The Benefits of Adversity

[Sky Dancer]

It wakes you up.

 

[Mr. H.]

Nothing like an empty stomach for motivation.

 

[waltky]

Handling childhood adversity...

Childhood Adversity Tests Airman's Resilience
Jan 04, 2016 — The alarm rings. Yelling is heard from the nearby hallway. As footsteps get closer, Vickie Tippitt knows she is in a world of trouble. Her grandmother bursts through the door. With a rope in hand, Tippitt feels the wrath of child abuse come down on her by her own flesh and blood. That was the life of one woman until she finally found her calling in the Air Force.

Tippitt, now a master sergeant and member of the 926th Force Support Squadron and the Nellis Air Force Base Yellow Ribbon representative, said life wasn't always easy growing up in Fort Worth, Texas. "I remember having a good childhood at 3 years old all the way until I was 7. Once I turned 7, that's when a lot of things changed for me," Tippitt said. "That's when my mother and father decided to separate. There was a lot of fighting, and my dad was very, very abusive to my mother. Then we moved to Arlington, Texas, into an apartment where it was my mother, four siblings and me. That's when everything was just really confusing."

Tippitt's mother worked the night shift every day and still holds the same job today. Tippitt and her siblings were often alone, before her grandmother came for them. "All of the sudden, I could remember being whisked away from school one day by my grandmother and when we left with her we never got to come back," Tippitt said. "She took us to this house in Fort Worth, and all of a sudden we were in this house for at least a month or two, where all of us kids were alone. We had no lights, no gas, there was nothing really. We had to eat lemon cake mix."

Master Sgt. Vickie Tippitt, a member of the 926th Force Support Squadron and the Nellis Air Force Base Yellow Ribbon representative, sheds a tear during an interview to discuss her rough childhood.​

With Tippitt's grandmother scarcely around, the house became a wreck. "At that age, you do whatever you want. If there is no gas and no water, you are outside going to the bathroom, using the neighbor's water. One time, my brother set the mattress on fire because he was upset," Tippitt said. "More than anything, I remember my grandmother finally coming back to the house after being away for a while and she was very upset. She put us all in a row and beat the hell out of us with a very thick rope that they use to lasso horses or cows."

After being beat by her grandmother, Tippitt and the rest of her siblings moved from place to place before settling in the housing projects. "We moved to some apartments, and the abuse continued. Mean things were said and done. Then we moved from the apartments to the Butler housing projects," Tippitt said. "It was a chaotic home. I will say that there were a lot of drugs, alcohol, a lot of partying, and drug addicts. There was always someone in the home."

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