After attending Siena College for only one semester and then becoming a hairdresser for a year, Danielle Martinez told her family news they never expected to hear from her.
“One day she just came home and said, ‘Dad, I joined the Navy.’ Out of nowhere! I said, ‘What? Are you nuts?’” her father, Chris, said. “She just said, ‘I want to see the world, I want to travel.”
While both sides of her family combined contain more than 15 veterans of the Navy, Air Force and Marines, all of them are men. None of them ever wound up crossing the equator, either. But this past year, Danielle became the first to do both.
“It’s a big lifestyle change. I went from being a hairdresser in New York to a sailor in California,” Danielle said at the Albany International Airport Thursday, June 6.
Returning home from the sea for a short visit until June 12, Danielle was shocked to find her extended family, friends and even newscasters waiting for her in the airport terminal. Her mother, Joyce, wanted to surprise her daughter upon her return home.
“I never really see (TVs) greeting the women (officers), so I decided to call and acknowledge my daughter,” Joyce said.
Though always supportive of her decision, Joyce didn’t understand when Danielle first came to her with news she had enlisted for four years.
“I was trying to convince her otherwise. I got so upset, but I couldn’t tell her otherwise. She was 21,” Joyce said.
Her father, who served in the Navy for two years, was also very surprised. The youngest of three children, Danielle always loved styling hair and started hairdressing when she was at Colonie Central High School. After graduating in 2008, she enrolled at Siena College to study business, but decided it wasn’t for her and instead attended The Orlo School of Hair Design and Cosmetology in Albany. After a year of school, she got a job at a Progressions and her father even made a salon in their home for the clientele to come to her.
Only a short time into hairdressing, though, she began working out at Albany’s LA Boxing, building muscle. In February 2012, she headed to Chicago for three months of intensive training at boot camp. Although her family had very little communication with her over that period of time, they learned that Danielle was working above and beyond her requirements.
“We talked to the commander and we asked about Danielle and he said she was setting the standard. (He said) Danielle loves boot camp, everybody’s trying to keep up with her,” Chris said.
The proud parents went to Chicago in May to see her graduate, but had to say goodbye as she was stationed in San Diego aboard the USS Rushmore. She was deployed to the Middle East in September.
One of Danielle’s first experiences was a relief mission, bringing medicine and supplies to soldiers overseas. From there, she spent eight months out at sea on different missions, sometimes going two months without seeing land.
“It wasn’t easy over the last eight months. It was very stressful,” Joyce said. “There were times when I thought she was going to break. I had to give her support, talk to her. Say, ‘Stay strong.’ It was rough.”
Having a strong support system back home and overseas helped both Danielle and her family over the past year.
“Support is very important. If it wasn’t for my family and friends, I don’t know how I would do this,” Joyce said.
That support continued through the local schools as well. This past winter, Lisha Kill Middle School, where Danielle once attended, adopted the USS Rushmore. Eric Obermayer, social studies teacher and the Martinez’s neighbor, decided to adopt the ship by having his students write holiday letters to all the sailors. Over just one week, 758 cards were written and sent out to the USS Rushmore, along with some care packages. Many students and their families wrote more than one card.
“Some wrote back. That really makes a difference when (the sailors) write letters back to us,” Obermayer said.
Joyce said she also has sent many care packages and emails to Danielle and her friends on the ship for words of encouragement.
“We’re definitely working hard out there. But it was a lot of work and a lot of tears,” Danielle said. “Being away from my family … that was really hard. It’s not hard anymore because I realized they’re always going to be there for me.”
While Danielle still has a couple more years in the Navy, she said she wants to use the benefits when she gets home to open up her own hair salon. Although her official Naval title is a ship serviceman SHSN, Danielle said she also become the ship’s barber. And while she’s working hard, she said she’s been really enjoying traveling to places like Hong Kong, Australia and Hawaii.
After leaving on June 12, Joyce said she isn’t sure when she’ll see her daughter again, and that’s the hardest part.
“Now that I have a daughter in the Navy, it’s very difficult but I can relate more when I hear people talk about their stories. You keep your cell phone near you 24/7 and check emails at night,” Joyce said. “I prayed every day. Thank God everything went well.”
Although her older brother Chris said it’s been a rough year, he was happy to have her back in town even for just a short period of time.
“I worry about her a lot more than I thought. But the bad stuff gets outweighed by moments like this when you get to see them again,” he said.