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1. In boot camp were you yelled at a lot by your superiors?

I did not have to go to boot camp. I did ROTC which basically teaches you the same things they teach brand new Privates over the course of four years. We did however, have to go to a camp to get evaluated our Junior year of college. There was no shortage of yelling there.

2. How do you get promotions in the military?

Depending on what rank you are being promoted to, it depend on time in service, or the amount of time you’ve been the current rank that you are, or on certain job requirements. On Thanksgiving I will be promoted to 1LT, and due to our operational tempo being a deployed Army, it is pretty much now a time thing. However, in 18 months when I come up for promotion to Captain, a packet with basically my resume, and some other things will go in front of a board and they have to pick who makes promotion and who doesn’t.

3. Have you made any friends there? Do you have certain people that you hang out with? Can you hang out with your soldiers or are you required to remain separate? Have you made any Iraqi friends?


I would love to hang out with my soldiers, but they unfortunately all left me over the past few days to join their Infantry or Armor(Tanks) battalions so that they can support them collecting intelligence. Everyone that I’m here with now I’m also stationed with back at Ft. Campbell, KY so most of my friends from that part of my life are here now. I was able to make some friends with the people that are going home over the next week (the unit we’re replacing), but they’re all excited about getting home for Christmas and Thanksgiving and have already started buying Christmas presents so are a little more occupied over the past few days. And all the local nationals (people that work on the base that aren’t American) are very friendly and I enjoy talking with them on occasion. Only problem is that I spend about 17 hours a day in a classified facility so not too many non-US soldiers enter my world- wow I sound like a dork.

4. What’s the consequence for leaking classified information?

Plain and simple, I can go to jail. Depending on how you leak the information, whether its through loss of communications equipment (will shut down the entire base and cease all movement until it is found) or actually handing it over to someone, bit consequences.

5. What is the biggest gun that you have fired?

.50caliber machine gun. They are the ones mounted on the top of HMMWV’s

6. Do you have to train every day? Is there a required physical fitness routine that you have to do?

Yes and no. Back at home we would have to do physical fitness every day as a group. Now it is required that we do as much as we can, when we can. I feel like a slob right now because its been about three days since I’ve had time to work out. In terms of other training, we continue to try to get better at we do even though we do a lot of the tasks a lot more frequently now. Last night we had Gunner and TC (literally means Tank Commander, but means the dude that sits in the right front seat of a humvee) and we’ve had driving under Night Vision Goggles Training and other fun stuff.

7. How many pushups can you do?

74 in 2 minutes was what I scored on my last physical fitness test.

8. How often do you have to do target practice?

We did it right before we left Kuwait. In Baghdad there is not an abundance of open land that we can use to set up ranges, but I hear rumors that we’re going to get one in January.


9. Do you have a vehicle at your disposal or do you walk every place?

I walk to work every day, but it’s pretty much a 10 minute walk. Each team of soldiers that I have (3 people per team) have their own vehicle. They all have the uparmored humvees.

10. Have you ridden in a helicopter since you have been there?

Yes, and it was one of the craziest experiences I’ve had. You have to fly Nap of the Earth which means as low as you can go to avoid anybody trying to take effective fire at you, shoot off flares to throw off heat seeking rounds, and generally just fly all over the place- it was nuts.

11. Have you seen any large spiders or other critters that might be scary? How do they keep them out of the tents?

No spiders…lots of ants. My entire room is taped with the equivalent of duct tape to keep them out.

12. Is it hard for you to get respect from male soldiers because you are a female?

I would actually argue for me that it is much easier to get respect from the male soldiers because I am a female. I go out there and kick their behinds on PT tests and then for some reason they like to listen to me. In the Army, at my level- it is more about getting the job done. Either you can or you can’t.

13. Given that you seem to have little time to sleep and there are noises all around you, are you tired all the time?

I pretty much do three things a day at this point, eat, sleep and work and two of those things occur at my desk. But I’m not too tired lately.

14. What is the highest ranked person you have met?

In my career, a 4 Star General, General Schoomaker (or however you spell it). Here a Full Colonel, and they are some pretty awesome guys.

15. Does the fine sand get into everything there? Is it a pain?

Yes, especially the small little parts of your weapon- it is not very enjoyable.

16. Are you a Patriots fan?

J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS!!!!! Does that answer your question…who cares that they’re having an off decade- We’ll be like the Patriots soon.

17. Have you been to any of Saddam’s palaces?

I have not been in any of them yet, but will soon because a variety of headquarters are placed in them. And come to think of it, the British officers club…

18. Will you, in your job, be out among the Iraqi people? How do you collect information from them? How do you know what is true and what isn’t?

Part of my job will take me to work directly with the Iraqi’s, however right now my primary jobs are to analyze the information my soldiers gather from the Iraqi’s, and to manage detainee operations and biometrics for the brigade. My guys however, basically either get walk ins, or literally go out into the streets and find people that are willing to provide information. They report on everything from local happenings, to weapons cache locations, to suspected big name insurgents. They have an amazing responsibility and effect a lot of the things we do on the battlefield.

19. Can you wear jewelry with you uniform?

Nope- just the Air Force can. I sneak in a necklace that my Dad gave me when I graduated college though with all the birthstones of my family.