RESERVIST MAGAZINE AROUND THE RESERVE PSU 308 spouse selected as Coast Guard Ombudsman of the Year First ombudsman to hail from a Reserve unit in award’s 35-year history Story by Keisha Reynolds, MyCG Jennifer Walker has dedicated herself to helping families navigate military life and is the 2020 Wanda Allen-Yearout Ombudsman of the Year Award recipient. Walker is in her second year serving as the Ombudsman for Port Security Unit 308 in Kiln, Mississippi. The PSU is a Reserve unit of 120 members—a “hodgepodge of cultures, personalities and traditions,” as Walker puts it—made up of people from all over the country, including California, New England and Mississippi. “Mrs. Walker is the nexus between the 120 mobilized members of the PSU 308 and their loved ones at home,” explained Capt. Ruocco Gennaro, the unit’s commanding officer. “Her role as the unit’s Ombudsman was significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, an unprecedented hurricane and tropical storm season affecting unit members in five states, and a Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program that transitioned to virtual outreach,” he said. “She handled each event with enthusiasm and professionalism.” Despite the challenges she faced throughout 2020, Walker rose above the opposition in a number of ways. She assembled a team, maintained outstanding communication with unit families and the command, and used multiple sources for outreach including a monthly newsletter, a Facebook site, and a rapid- outreach phone tree to provide families with topical information while continuously collaborating with the command. Walker also found creative ways to add levity and play to the lives of the families she serves who were experiencing restricted movement during quarantine. For example, she created a “Quarantine Magnificent Beard and Mustache” contest, opening it up to voting from family members, resulting in 100 families participating. She even organized mini play dates and home events to foster connections between families in the “new 6 RESERVIST � Issue 4 • 2021 normal” atmosphere of COVID-19. In fact, Walker participated in the first, hybrid virtual and in-person event for the YRRP and then used that experience to develop three, exclusively virtual, mid- deployment events to better meet the care-giving needs of the families while maximizing online attendance. For all of these reasons, it’s no wonder PSU 308 members nominated Walker for the Ombudsman of the Year Award, which she won after having been selected from amongst the District winners. She learned of the news only through a recent surprise phone call from the Commandant, Adm. Karl Schultz. “I am very humbled,” said Jennifer Walker with her family, Petty Officer 1st Class Bradley Walker, a maritime enforcement specialist, and their two sons, Anderson and Trent. Walker. “I did not know that my unit put me up for the District 8 award. They tricked me because the unit is still deployed, and they asked me if I could talk to the command about homecoming, and when I answered the phone, it was the Commandant,” she said with a laugh. “It’s been amazing! It makes me feel so special.” She acknowledged the District winners, saying, “It’s phenomenal; it shows how available these other ombudsmen are to help our Coast Guard families, because it’s definitely a group effort—we can’t do anything on our own.” Since PSU 308 is a deployed Reserve unit with people from all over, Walker has to support her families in slightly different ways than some other units. “It makes things a little bit different, because I have to sometimes try and find local resources for families. I’m from Mississippi, and if they’re from Georgia, I have to find what’s local to them. CG SUPRT and a few other services makes this easier,” she said. Walker offered this sage advice to new ombudsmen as a key practice she herself follows, “You don’t have the answer to everything, you just have to be willing to find it.”
