For all of her many responsibilities, Lt. Col. Tara Carr knows that she can retire each evening to her Kaneohe home secure in the knowledge that she, husband Tony and their four children have no immediate concerns about food, shelter, personal safety, custodial rights or health care.

And yet Carr’s thoughts are ever with female veterans who have no such luxury, sisters in service for whom nothing is guaranteed and whose ongoing plight receives scant recognition by the general public.

“I believe strongly that no female veteran should be homeless, that no veteran and her children should be on the street or living in a car,” she said. “These were women who were tough leaders in charge of people and operations and high-value equipment. They’re women who have been deployed to highly dangerous environments, and then they come home and end up on the street due to domestic situations, PTSD or other problems.”

A highly accomplished career servicewoman, Carr isn’t satisfied with high-minded rhetoric. Those are reasons Nos. 1, 2 and 3 that she’s a participant in the Ms. Veteran America competition, a contest that sounds dubiously like a pageant but serves instead as a platform for highlighting the achievements and ongoing work of active servicewomen and veterans. There is, for the record, no swimsuit competition. Rather, contestants are judged on interviews, talent, military history and advocacy.

Carr, who previously highlighted veterans issues as a participant in CBS’ “The Amazing Race,” is using the event to raise awareness of homeless female veterans and to raise money for Final Salute, an organization that provides support to female veterans and their children who may be experiencing homelessness or financial strain.

Carr was born and raised in Connecticut. As a junior in high school, she spent a year studying abroad in Brazil, an experience that kindled in her a love of language that would soon lead her to the Army. She enlisted at age 17, did her basic training at Fort Jackson in South Carolina and went on to earn a B.A. in international relations and affairs from Syracuse University and a commission as a second lieutenant via the Army’s Green to Gold program.

Over the next 20 years, Carr would serve a myriad of assignments in Portugal, Italy (where she met her future husband), China, Kosovo and elsewhere. She completed intensive training in Mandarin Chinese at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center and earned master’s degrees in human relations from the University of Oklahoma and in national security affairs (Asia-Pacific) from Naval Postgraduate School. She currently serves as an Army China foreign area officer based in Hawaii.

Carr said that throughout her service she has witnessed the unique struggles of single mothers in the military, problems that can escalate into homelessness upon return to the civilian sphere. In fact, some 70 percent of women served by Final Salute are single mothers.

Official estimates of homeless female veterans vary, in part because many female veterans “couch-surf” (spend periods rotating in transient stays with friends and relatives) as a way to avoid exposing their children to the dangers of living on the streets and out of fear of losing custody of their children. These women are not included in government counts of the homeless. Advocacy groups that do include this population estimate that there may be 55,000 homeless female veterans in the United States.

As a starting point for meaningful action, Carr said she supports legislation that would open more shelter beds to single mothers and their children.

Carr, who also volunteers with U.S. Vets, an organization that addresses the overall issue of veteran homelessness, said the problem of homeless female veterans is underrecognized in part because of the larger issue of popular failure to recognize women in the military. She cites, for example, the number of times people inquire about her husband’s military service (he’s a retired lieutenant colonel) without considering that she too might serve.

“They don’t mean any ill by it, but the assumption is that men serve,” she said. “It’s still very much a man’s world.”

Carr said she sees her challenge as both raising awareness and finding viable, actionable solutions to the problem.

“I don’t just want to be the voice; I want to effect change,” Carr said. “I want to find out what that means and what that looks like.”

To contribute to Tara Carr’s fundraiser on behalf of homeless female veterans, visit 808ne.ws/ 2tuO7Yk .

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@staradvertiser.com.