LAURA LING: Why did you join the Coast Guard?

KORI CIOCA: Well, I always knew I

was going to join the military ever since I was a little kid.

And I loved every minute of it.

And it was like nobody was male, nobody was female.

We were a family.

I'm very small, petite.

But there, I felt like I was this Great Dane in a Chihuahua

body.

I could do anything as long as my teammates were next to me.

LAURA LING: So things seemed like they

were going very well for you.

And you had a great team.

But you also had some very traumatic situations happen

to you with your supervisor.

What was going on?

KORI CIOCA: Well, he would follow me around and call me

all sorts of names that are inappropriate.

And he gave me extra duty all the time.

But when other people would try to stick up for me,

it seemed like he would retaliate against me,

but more if I went for help.

He would drink on duty, get drunk.

And he'd unlock my door at night.

And it made me very scared and frightened.

And I would speak to my command members.

And they would say, we're not going

to move you just because you don't like somebody, Cioca.

So just go back out there.

I couldn't understand why it was happening to me.

Why wasn't anyone doing anything to help me?

I didn't have a voice anymore.

Everything just kept escalating.

I mean, he would spit in my face.

And it was like he was breaking me down.

He pinned me down.

And anytime I would try to say something-- help,

or please stop, please, please-- he would hit me.

But he'd hit me right in my ear on the left side.

And I shut up.

But this man did say he was going to kill me.

He did everything he said he was going to do to me.

Even did something-- he never said he was going to rape me,

and he did.

And that was the one I wasn't expecting at all.

That was the moment that he knocked that Great Dane

right out of me.

LAURA LING: Was it from that point on that

you left the Coast Guard?

What happened to you at that point?

KORI CIOCA: I was getting treatment for my injuries.

And that's when they gave me orders.

And they discharged me.

And he got 30 days restriction.

He got bumped down in rank.

And that's really sad that, I mean,

this crime is just happening.

And nobody's blinking an eye at it.

That's not the Coast Guard that I joined.

And at that point, I just didn't want to be here anymore.

I didn't want to be alive.

LAURA LING: What were some of the things that

have helped you cope?

KORI CIOCA: It actually started when I was getting treatment.

So in my off time, I would buy a disposable camera.

And I would go and I would take pictures of the lake.

I met Rob.

And I would take pictures of Rob in the Coast Guard,

him doing his job.

I love taking pictures.

It took away from what was happening in my head.

Now if I'm triggered by something,

or if I have nightmares all night, I grab my camera.

And I focus on what's important through that lens.

So I'm thinking of all these other things rather than

my trauma and my trigger at the moment.

It helps my brain switch gears.

I'll go out and I will just walk somewhere.

Abandoned places are probably my most favorite.

There's something so beautiful about it.

It really relates to someone with PTSD.

And a lot of people will look at you and say, well, you look OK.

You look put together.

You look well.

And they have no idea, because PTSD is an invisible disorder.

And if you were to take a veteran with PTSD

and turn them inside out, they would

be just like that abandoned building-- broken windows.

It's just beautiful about the way

that it's still standing after it's

been forgotten and destroyed.

LAURA LING: Do you feel like you finally found your voice

through photography?

KORI CIOCA: I have.

It helps me understand myself.

I can see at that time when I took that picture, oh, it's

dark.

I must've been really sad that day.

Or was that a hard day.

And there's one that's really bright, and happy,

and beautiful.

That was a good day.

When I look through my lens, I see my kids smiling.

I see them happy.

And it's like, I win.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

LAURA LING: Coming up next, see how

swimming became the unlikely ritual of a woman who nearly

lost her ability to walk.

KIMBERLEY CHAMBERS: My next memory

is waking up post-surgery, 30 minutes from amputation

from the knee down.

I remember the surgeon telling me, we saved your leg.

But we don't know what, if any, functionality you'll ever have.

I told myself I was going to prove them wrong.

[MUSIC PLAYING]