Jessica Derhammer

Jessica Derhammer joined the Air Force in 2013 starting out her career as a Linguist, with schooling at the Presidio of Monterey. She graduated the Pashto basic course with Honors, maintaining a 4.0 GPA. Her first assignment was to Fort Gordon, Georgia where she supported a high-visibility tactical mission translating audio of known enemy combatants, allowing for exact locations to allow for a successful hostage recovery. Jessica retrained as a Personnel Specialist, which is a huge change from her previous career. But, she says, “I am proud to have served with some extremely phenomenal people through two career fields and different branches of service.” She has taken full advantage of what AFW2 has to offer by becoming a mentor and participating in adaptive sports. “AFW2 and adaptive sports has done so much for my recovery. Not only have I been shown there are so many possibilities, but I now have a network of friends and coaches that understand what I am going through.”