![\"Dallas](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Dallas-Knight-5.jpg\")
Pictured: Dallas Knight; Credit: 406 Memories<\/a><\/p>\nToday, Knight is speaking out for female veterans, uplifting their stories, and creating a healing community for women who face PTSD and trauma after military service through her organization Operation Juliet.<\/p>\n
Knight\u2019s own story begins after just a few months of training when the United States launched Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, and combat boots hit the desert ground. Military police like Knight supported combat missions, provided security, and guarded prisoner-of-war camps.<\/p>\n
There, halfway across the world from everyone she knew, Knight spent most of the year living in brutal conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been rationed water,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve slept on a cot for eight months. I\u2019ve not taken a shower for more than 90 days. I\u2019ve been up for 38 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
As she recounted her time in Iraq to IW Features, she teared up, pausing to collect her thoughts.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs hard as it is for me to share my story, it gets a little bit easier\u2026 each time,\u201d she said, recalling the military sexual trauma she had experienced at the hands of prisoners of war.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have had really horrible sexual things [directed]\u2026 towards me,\u201d she elaborated.<\/p>\n
When she returned to civilian life, she said she \u201cwas just going to take all that baggage and stuff it into a black box and lock it up.\u201d She explained that she worried seeking help could jeopardize her career and security clearance.<\/p>\n She became a mother and started a job as an analyst supporting the DEA. On the surface, her life was a professional and personal success story. But memories of the Iraqi desert cast long shadows over her life.<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t sleeping well and was having recurring nightmares,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI was just focused on being the best mom I could be and pursuing my career and being the best intelligence analyst that I could be,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n She tried traditional talk therapy, but she went through a career change, divorce, and more than a decade of her life with this unprocessed trauma.<\/p>\n \u201cI found myself in 2021 in a very dark space,\u201d Knight said. \u201cI was depressed, and when I wasn\u2019t depressed, I was anxious. And when I wasn\u2019t anxious, I was suicidal.\u201d<\/p>\n She said she craved connection with other women and community. And when she finally had \u201ca little bit of a breath\u201d to jumpstart healing after a family member helped her focus on nutrition, she decided to attend a women\u2019s networking event in the hopes of forming those connections.<\/p>\n Surrounded by a room of women, when it came time to introduce herself, the years of trauma and unprocessed memories all came crashing down.<\/p>\n \u201cI just started bawling my eyes out,\u201d Knight said. And then she began to tell the women pieces of her story.<\/p>\n The women welcomed her with open arms, and it was the introduction Knight needed to additional avenues for healing. With nothing to lose, she began reflecting on her time in the army. She opened her old journals and relived her army life page by page.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of times, I would put it back down, slam it back down, mad, upset, feeling things I wasn\u2019t ready to feel, and then vow to myself that I\u2019d never pick it up again,\u201d she said. \u201cIt took me six months to get through 89 journal entries.\u201d<\/p>\n The journey through her story as a 19-year-old female combat veteran became her book, Shattered Reflections<\/a>\u2014a war journal, and a path toward healing. Releasing the book was, Knight said, a \u201cpivotal moment\u201d where she finally could open up to her friends, family, and even strangers.<\/p>\n As she struggled down her own path of healing, she said she realized there must be other female veterans with similar battles. This led her to start the Not So Average Jane Podcast<\/a> to share the stories of female combat veterans.<\/p>\n \u201cMy goal was to build an encyclopedia, a historical digital copy of these women\u2019s stories,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Hearing these women\u2019s accounts, Knight said her \u201canalyst\u2019s brain turned back on\u201d to spot the patterns through the experiences. And the reality of these women\u2019s stories was horrific.<\/p>\n \u201c90% of the women\u2026 shared that they\u2019d experienced military sexual trauma,\u201d Knight said, noting the Department of Veterans Affairs reports that only one in three<\/a> female veterans experience military sexual trauma.<\/p>\n Time after time, she heard the stories of female veterans who had been harassed, assaulted, and abused but were too afraid to speak up. In just one example, Knight recounted a female colonel who had been raped twice in her career but never reported the assaults\u2014or had ever spoken about her experience. When women did report the sexual harassment and assaults, the perpetrators were often reassigned rather than held accountable, Knight said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe women want to be a part of the boys\u2019 club, and they want to fit in,\u201d she said. \u201cOur threshold, our tolerance, our standards are lowered significantly so that we can just fit in.\u201d<\/p>\n And when women return home from service, the Department of Veterans Affairs offers little more than pills and \u201cBand-Aid solutions,\u201d Knight said. \u201cIt makes you feel like they really just want you to fail so that they don\u2019t have to pay for you to get any type of healthcare.\u201d<\/p>\n But Knight is not a woman who sits idly by and waits for a solution. She is, as she described the other women she\u2019s interviewed, a \u201cbadass combat veteran.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n She began to look for resources for the women she spoke to, but the programs she found were \u201ccentered around some type of masculine activity, hunting, fishing, gathering, pig hunts, archery.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the women Knight spoke with shared how they had lost their sense of femininity.<\/p>\n \u201cThe military trains it out of us,\u201d she explained. \u201cIt trains [out] the nurturing, loving, kiss-the-boo-boos-better type of woman deep down to our DNA.\u201d<\/p>\n As she launched a retreat for female combat veterans, she heard from female veterans of all stripes across the country, desperate for community and to reclaim their womanhood. And in October 2024, she launched Operation Juliet.<\/p>\n The nonprofit is \u201cdedicated to empowering female veterans through holistic healing, leadership development, and community support, ensuring they thrive in every aspect of life,\u201d according to the organization\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n At their first \u201c(not so) Average Jane\u201d retreat, Knight brought together a group of 10 female combat veterans from across America for holistic healing, community building, and activities like equine and art therapy.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really about the woman first,\u201d Knight said.<\/p>\n And as the organization grows, Knight said they serve all female veterans with the goal of having chapters across the country, like the American Legion.<\/p>\n \u201cIf women out there, female veterans out there, want to bring Operation Juliet to their community, all they have to do is reach out,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n For now, she is focused on growing the organization as quickly as funding allows, all while working a day job and raising her two sons. It\u2019s this that makes her a true champion woman<\/a>: she\u2019s a mother, an advocate for women, and on a mission to serve those who have already sacrificed to serve America.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n And if her story so far is any gauge, Knight will not stop until her mission is complete.<\/p>\n![\"Knight](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Knight-in-an-Army-sweatshirt-2.jpg\")
Pictured: Knight in an Army sweatshirt; Credit: 406 Memories<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Dallas](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Dallas-Knight-3.jpg\")
Pictured: Dallas Knight; Credit: 406 Memories<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Shattered](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Shattered-Reflections-by-Dallas-Knight-and-Knights-journal.jpg\")
Pictured: Knight\u2019s book, Shattered Reflections, and journal; Credit: 406 Memories<\/a><\/p>\n![\"American](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Knights-American-Soldier-flag.jpg\")
Pictured: American soldier flag; Credit: 406 Memories<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Dallas](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Dallas-Knight-working-at-her-laptop.jpg\")
Pictured: Knight working at her laptop; Credit: 406 Memories<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Operation](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Operation-Juliet-handout-and-notebook.jpg\")
Pictured: Operation Juliet handout and notebook; Credit: 406 Memories<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Female](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Female-combat-veteran-hat.jpg\")
Pictured: Operation Juliet \u201cFemale Combat Veteran\u201d hat; Credit: 406 Memories<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Dallas](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Dallas-Knight-2.jpg\")
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![\"Knight](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Knight-in-an-Army-sweatshirt-2-1.jpg\")