Airman to Mom - Amanda Huffman (Baker)
-
December 2, 2019She traded in her combat boots for a diaper bag. She went from being an Airman to a Mom. Her name is Amanda Huffman, a ‘2002 graduate of SJM, Air Force veteran, and a military mom who has found new purpose through the creation of a blog and podcast about women of the military.
In her blog Airman To Mom, Amanda interviews women who have served in the military or are currently serving in the military. She also shares certain aspects of her military experience as an Air Force officer, military spouse, veteran, and mom.
While in college at Fresno State University, Amanda attended the Reserve Officer Training Program and graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering and became a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force. “I met my husband while at Fresno State and we were married my senior year,” Amanda said. “After graduation, I moved to Holloman AFB, NM and while there I worked on the construction preparation for the F-22 (fighter jet). Then after being at Holloman for two years, I deployed to Afghanistan as part of a Provincial Reconstruction Team.”
When Amanda got home from her deployment, she moved to Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio. “While in Ohio I worked for the Air Force Material Command on Energy Management,” said Amanda. “My husband and I decided to start our family while stationed in Ohio, and I left the military in October 2013. Since then we have lived in Los Angeles, CA and currently, we live in Northern Virginia with our two young sons.”
Changing roles after the military was difficult according to Amanda. “When I left the Air Force in 2013, I really struggled to transition into my new role as a military spouse and mom. I had decided not to work because my husband, who was still in the military, meant we would be moving again soon.”
“I decided to start a blog in early 2014 talking about my experience of being both a former Air Force member and military spouse and mom (Airman to Mom). I didn't know anything about blogging, marketing or growing a business, but I enjoyed writing and began to find myself again,” she said. “I bounced around a lot when I was trying to find my focus for the blog and then in 2017 I did a series focused on deployment. I expected most of the dialogue to be from me but was surprised when primarily women reached out to share their deployment experiences. This triggered an idea to start collecting more stories of military women.”
In January 2018, Amanda began collecting stories via email of military women. “I spent countless hours of back and forth with women intended to be a follow up to the 31 Day Series on deployment,” explained Amanda. “My husband's military job moved us from California to Virginia in the summer of 2018. When it came time to put the series together, I was still struggling with moving and a friend suggested I do a weekly series the following year. This led me to the idea of starting a podcast about military women. In January of 2019, I launched Women of the Military and took the stories I had collected and also created a book called Women of the Military, which was published on June 12, 2019.”
This past year has been a crazy year as the podcast took off in a way I never expected, shared Amanda. “People email me regularly and tell me how much they enjoy the podcast and I love the work that I am doing. I am excited to have found a purpose again after leaving the military.”
You can read more about Amanda and her guests at www.airmantomom.com
She also did an interview recently with Fox Business. Here is the link if you want to check it out.
