Springfield transgender veteran sent by company to represent in NYC Veterans Day Parade

More than 20,000 people participated in the Veterans Day Parade in New York City Monday morning, including veterans of all eras, military units, civic and youth groups like Junior ROTCs and top high school marching bands from across America.

Mandy Monsees, a 24-year Navy veteran from Springfield, was among them. She walked the 1.2-mile route up Fifth Avenue and then from 26th to 46th streets alongside 120 other veteran employees from T-Mobile.

"It was unbelievable to (see) so many people both in the parade and cheering for veterans," she said following the parade. "It is a feeling of being home with family being surrounded by so many veterans that understand and share the same bond."

Monsees, a transgender woman and LGBTQ advocate, also spoke to the News-Leader a few days before the parade.

At the time, she anticipated the experience would be an honor.

"Anytime anyone says to me, 'Thank you for your service,' it's a huge honor," she said. "Even at just a one-on-one level, it is very honoring. It is very humbling."

"So to have a whole city that comes out to honor you for what you've done in your life, how amazing is that?" Monsees said. "For me, it's a little bit more — being a transgender veteran."

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Monsees retired from the Navy in 2011, a few years before she began living openly as a woman. During her time in the military, transgender people were not allowed to serve openly.

In 2016, the Obama administration implemented a policy that lifted the ban. But the Trump administration has since banned transgender individuals from serving. 

Monsees disagrees with Trump's policy.

"Trans people have been (openly) serving in the military since 2016," she said. "Nothing negative has happened in regard to transgender people serving.

"You can serve honorably no matter what your gender is or how you identify. You can still serve your country."

Monsees joined the Navy after graduating from Kickapoo in 1988. She said she wasn't someone who had always dreamed of being in the military, but at the time she didn't really have money for college.

"I wasn't ready for the responsibility of going to college," she said. "I knew I could learn a skill being in the military. I would earn money for college. And that way, I would have something to be able to do once I got done with the military."

Her plan was to stick it out for four years, but Monsees wound up getting married after her first year in the Navy. Children came soon after.

"I was already an E5 at the end of my first four years," she said. "I'd already advanced very quickly. I was making great money. They were taking care of my family. I kept getting better parking spaces."

Monsees' jobs in the Navy ranged from repairing submarines, repairing nuclear reactors on submarines, being a nuclear power plant welder and firefighter.

Monsees' military honors include a Navy Commendation medal, six Navy Achievement medals, three Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation medals, Navy Good Conduct medal, two National Defense Service medals, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Southwest Asia Service medal and the Global War on Terrorism Service medal.

"Our core in the military was honor, courage and commitment," Monsees said, recalling how that bothered her while she was serving in the military and presenting as a man.

"I was going against that because the people that I was with, who were my brothers that I would have willingly died for and they would do that same fore me — I was hiding," she said. "It ate at me all the time because I wanted to do the honorable thing."

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Following many conversations with her counselor, Monsees began hormone therapy in 2015. In 2017, she started living openly as a woman.

"It was one of the most amazing experiences you could ever have in your life, above and beyond any medal that I ever received," she said. "Instead of lying to somebody about who you are and having to hide that portion of it. To be able to go, 'Hey, this is who I really am.'"

Monsees called T-Mobile "one of the best inclusive employers in Springfield" and said she appreciates the opportunity to participate in the largest and oldest Veterans Day Parade, dating back 100 years to 1919.

"We still love our country. We are here to serve our country and we are willing to do for it," she continued. "I still would today. I wouldn't hesitate. Those are still my core values."