Military service is dominantly ruled by men. During the old times, the female was out of the box. But this impression is not true nowadays. There are already many female soldiers who are in the same profession and are equally doing the tasks of men. This is demonstrated by Lieutenant Colonel Racquel Vilchez, the currently Battalion Commander of the 7th Field Artillery Battalion, based in Camp Lucero, Carmen, North Cotabato. A mother of two, a wife to a officer serviceman, Lt. Col. Vilchez performed various roles while she is in the service of the people.
Started at a very young age in her military career, she further honed her skills through various trainings and finally decided to join the Field Artillery as her branch of service in the military. To her, Women’s Month Celebration is the recognition of the works of women in terms of nation-building and as the backbone of society. “As a military officer, when accepting duties you have to do it to the best of your abilities. You are faced with various challenges in the military service. Leading a unit is a challenge in itself”, Lt. Col. Vilchez said in our interview.
According to her the battalion that she handles right now is a General Support Reinforcing and has a large area of coverage in the whole Mindanao and some parts of the Visayas. Her responsibilities are wide and she has to deal with different commanders from WestMinCom, EastMinCom, Joint Task Force Central, and with the different Battalion Commanders and Brigade Commanders in the area of operations. One of her tips in managing her work is to seek help from other officers and mentors to address everything and use her given skills as well.
“Balancing the role of a mother, a wife to a military officer (my husband is the Commanding Officer of the 34th Infantry ‘Reliable’ Battalion in the area of operations of Joint Task Force Central) and as a military officer too, is quite challenging”, she quipped. “When it comes to family relationships, we do not have issues because we are on the same boat sailing on the same sea. My husband understands my roles and my priorities as a woman”, she further said.
“Our greatest challenge in our family is our youngest daughter who is left in Manila under the care of her yaya. I have a very heavy heart leaving her alone in Manila”, Lt. Col. Vilchez shared. Our eldest son followed our footsteps. He is a plebe at the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) in Baguio City. Although, I am an absentee mother, we have somehow instilled in the minds of our children the value of service. At their very young age, we made them understand why we have to be away from them, that we have to work to serve the Filipino people and our country in general. I know the situation where we are in is very difficult for them. But with the advent of technology, we can be near to our families through the social media, we often times have video calls, as if we talking to each other face to face, we call each other and if time does not permit, through text messages we can interact with our children. Through this technology, we can now communicate with our families.
“I always take the opportunity to bring them to the camp so that they can see for themselves the reason why we are away from them, why we have to work for the service of the Filipino people.”
“I have been the Battalion Commander of the 7th Field Artillery Battalion a year ago. So far our family relationship is sailing smoothly. We have to set our priorities, of course not at the expense of our families. We have to balance everything. We have to put our job at the right time. Ang Ating Buhay ay Para sa Bayan!”