Allison Ritscher, USN Commander (ret.)
“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.” – Barack Obama
This hope-generating Obama quote describes Allison Ritscher’s personal philosophy and Navy career. The retired CDR served as an intelligence officer for most of her 21- year career. “I joined the Navy because I felt the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) should have been more forward-leaning on bringing the sides together (in Bosnia), negotiating a solution, and sending armed peacekeepers. I felt that if soldiers, marines, and airmen are deployed and risk their lives, then I should put myself in that place for a period of time,” she said.
MOTIVATION: Her family set the example. “Everybody had a sense of obligation for service. They all had it, although I chose a different path; I ended up in the military,” the new VMFC member said.
The draw to a military career grew from her relationship with Dalma, a high school exchange student from what was then Yugoslavia. Dalma educated Allison about the tragedies inflicted during the war in Bosnia. She could not return home and ended up a refugee. That got Allison to thinking about what the US and NATO could have done in that theater. “I thought of my friend and that helped me form my career in the Navy. I wanted to be someone who does something about all this. You can’t just want to send someone else,” she reflected.
Filling the world with hope.
NAVAL CAREER: So, two years out of college, Allison applied for the Navy’s Officer Candidate School (OCS) and was commissioned in August 1996. After attending the Naval Intelligence Officer Basic Course in Virginia Beach, VA, she became the second woman assigned to VF-103, a Tomcat squadron out of Naval Air Station Oceana. The Navy then offered to send her to the Naval Post-Graduate School, where she earned a master’s degree in National Security Affairs and wrote a thesis that was about the role of the military in post-conflict democratization, using Bosnia as a case study. From there, she served at an intelligence command in Stuttgart, Germany, the Naval Special Warfare Command in Coronado, CA, the Naval Special Warfare Development Group and Naval Special Warfare Group TEN in Virginia Beach, and the National Counterterrorism Center in Washington, DC. Her operational work included deployments to Kosovo, Uganda, Iraq, the Horn of Africa, and other parts of the Middle East, where she primarily provided intelligence support to counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations.
Allison retired from Virginia in 2017, after treatment for breast cancer. “My command was very supportive when I had treatment,” she said, explaining that so many of her colleagues had shaved their heads when she lost her hair that she remembered feeling very comfortable going into a meeting and just being one of many bald heads.
Although the treatment was successful, Allison chose to retire not long after because she believed the physical toll from treatment meant she no longer had what it took to continue her work in the Navy. She also realized that she needed to make up for lost time with her family. “This was a hard decision to make, because I loved what the Navy gave me – education, career, support, and the opportunity to make a difference,” she said.
Filling the world with hope. Finding hope for myself.
POST-MILITARY LIFE: Reconnecting with family and giving hope to her veteran brothers and sisters were important to Allison as she reentered civilian life.
Family: Allison moved to Albuquerque four years ago. She moved in with her sisters’ family to help her nieces, Madeleine and Lizzy, during remote schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic. “It was great. It’s a very different relationship when you see your nieces every day,” she said. Allison has bought her own place and will probably move into it in a year, when the oldest niece gets her driver’s license.
Volunteering – Paws and Stripes: “One of the first things I did was look for volunteer options during COVID. I started at The Storehouse New Mexico, packing boxes of food for families in need, and also at Argos, a shelter dog rescue that takes dogs from New Mexico shelters at risk of euthanasia. “I had always wanted a dog. I never could have one in the Navy. My niece Lizzie helps me there occasionally,” Allison said.
Allison needed more, as she reflected on the importance of support from her command while she was being treated for breast cancer. “One of the things I love about the military,” she said, “is that when a teammate needs help, you drop everything and you help.” So when Allison heard of an Albuquerque-based organization called Paws and Stripes, she knew she wanted to be part of it.
Paws and Stripes is a nonprofit that “fills the gaps for New Mexico veterans struggling from the strain and trauma of multiple deployments, long term separation from family and friends, traumatic brain injuries, and even military sexual assault at a time when Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities were at capacity,” according to their brochure.
Along with the good experience of having support when she needed it, Allison also acknowledged that there had been a tough part of her job that brought her to Paws and Stripes. “I and the people I worked with loved what we did, but it left its mark. Some of my colleagues, after almost 20 years of war and maybe traumatic brain injury and PTSD, were having trouble with everything from remembering where they left their keys to suicidality. For a lot of us (and I include myself in this) we did our work for so long, it was hard to figure out who you were afterwards. Who am I?” Allison thought. (See related article in the newsletter and click here to learn more about Paws and Stripes.)
She became secretary of the board in 2021. “I enjoy this work. I really believe in the mission, and I really believe Paws and Stripes is phenomenal in executing the mission. And I am proud to be able to contribute, in a very small way, to their success. When I hear stories from clients who they have helped, it is transformational. Paws and Stripes changes lives.”
Filling veterans with hope. Finding hope for myself.
This hope-generating Obama quote describes Allison Ritscher’s personal philosophy and Navy career. The retired CDR served as an intelligence officer for most of her 21- year career. “I joined the Navy because I felt the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) should have been more forward-leaning on bringing the sides together (in Bosnia), negotiating a solution, and sending armed peacekeepers. I felt that if soldiers, marines, and airmen are deployed and risk their lives, then I should put myself in that place for a period of time,” she said.
MOTIVATION: Her family set the example. “Everybody had a sense of obligation for service. They all had it, although I chose a different path; I ended up in the military,” the new VMFC member said.
The draw to a military career grew from her relationship with Dalma, a high school exchange student from what was then Yugoslavia. Dalma educated Allison about the tragedies inflicted during the war in Bosnia. She could not return home and ended up a refugee. That got Allison to thinking about what the US and NATO could have done in that theater. “I thought of my friend and that helped me form my career in the Navy. I wanted to be someone who does something about all this. You can’t just want to send someone else,” she reflected.
Filling the world with hope.
NAVAL CAREER: So, two years out of college, Allison applied for the Navy’s Officer Candidate School (OCS) and was commissioned in August 1996. After attending the Naval Intelligence Officer Basic Course in Virginia Beach, VA, she became the second woman assigned to VF-103, a Tomcat squadron out of Naval Air Station Oceana. The Navy then offered to send her to the Naval Post-Graduate School, where she earned a master’s degree in National Security Affairs and wrote a thesis that was about the role of the military in post-conflict democratization, using Bosnia as a case study. From there, she served at an intelligence command in Stuttgart, Germany, the Naval Special Warfare Command in Coronado, CA, the Naval Special Warfare Development Group and Naval Special Warfare Group TEN in Virginia Beach, and the National Counterterrorism Center in Washington, DC. Her operational work included deployments to Kosovo, Uganda, Iraq, the Horn of Africa, and other parts of the Middle East, where she primarily provided intelligence support to counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations.
Allison retired from Virginia in 2017, after treatment for breast cancer. “My command was very supportive when I had treatment,” she said, explaining that so many of her colleagues had shaved their heads when she lost her hair that she remembered feeling very comfortable going into a meeting and just being one of many bald heads.
Although the treatment was successful, Allison chose to retire not long after because she believed the physical toll from treatment meant she no longer had what it took to continue her work in the Navy. She also realized that she needed to make up for lost time with her family. “This was a hard decision to make, because I loved what the Navy gave me – education, career, support, and the opportunity to make a difference,” she said.
Filling the world with hope. Finding hope for myself.
POST-MILITARY LIFE: Reconnecting with family and giving hope to her veteran brothers and sisters were important to Allison as she reentered civilian life.
Family: Allison moved to Albuquerque four years ago. She moved in with her sisters’ family to help her nieces, Madeleine and Lizzy, during remote schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic. “It was great. It’s a very different relationship when you see your nieces every day,” she said. Allison has bought her own place and will probably move into it in a year, when the oldest niece gets her driver’s license.
Volunteering – Paws and Stripes: “One of the first things I did was look for volunteer options during COVID. I started at The Storehouse New Mexico, packing boxes of food for families in need, and also at Argos, a shelter dog rescue that takes dogs from New Mexico shelters at risk of euthanasia. “I had always wanted a dog. I never could have one in the Navy. My niece Lizzie helps me there occasionally,” Allison said.
Allison needed more, as she reflected on the importance of support from her command while she was being treated for breast cancer. “One of the things I love about the military,” she said, “is that when a teammate needs help, you drop everything and you help.” So when Allison heard of an Albuquerque-based organization called Paws and Stripes, she knew she wanted to be part of it.
Paws and Stripes is a nonprofit that “fills the gaps for New Mexico veterans struggling from the strain and trauma of multiple deployments, long term separation from family and friends, traumatic brain injuries, and even military sexual assault at a time when Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities were at capacity,” according to their brochure.
Along with the good experience of having support when she needed it, Allison also acknowledged that there had been a tough part of her job that brought her to Paws and Stripes. “I and the people I worked with loved what we did, but it left its mark. Some of my colleagues, after almost 20 years of war and maybe traumatic brain injury and PTSD, were having trouble with everything from remembering where they left their keys to suicidality. For a lot of us (and I include myself in this) we did our work for so long, it was hard to figure out who you were afterwards. Who am I?” Allison thought. (See related article in the newsletter and click here to learn more about Paws and Stripes.)
She became secretary of the board in 2021. “I enjoy this work. I really believe in the mission, and I really believe Paws and Stripes is phenomenal in executing the mission. And I am proud to be able to contribute, in a very small way, to their success. When I hear stories from clients who they have helped, it is transformational. Paws and Stripes changes lives.”
Filling veterans with hope. Finding hope for myself.