When Kayla Williams served in the Army, she worked diligently to make sure women could fight alongside their male counterparts in combat roles.
Her hard work paid off, but recently, Williams has seen women’s combat opportunities once again come under scrutiny as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has made examining women’s roles in combat one of his top priorities of 2026.
Since leaving the military, Williams, an author and veterans’ health advocate, has worked to make sure military policies mirror the reality of what’s happening in the field. The ban on women serving in combat wasn’t officially lifted until a decade had passed since Williams served in Iraq in 2003. Another decade-plus has passed, and she finds it puzzling that the women in combat issue is still being debated, fearing all the hard work she accomplished might have been in vain.
Williams was a recent guest on the American Legion’s Tango Alpha Lima Podcast, discussing this issue, along with recovering from traumatic brain injuries and the ways she’s still fighting for veterans.
“The question, Can women hack it in combat?, has been asked and answered so thoroughly,” Williams said. “I’m feeling tired, feeling tired of having to re-litigate things that we’ve really covered quite thoroughly already.”
Williams believes military personnel should achieve roles and promotions based on merit, what they’ve accomplished to earn a certain position, rather than race, gender or artificial barriers. With service branches still struggling to recruit and retain enlistees, the Army veteran said the “military needs to open, not close, doors to every qualified person.”
Combat Without the Protections
Why is Williams so passionate about women in combat? Because she put her life on the line in Iraq and didn’t receive the same protection as her fellow male soldiers.
Williams, serving with the 101st Airborne Division, was sent to Iraq to work as an Arabic linguist. Despite traveling through dangerous hot spots, Williams was not given body armor plates. Technically, women weren’t allowed to be in combat situations, so why would she need the armor? However, the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and rockets didn’t care whether Williams was wearing proper protective equipment or not.
But Williams kept to her mission, walking with infantry combat soldiers on foot patrols in Baghdad, providing a valuable resource of communication between U.S. troops and local citizens. Iraqi women especially gravitated toward Williams because of her gender and restrictions against talking directly to men.
Hope Through Darkest Times
While Williams survived a year of combat in Iraq, it was what she experienced after that that nearly broke her.
Her husband, a veteran as well, suffered a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) when an IED detonated along a roadside in Mosul. After a long, grueling 18-month recovery, doctors told the couple he had likely reached the limit of his improvement.
“That was harder than the s---,” Williams said on the podcast. “You can deal with a terrible situation, but if you think the terrible situation is never going to end, that is overwhelming. I could handle Iraq because I’m going home. You can do anything for a year, but to think that you’re going to have to do something forever, that was too much for me.”
Williams felt hopeless, and she wrote about their struggles and the arduous road to recovery in her second book, “Plenty of Time When We Get Home.” And her husband beat the odds. His health gradually improved through years of therapy treatments and neuroplasticity.
In her book, Williams emphasized that veterans with TBI and other devastating injuries can heal, despite the journey feeling overwhelming at times.
“I really wanted to show people that there is a path forward,” she said, “that you can see healing, see gain, see improvements if you’re willing to put in the work, even years later.”
Advocacy Leads to Positive Gains
Following her time in the Army, Williams used the GI Bill to earn a master’s degree, which led to more than eight years at the RAND Corporation, working on research into veterans’ policies and military personnel. That work led to an opportunity with the Department of Veterans Affairs, guiding the Center for Women Veterans and the Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs.
Williams has used evidence-based research to guide her advocacy work.
“I don’t want people to get scammed,” she said. “And if we’re talking about taxpayer dollars, it’s really important that we use taxpayer dollars for things that actually work and not just snake oil or somebody’s personal pet project.”
Since she left the military, Williams has witnessed measurable gains in mental health services, more talk about the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder, and new policies regarding sexual assault and harassment. But Williams also realizes there is much more work ahead.
Service Organizations Can Do Better
Williams said service organizations like The American Legion can improve ways to recognize diversity in veterans, emphasizing the needs of women veterans, a growing population.
“Just really making sure that folks understand that we’re out there, that we’re serving,” Williams said, “and to always approach us with that same level of respect that you would give to anybody else who served.”
