Page 5 - MidWeek Kauai - Oct 20, 2021

that day. In fact, she not only completed that run but every run thereafter. In figuring out how to control her breath and heartbeat, she discovered she could do extraordinary things when she allowed her mind to overcome a daunting chal- lenge.
getting easier or are they getting tougher? Are people dealing with it well or deal- ing with it badly?”
of an acquaintance asked the young woman with a clear passion for horses, “Have you thought about going to West Point? I can get you on the riding team.”
I was like, ‘Join the club, be part of the group! It’s not so bad — you’ll get used to it!’” she says with a laugh.
As she explains, “I learned that stress can be your super- power if you harness it, tame it and focus on what you want done.”
In many ways, Lewis’ three-decades-long career in the military — which in- cludes surviving life down- range in Iraq as well as in Washington, D.C., during the 9/11 attack at the Pentagon — makes her the ideal men- tor and motivator for those hoping to overcome obsta- cles and reach their potential.
Intrigued by the offer, Lewis simply replied, “OK.” “My mother was the rid- er in the family, so I got that from her,” says Lewis, whose father taught her and her two older brothers to swim at an
Lewis continues: “West Point was a huge test. I knew it would be hard and I thought I’ d be prepared, but no one can prepare you for a social revolution. There was a firestorm of publicity and controversy with people weighing in on both sides, and the faculty and cadets were all whipped up. Even the superintendent before we arrived said, ‘Over my dead body will women come to the academy.’ And that created a very rough environment.
Fans of Lewis (center) and her just-released book include (from left) Christine Reed, co-owner of Basically Books and Petroglyph Press in Hilo, and Dr. Sonia Juvik, professor emerita at University of Hawai‘i at Hilo.
PHOTO COURTESY DEBRA LEWIS
Little wonder why Lewis — a retired U.S. Army colo- nel who just released her book Why is Pono not Pono Today? — is one of the world’s fore- most coaches on stress man- agement.
early age.
“As a young person, you
the couple’s yearlong “Duty, Honor, America Tour,” in which Adams rode his bicy- cle over 18,000 miles, criss- crossing every state while saluting veterans, active duty personnel and their families as his wife followed him in a rented RV.
“We need to be stronger,” demands the Hilo resident. “We must figure out a way to handle more stress so that when we face challenges, we can bring out the best in ev- eryone and get more done.”
“I’ ve faced death,” she states. “I’ ve faced people trying to bomb me, shoot me, kidnap me, insult me and put me down. I’ ve had it all. I was asked a question recently, ‘How do you handle (stress)? Well, I said, for one, you learn to get back up. And Iin my case, I’m going to get back up fast! I’m never going to wallow in it.”
want to do things tough ear- ly on. I think that’s where I get a lot of my toughness. It was tough being a horseback rider,” she continues, adding that she ultimately became captain of the equestrian team during her senior year at the academy.
“But it was good for me because if you can survive in that environment and learn to still be yourself, then that can be very helpful.”
Five years later, she was asked to deploy in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and take command of the Gulf Region Division Dis- trict. There in the western Asian theater, she was asked to provide engineering and construction management in Baghdad and Al Anbar Province.
After touching down in the islands, the equally tough Ad- ams biked the remaining 222 miles on the last day of the tour and, along with Lewis, decided the 50th State would be where they’ d plant their roots.
Her book captures the es- sence of her Mentally Tough Women initiative, which seeks to strengthen both women and “enlightened men — or those unafraid of strong women at their best” — through online courses and one-on-one sessions. Two of her free courses on extreme stress and stress ba- sics have already registered 3,800 people from 110 coun- tries, she says.
t only seems natural that Lewis would wind up in the military. Her
“It was also tough being a swimmer and moving around a lot. I think my path could have taken me in a number of ways, but I was definitely drawn to West Point.”
Lewis survived and then some. Following her time at the academy, she also learned to manage large projects while training and supervis- ing scores of people.
Despite the constant bomb- ings all around, the hijacking of many of her crew’s sup- plies and the heavy loss of life (including many of her own Iraqi contractors), the experience was incredibly rewarding, she notes.
“When I retired (in 2010), I wanted to help people be successful when things got tough,” adds Lewis, whose book may be purchased at mentallytoughwomen.com. “It took a while to come up with Mentally Tough Wom- en, but the idea was how do we gracefully handle tough situations? People keep tell- ing us to de-stress. The prob- lem with that is, are problems
Still, Lewis — who was born in Frankfurt, Germa- ny, and raised in locations around the world — claims her career pathway was any- thing but a foregone conclu- sion.
Attitudes about the sexes have certainly changed in the last four decades, she ac- knowledges.
Later, while assigned to the Pentagon, she was the engineer in charge of writ- ing regulations that would protect the highest levels of the military from terrorist attacks. Ironically, she was there at the U.S. Department of Defense headquarters the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when a hijacked commercial airliner crashed into the west- ern side of the building.
“It was fate,” concludes the woman who earlier in her career was briefly stationed at Schofield Barracks and Fort Shafter on O‘ahu. “Along the way as we crossed the entire country, we kept asking our- selves where the ideal place to live would be. I can only say that it felt like coming home when we got to the islands. They really spoke to us, es- pecially the Hilo side of the Big Island.
father, Bennett, graduated from West Point and was a mechanic in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. He also served in multiple wars before retiring as a lieu- tenant general in 1984. Even her mother, Malvene, had ties to the military as the daugh- ter of a naval officer.
Lewis is certainly proud of being a part of the first grad- uating class of 62 female ca- dets. In the years since, the U.S. Military Academy has seen more than 5,000 women successfully pass through its hallowed halls, and today, its female population comprises 25% of the corps.
After joining the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, she was put in charge of two districts: first in Philadelphia, where she oversaw 550 employees across five eastern states; and second in Seattle, where she managed 850 people scattered over four western states.
“My time there allowed me to do the most phenom- enal engineering work that I’ ve done in my career. We had a $2.1 billion construc- tion program. We built ev- erything from fire stations and treatment plants, to power stations, court houses, roads and schools,” explains Lewis. L“You name it, we were build- ing it in trying to give the peo- ple of Iraq infrastructure.”
For Lewis, Hawai‘i has been “the longest I’ ve lived anywhere in one place in my life.”
“I was going to be a doc- tor,” admits the woman who planned on attending the Uni- versity of Virginia following high school graduation.
“They didn’t think we could compete back then. They would say (to male cadets), ‘How could you possibly let women graduate from West Point?!’ My own classmates stopped talking to me at times during my four years because they were get- ting hazed and they didn’t want to take the abuse. But
ewis and husband Douglass Adams (also a West Point
“With all the hardships and things we’ ve experienced in our lives, it was the place to come and be welcomed. I think it was meant for us.”
Circumstance, however, would pull her in another direction after a cadet friend
“I’m always where trouble is,” she says jokingly.
classmate whom she wouldn’t meet until 17 years after they graduated) moved to the Big Island in 2011. Their arrival marked the culmination of
OCTOBER 20, 2021
KAUA‘I MIDWEEK 5
Retired Army Colonel On A Mission To Help Others Beat Their Stress