The following is MY recollection of my time spent in Iraq in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom in Early 2003. It may not be the same memory of somone else in my unit, even if that person stood at my side during the same exact moment I describe in the following pages. This is just my account, my memories and my feelings put to paper. I have no intention of hurting anyone or angering anyone so if that happens, it's not intentional.

What makes us the people we grow up to be? Is it our parents, grandparents or the others who raise us? Is it the teachers who spent years showing uswhat we needed to know to make it in the world? Maybe it is the many friends who get us into trouble or more importantly, out of it! I think it may be a big mix of all this and more. I was suprised to find out that in my 30's I still has some changing to do, and that I learned I could be a very different person than I had originally believed myself to be.

I think the most true statement I have ever heard is that "WAR CHANGES PEOPLE!" The army changed me. Being deployed to another country changed me, but the most dramatic change in myself, my attitude, and my soul came about during the war. I didn't do anything heroic. I didn't save any lives in the heat of battle, and I wasn't wounded ( thank God) but the things I experienced made some changes in myself that otherwise would have never been brought about.

War is not fun to say the least. But I am thankful for having the opportunity to take part in such a historic event, and to know that like all my brothers and sisters in unform, I did my job to the best of my ability. I am honored to be able to pick up where so many fellow Americans left off, and to be able to look at myself in the mirror and say "JOB WELL DONE"

As a single mother of three, and enlisting at the ripe old age of 31, I was not the typical recruit. But I found that I was no different than those I served beside. We were ALL soldiers....The gender lines tend to get very blurred in the military, especialy in a combat situation! I really think the army has a third gender...male, female and soldier! I get asked a lot "what was it like to be a woman in the war?" I'm thinking....compared to what? Being a man in the war?" Well, here is my story.

WAITING FOR THE CALL
Waiting for the call to 'go' was hard on everyone's nerves. One day we would get word that we were about to go, then it would be pushed back a few weeks. Then it would be 'Ok we are leaving in a few days." It was hardest on the families I'm sure. The whole process of preparing to leave our lives and loved ones behind was both heart wrenching and thrilling! We were about to do what we had trained or whole military careers to do! There were some of us in Echo 5/52 who had barely even BEGUN military life! One guy, Private C, had just arrived to our battery from A.I.T.( Advanced Individual Training/military school) a few DAYS before we left for Iraq! 1Lt. A came to us AFTER we arrived in country! I can't imagine how rough it must have been for them! They ended up being a 2-man crew together, and doing one hell of a job, and we pulled them neatly into the web of our family.

Chris and I had been dating for a few months before the deployment but had kept it quiet since we were in the same battery, and he held platoon sergeant slot, and I was only a PFC. There were no hard and fast 'rules' about dating somone in the same unit since he wasnt MY platoon Sgt, but it was a 'grey' area, and we didn't want to rock the boat. The closer we got to deploying, we talked more and more about marriage, and knew this was what we wanted to do. Chris was the man for me from our very first date, and he knew he'd never love anyone but me. So we quietly married with his twin brother and sister in law as our witnesses.
We told our platoon seargents we were DATING but kept the marriage our secret! We didn't want to tell the commander and First Sergeant, but my Platoon Sgt took care of that for us. Ssg D ratted us out, saying it was in our best interest. ( oh whatever) so we were called into the commander's office and given a direct order NOT TO EVEN SPEAK to each other!! If we were caught so much as TALKING they threatened to move one of us to another unit no matter where we were located, and Chris would loose rank. One week later, Chris shipped out with our PATRIOT equpiment on the boat, for a 4 week trip across the world bound for Kuwait. The rest of the unit would follow 2 weeks later.