DVIDS
By Sgt. 1st Class Thomas Mills
3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division

Ask anyone but Capt. Liesl Causey if her life has been interesting, and they’ll probably tell you it has to have been.

The 30-year-old military intelligence officer in 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division grew up in a country torn by racial and political strife, and went on to become an officer in two U.S. military branches with five deployments to the Middle East under her belt. Ironically, her life seems normal to her.

“I think my life is pretty standard,” she said.

Yet Causey’s life hardly seems standard. Her grandparents moved from Oregon to South Africa to work as Lutheran pastors. Their daughter, Causey’s mother, met and married the son of South African Lutheran pastors.

As Causey grew up, things were changing in South Africa. Her parents sheltered her from the growing violence and civil unrest there up to the day she left for the U.S. at age 14.

“I grew up and left (South Africa) right as apartheid ended, and that’s the number one thing that has shaped my views,” she said.

Integration was just beginning in South Africa, and with it came violent protests, riots and murders. Causey’s father was a housemaster at a British school, and she lived on the school grounds, separated for the most part from the turmoil.

“For me, apart from hearing things from my friends, it wasn’t a big deal,” she said.

At times, though, the violence touched close to home. During a domestic staff strike, murderers entered a friend’s house and killed their live-in maid in the kitchen because she had not walked off the job.

“Apart from that, my family sort of kept me insulated from it,” Causey said.

When Causey was 14, she and her family made plans to move to Minnesota. To her, the United States was the “Promised Land”, with Disney World and unlimited opportunity. Her parents now live in Appleton, Wis.

“It wasn’t until I got to the States that I stuck out like a sore thumb,” said Causey.

Because of the differences in the school systems, she was old for her grade. Then there were the geography and American history subjects that she had to catch up with.

“Trying to understand why Kansas is Kansas and Arkansas is Arkansas was difficult,” she laughed. Spelling words the American way, rather than the British way, was difficult, too. She also had to contend with her South African accent.

Causey overcame those first awkward years and went on to attend St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., where she graduated with a degree in political science, Middle-Eastern studies. She set her sights on using her degree to become a military intelligence officer.

“That seemed to appeal to me,” she said. Military intelligence met well with her college studies, she said. “It sort of played into my interest in people and other countries.”

Causey had a stint in the Air Force, where she reached the rank of Captain and deployed to Qatar twice, and Kyrgyzstan and Diego Garcia once each. She then switched to the Army in order to better make a difference in the fight on the ground, something she’s most recently been doing with 3rd CAB at Camp Striker, Iraq.

“(Causey) and I went to the same school for a year before being assigned to the 3rd CAB,” said Capt. Paul Peters, brigade intelligence officer. “She has a unique background that’s helped to keep things interesting, even after 12 months in Iraq.”

Peters, a native of Galesburg, Ill., said that because his colleague grew up in South Africa, the two have fun comparing parts of their backgrounds. Hers, he said, brings a fresh perspective to the workplace.

“We compliment each other well professionally in that way,” he said.

Spc. Christine Burney, intelligence analyst, said that mix of education, experience and “crazy background” is what makes Causey who she is.

“It’s really her personality,” said Burney, from Amarillo, Texas. “She’s very confident and considerate, and she knows what she’s talking about.”

Causey said as “standard” as her life has been, it has indeed given her a unique perspective and a certain amount of self-confidence.

“At the different stages in my life, I’ve lived in different places,” she said. “It’s allowed me to experience things out there and affect how I would react to things.”