It started after DeAndria Hardy returned from a Marine deployment in Senegal.

Unresolved mental health issues led to physical health problems and a downward spiral that left her discharged from the military, unemployed and couch-surfing when she lost her home.

A Spartanburg native, Hardy sought traditional veterans services but says she found the system difficult to navigate.

When Hardy did begin to heal, she realized that other women vets needed help, too. Hardy founded the Battle Betty Foundation with the goal of meeting struggling women vets where they are, providing immediate assistance, and guiding them to resources that could help them find healthy, productive post-military lives.

The foundation, the first of its kind in South Carolina, opened in the fall of 2021. And Hardy has become a voice for women veterans statewide.

‘Mission First’ takes a toll

Hardy was excited when she got word that she was deploying.

It was 2012, and her Marine combat logistics unit was headed to Dakar, Senegal. About 600 American troops were taking part in Operation Western Accord, a joint training and peacekeeping mission with units from Senegal, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Gambia and France.

“I was going to Africa” – a longtime dream, says Hardy, who is Black, “to see the place where they say we’re from.”

Hardy joined the Marines in 2009 when she was a student at the University of Tennessee. She served as an ammunition tech, handling artillery rounds, bullets and magazines, grenades and explosives – a job that requires a steady hand and quick thinking.

Hardy was prepared for the potential danger posed by live-fire training.

More:Marine veteran DeAndria Hardy speaks at Greenville Storytellers event

But she wasn’t prepared for the treatment she got from some soldiers from partner nations.

“I was a victim of military sexual trauma,” Hardy says. “It happens a lot stateside, but especially when women are deployed overseas. When I was in Dakar, there were less than 10 women in the entire group that was deployed.”

She says that she tried to focus on her job. “We’re Marines. It’s always ‘Mission First’,” she says.

‘I kept saying I was fine’

But after she returned from Dakar, Hardy says she began having physical and mental health issues that eventually took her out of the service.

In 2014, with an honorable discharge and a college degree that she was able to complete during a year of limited duty, Hardy returned to civilian life.

Her service was at an end. Her struggles were not.

“I tried working in the civilian corporate world, but I couldn’t sustain that for very long,” she says.

Because much of her service was in the reserves, she wasn’t immediately eligible for some benefits from the Veterans Administration.

Hardy says she avoided seeking the help she needed. But the trauma soon caught up with her.

"I kept saying I was fine until I wasn’t,” she says. “For almost a year, I wasn’t able to leave my home. I lost my job, and eventually I lost my home, and I lost my car.”

With help from friends and relatives who are also female veterans, Hardy was gradually able to seek and accept the help she needed.

“They checked on me even when I didn’t care to be checked on. If I didn’t answer the phone, they’d say ‘We’ll check on you tomorrow.’ And they did. And they kept doing it.”

According to the VA, there are 2 million women veterans nationwide – about 10% of all vets and the fastest-growing segment of the veteran population.

South Carolina is home to about 46,000 women vets.

After finding little support for women veterans, Hardy surmised that many other women needed a female “Battle Buddy” – a “Battle Betty.”

“Remembering what those women did to help me – my cousin, my sorority sister – I’m like, ‘I can do that for somebody else,’” Hardy says.

Battle Betty started with monthly meetings at Spartanburg Community College – giving women a physical and emotional space to talk to others who understand.

As the scope of the need became clear, Battle Betty grew.

An HQ in Jonesville

Battle Betty now operates the state’s first women veterans’ resource center in the former municipal building in Jonesville.

Homeless women vets can get temporary housing, along with "a clothes closet and a gear locker,” Hardy says. She and volunteers also do street outreach.

There are bigger plans as the organization and resources grow, Hardy says.

The City of Spartanburg has committed property on the city’s Northside for a transitional home, part of Battle Betty’s strategy of H.E.R. – Housing, Empowerment and Reintegration.

Down the road, Hardy says the foundation hopes to develop a community of 15 tiny homes and a resource center.

“It would be a safe space to help them transition. A lot of shelter programs are 90-days,” Hardy says. “For a lot of women who are struggling, sometimes 90 days just isn’t quite enough.”

Hardy says she has learned – both through the foundation’s work and personal experience – that housing is almost always a struggling woman veteran’s most critical need.

The foundation also tries to eliminate barriers to assistance.

“As long as you have served, we can help you,” Hardy says. “I don’t care if you have a VA rating or how long you served or if you were honorably discharged, we can help you. We don’t turn anybody away.”

Hardy says she works with other organizations, like the Disabled American Veterans that can often help navigate the VA.

And more people are hearing about Battle Betty’s work.

Hardy serves on the S.C. Department of Veterans Affairs task forces for both women veterans and veteran homelessness.

“We try to make sure we’re as connected as possible so we can help as many people as possible,” Hardy says.

She even gets some referrals from the VA now.

Armed with hard-won knowledge, Hardy says Battle Betty is moving in the right direction.

“Any time I have a chance to learn a little bit more so that I can help somebody a little better, I want to do that.”

This story first appeared in the fall issue of Spartanburg Magazine.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Battle Betty Founder Becomes Voice For Women Veterans