first Veterans Day not in uniform.

I spent 24 years grateful for the opportunity to serve alongside the most resilient, innovative, and dedicated professionals I have ever known. When people thanked me for my service, my response was always the same: "I am grateful I was given the opportunity to serve," because that opportunity was not always extended to everyone in our history.

You don't get to pick your team in the military. Your team consists of people from all different walks of life, different experiences, different thinking patterns, and different backgrounds, coming together in a singular belief that this country is worth fighting for. That diversity of thought, perspective, and cognitive approach isn't a burden to manage; it's the foundation of mission success. It's why the Navajo Code Talkers could create an unbroken cipher. It's why cryptanalysts with different ways of thinking solved the Enigma code. It's why the Tuskegee Airmen lost significantly fewer escorted bombers compared to other fighter groups.

I've come to understand, particularly in my work with neuroinclusion, that this diversity includes neurodiversity. Over 41,000 active duty service members have been diagnosed with ADHD. Tens of thousands more serve with autism, dyslexia, and other neurological differences. We're already there—in intelligence, cyber operations, engineering, and leadership positions. Many of us served successfully for years without formal diagnosis or accommodations because we didn't have a choice. We had a mission.

What we rarely talk about is that neurodiversity doesn't begin or end with the service member. Neurodivergence is highly inheritable; when a service member or veteran is neurodivergent, their children have a significantly higher likelihood of being neurodivergent themselves. Each month, about 1,000 military children receive diagnoses of autism. Between 2017 and 2022, an average of 124,000 military-connected children per year received ADHD treatment through the Military Health System. Military families navigate this alongside deployments, relocations, provider changes, and the unique stressors of service life.

This means many of us, as veterans, parents, and neurodivergent individuals, are now navigating the same diversity conversation on the home front that we understood intuitively in uniform. We know that different thinking patterns bring strength. We know that people from diverse backgrounds and with diverse neurologies are essential to solving hard problems. We know that inclusion isn't about charity—it's about capability.

As I step into my first Veterans Day as a civilian, my gratitude remains unchanged. I am grateful for the opportunity to have served. And I am equally grateful to carry that mission forward and to help build a world where neurodivergent individuals, veterans and non-veterans alike, families navigating neurodiversity, and people of all backgrounds are given the same opportunity I was: to contribute their unique strengths to something bigger than themselves.

That's the future worth fighting for.