U.S. Army Garrison Natick welcomes new Army Community Service specialist
Herald has worked with Army families in professional and volunteer roles since 2001, most recently spending four and a half years as an ACS specialist at U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys, South Korea. Before that, she served as a resiliency coordinator with the 2nd Cavalry Regiment in Germany.
Her connection to the Army, however, began long before ACS became her career.
For 25 years, Herald was a military spouse, moving with her family through 10 duty stations, four states and three countries. She grew up in rural Kentucky and said her first duty station introduced her not only to a much larger world, but also to the complexities of Army life.
“I don’t like to not know how things work. And I ask a lot of questions,” Herald said.
Those questions eventually became so frequent that her husband came home with a flier for Army Family Team Building classes.
“He put it on a table. He said, ‘Go take these classes and stop asking me questions,’” Herald recalled with a chuckle.
She took the classes- then became an instructor and eventually a master trainer teaching other instructors.
That experience helped begin a career centered on helping other Army families learn to navigate the same lifestyle.
“I want to make sure we give the people, and especially our young spouses, those opportunities to thrive because the Army gives us a lot of resources, but they don’t tell you how to use them,” Herald said. “That’s what I kind of think ACS can do, is kind of bring some of that together and help figure it out.”
Herald joined the Natick team through the Department of the Army Voluntary Reassignment Program. New to both Natick Soldier Systems Center and New England, she said the installation’s smaller community has already stood out compared with some of the larger installations where she has worked.
“I think it’s that willingness to help and to assist and to make sure you know where you are, and just overall how kind everyone has been,” Herald said. “That level of kindness and the interest in making sure that everyone here is set up for success … it’s been a nice change.”
In her new role, Herald will help connect Soldiers, Army civilians and family members with ACS programs, community resources and referrals.
While people often associate ACS with seeking help during a crisis, Herald said she wants the Natick community to see the organization as a resource long before a situation reaches that point.
“We get a lot of people on their worst day, but really we’re about prevention and education,” Herald said. “Come to us before it gets so bad that you’re overwhelmed.”
Sometimes, she said, the first step is simply helping someone determine what they actually need.
“A successful first conversation for me is really digging into what they’ve got going on,” Herald said. “Just understanding them as an individual and figuring out what really they need (it’s not always what they want) but if I can give them what they need, that’s successful for me.”
That willingness to listen is rooted in Herald’s own experiences as a military spouse.
“Someone helped me,” Herald said. “There is always that young spouse, that young family member who can do this life, who can thrive in this life if they get the right tools.”
Herald said supporting military families goes beyond making Army life easier. Helping families successfully navigate its demands also helps Soldiers balance their responsibilities at home with the requirements of their service.
“It’s not always going to be happy,” Herald said. “There’s always going to be things about soldiering that are hard, and there are challenges that make it really hard on a family.”
“But you can do it, and you can do it successfully,” she added. “Someone helped me thrive along the way, and so I want to make sure that other people can do it.”
As she becomes more familiar with Natick, Herald hopes to tailor ACS resources to the installation’s unique workforce and community rather than simply replicating programs from larger installations.
She is particularly passionate about the Army Family Action Plan, which provides Soldiers, civilians and family members a way to identify quality-of-life issues and recommend changes through Army leadership.
“It is literally the Soldiers’ and the civilians’ voice in the Army,” Herald said. “It is a grassroots program that allows you to make suggestions and make changes.”
Herald expects to begin soliciting Army Family Action Plan issues from the Natick community later this year.
Ultimately, Herald said she hopes people who work with her come to see her as two things: “competent and reliable.”
“I want people to know that I’m a safe space, that I’m a place that they can come with questions and concerns or just trying to figure stuff out,” Herald said. “When you ask for an answer, you’ll get it. You might not get it immediately, but … I’ll find it, help you find it, figure out where it needs to go.”
For now, Herald’s message to the Natick Soldier Systems Center community is even simpler.
“Just come see me,” she said. “Even if it’s just a pop in and say, ‘Hey, what’s ACS?’ I’m happy to have those conversations all day long.”
“I can’t help you if you don’t come see me or if I don’t know you have an issue or a concern,” Herald said. “So come see me.”
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