In 2023, Sergeant Cassandra Taylor retired from the Army with 28 years under her belt. It’s a military career she’s proud of — but it's also one that was filled with many unwelcome advances from her superior officers, including one that ended in sexual assault.
Despite another servicemember witnessing the incident, the man who assaulted her retired without penalty. Her anger and frustration lit a flame in her, and Taylor began speaking up about sexism in the military, hoping to create a safe, welcoming community for women like her.
That advocacy later led to the creation of Top Flight Defense, Inc., a Chicago-based nonprofit “created by women veterans, for all women.”
Through her nonprofit, Taylor offers free mental health services for survivors of domestic violence and assault, as well as combat veterans with PTSD.
“We focus on the overall health and mental wellness of women veterans and the women in their community,” Taylor said.
Taylor is also the author of “Why I Serve,” a book that blends her personal experience with the shared accounts of 68 other women veterans.
“Women have been serving and loving America long before America loved her, but that never stopped the heart of a warrior,” Taylor writes in the memoir.
Taylor’s courage has inspired women like Navy veteran Deanna Davis, who credits Taylor with helping her work through her own trauma.
“She talked about her experience, but she also talked about [how] she overcame it. And how she spoke up about it encouraged me,” Davis told WGN9. “It memorialized the fact that I served and it meant something. Me, staying there, even after what happened, was for something.”
A version of this article originally appeared in The Feminist Edition of the Goodnewspaper.
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