When she was high school sophomore, Raniowski made up her mind that she was going to join the Navy by entering the Delayed Entry Program. "When I told my mom that I was joining the Navy, she didn't believe me," she said. "Other folks said that she'll probably drop that idea but no."
After graduation two years later in August 1988, Raniowski entered boot camp. Following in the footsteps of her mother, she became a nurse.
"I felt my calling was to be in a profession to help people," she said. "When people are sick, there's many different areas within nursing and medicine you can specialize in. What's so awesome about nursing is that there is so much you can choose from. You can be in research. You don't have to be at the bedside."
Raniowski has been at the bedside of many veterans. She has specialized in mental health.
"Granted, I don't always get to them at their most glorious moment,” she said. “But it's the connection you have with a veteran, especially in the mental health [aspect] when you're dealing with someone, and a challenging situation and just allowing them to talk about some of the good times that they've had."
Given the sport’s global reach, she never had a problem finding teams to play soccer, whether it was on base or against other countries' military teams.
Out of her deployments - which have also included Bahrain and Okinawa, Japan - Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba could be the most intriguing one. Located in southeastern Cuba, GITMO is the oldest U.S. overseas base, having been in operation since 1903. Since 2002, the base has contained a military prison for alleged unlawful combatants captured in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other places.
Raniowski did not go into great detail about her GITMO experience, except to say she worked with detainees on their mental health. She worked 12-hour shifts at the detention hospital and the behavioral health unit.
"At times it was stressful," she said.
To make it less stressful, the Navy's Morale, Welfare and Recreation Department made sure active-duty officers and sailors had the means to exercise with an array of sports, including soccer.
"It wasn't a very tough from the aspect of your off-time of deployment, because of the resources you had available," she said. "But sometimes dealing with the people that we worked with and care for that was, that's a whole other story."
