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  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • LAURA LING: Why did you join the Coast Guard?

  • KORI CIOCA: Well, I always knew I

  • was going to join the military ever since I was a little kid.

  • And I loved every minute of it.

  • And it was like nobody was male, nobody was female.

  • We were a family.

  • I'm very small, petite.

  • But there, I felt like I was this Great Dane in a Chihuahua

  • body.

  • I could do anything as long as my teammates were next to me.

  • LAURA LING: So things seemed like they

  • were going very well for you.

  • And you had a great team.

  • But you also had some very traumatic situations happen

  • to you with your supervisor.

  • What was going on?

  • KORI CIOCA: Well, he would follow me around and call me

  • all sorts of names that are inappropriate.

  • And he gave me extra duty all the time.

  • But when other people would try to stick up for me,

  • it seemed like he would retaliate against me,

  • but more if I went for help.

  • He would drink on duty, get drunk.

  • And he'd unlock my door at night.

  • And it made me very scared and frightened.

  • And I would speak to my command members.

  • And they would say, we're not going

  • to move you just because you don't like somebody, Cioca.

  • So just go back out there.

  • I couldn't understand why it was happening to me.

  • Why wasn't anyone doing anything to help me?

  • I didn't have a voice anymore.

  • Everything just kept escalating.

  • I mean, he would spit in my face.

  • And it was like he was breaking me down.

  • He pinned me down.

  • And anytime I would try to say something-- help,

  • or please stop, please, please-- he would hit me.

  • But he'd hit me right in my ear on the left side.

  • And I shut up.

  • But this man did say he was going to kill me.

  • He did everything he said he was going to do to me.

  • Even did something-- he never said he was going to rape me,

  • and he did.

  • And that was the one I wasn't expecting at all.

  • That was the moment that he knocked that Great Dane

  • right out of me.

  • LAURA LING: Was it from that point on that

  • you left the Coast Guard?

  • What happened to you at that point?

  • KORI CIOCA: I was getting treatment for my injuries.

  • And that's when they gave me orders.

  • And they discharged me.

  • And he got 30 days restriction.

  • He got bumped down in rank.

  • And that's really sad that, I mean,

  • this crime is just happening.

  • And nobody's blinking an eye at it.

  • That's not the Coast Guard that I joined.

  • And at that point, I just didn't want to be here anymore.

  • I didn't want to be alive.

  • LAURA LING: What were some of the things that

  • have helped you cope?

  • KORI CIOCA: It actually started when I was getting treatment.

  • So in my off time, I would buy a disposable camera.

  • And I would go and I would take pictures of the lake.

  • I met Rob.

  • And I would take pictures of Rob in the Coast Guard,

  • him doing his job.

  • I love taking pictures.

  • It took away from what was happening in my head.

  • Now if I'm triggered by something,

  • or if I have nightmares all night, I grab my camera.

  • And I focus on what's important through that lens.

  • So I'm thinking of all these other things rather than

  • my trauma and my trigger at the moment.

  • It helps my brain switch gears.

  • I'll go out and I will just walk somewhere.

  • Abandoned places are probably my most favorite.

  • There's something so beautiful about it.

  • It really relates to someone with PTSD.

  • And a lot of people will look at you and say, well, you look OK.

  • You look put together.

  • You look well.

  • And they have no idea, because PTSD is an invisible disorder.

  • And if you were to take a veteran with PTSD

  • and turn them inside out, they would

  • be just like that abandoned building-- broken windows.

  • It's just beautiful about the way

  • that it's still standing after it's

  • been forgotten and destroyed.

  • LAURA LING: Do you feel like you finally found your voice

  • through photography?

  • KORI CIOCA: I have.

  • It helps me understand myself.

  • I can see at that time when I took that picture, oh, it's

  • dark.

  • I must've been really sad that day.

  • Or was that a hard day.

  • And there's one that's really bright, and happy,

  • and beautiful.

  • That was a good day.

  • When I look through my lens, I see my kids smiling.

  • I see them happy.

  • And it's like, I win.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • LAURA LING: Coming up next, see how

  • swimming became the unlikely ritual of a woman who nearly

  • lost her ability to walk.

  • KIMBERLEY CHAMBERS: My next memory

  • is waking up post-surgery, 30 minutes from amputation

  • from the knee down.

  • I remember the surgeon telling me, we saved your leg.

  • But we don't know what, if any, functionality you'll ever have.

  • I told myself I was going to prove them wrong.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

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