U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Muna Nur, a native of St. Paul, Minn., a medic with the 10th Sustainment Brigade, Task Force Muleskinner, laughs with some soldiers from the Louisiana National Guard's 1086th Transportation Company, Task Force Muleskinner, before embarking with them on a convoy from Forward Operating Base Ghazni to Bagram Air Field on Afghanistan's notorious Highway 1, May 23, 2012. Photo by Sgt. Ken Scar

DVIDS
Story by Sgt. Ken Scar

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Muna Nur is striking for many reasons. Born in Somalia, she has the warm complexion and elegant features of women, like the famous model Iman, who are native to that region. Her feisty attitude belies her ethereal appearance, however, and is more a testament to her six-year military career that includes two tough deployments to Iraq and a third, current one to Afghanistan, where she is the non-commissioned officer-in-charge of the Troop Medical Clinic, 10th Sustainment Brigade, Task Force Muleskinner.

“I was born in Somalia, so I’m a child of war, I guess,” she said. “When I was two months old, because of the war, my mom moved us to Kenya until I was five, and then to America – where we finally settled in Minnesota. I consider myself an American even though I wasn’t born there.”
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In a historic first, Brigadier General Laura J. Richardson has been named by the U.S. Army’s Chief of Staff to take the post of deputy commander of the 1st Cavalry Division in Fort Hood, Texas. This marks the first time that a woman has been chosen for such a high position in a combat unit.
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The Chrome web browser is inserting hyphens for some unknown reason. If you know why or how to fix, drop us a comment, PLEASE! Fixed. Plugin issue. Thanks to commenter jg!!!

Commander Sethi smiles for the camera during a press tour of the ship.\ during a port call in India.

America is truly a wonderful country. Where else would you find a female Navy officer from Reno, Nevada, commanding the destroyer USS Decatur? Did I mention that she is of South Asian origin? Oh, and let us not forget that she is a graduate of the nation’s oldest private military academy, Norwich.

Commander Shanti Sethi joined the U.S. Navy in 1994. She has worked her way up, serving in various positions at sea and on shore.

In mid March, her ship made a port call in Chennai, India. The Indian media were quick to recognize the success of a daughter of their nation and the visit received a great deal of publicity.

The Decatur has a Facebook page.

Commander Sethi blogs at a site called Adventures in Paradise. Her Twitter account is @ShantiRae.

Annabelle Smith, director of the office of student aid and veteran services at Central Texas College, talks on her experiences in the Women's Army Corps, Aug. 26, during a Women's Equality Day observance sponsored by 1st Air Cavalry Brigade and the 1st Cavalry Division’s Equal Opportunity office at Howze Theater. This observance marked the 90th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. Photo by Spc. Kimberly Browne

While sitting on a stage before her speech, Annabelle Smith pointed out to a female soldier, sitting with her legs crossed, ankle on knee, that she would have received demerits and an hour of guard duty for sitting like that when she was in the Women’s Army Corps basic training because she wasn’t sitting like a “lady.”

“Things are totally reverse from then to now,” said Smith, during a Women’s Equality Day observance, Aug. 26, in Howze Theater.

In celebration of the 90th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, an amendment granting women the right to vote, Smith, a former member of the WACs and now director of the office of student aid and veteran services at Central Texas College, offered those in attendance a look at the gains women have made over the years.

Smith grew up in Frankfurt, Ind. and enlisted into WACs in August 1959 as a medic. She attended basic training at Fort McClellan, Ala. and advanced individual training at Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

“I had to have a special hat made for me during basic training since my head was too big and I was always getting in trouble and pulling guard duty because it would always blow off,” she said.

Basic training for Smith was also quite different than what female soldiers experience today. She was issued fatigues for only one day where she attended a rifle range and went through a gas chamber. At the end of that day she was instructed to turn in her fatigues, that they will no longer be needed.

Smith also experienced the transition of the Army’s brown dress uniform to the current dress green uniform. She was issued both during her initial training.

From basic training and AIT she attended a ten day school for security clearances in Fort Holabird, Md.

After her training she was stationed at Valley Forge General Hospital, Phoenixville, Pa., where she would sit and listen to individuals with high security clearances while they were under anesthesia and in surgery to insure they did not disclose any classified information.

“I never once had anyone talk about classified military information but I did have someone talk about an affair he was having,” Smith said.

From Valley Forge she was sent to Japan. where she met her husband.

“When I arrived to Japan I was told that there was only one single man in my section,” she said. “Being the sarcastic person I am, I told them, ‘I’ll take care of that,’ and I ended up marrying him.”

Her job during this time was to out-process soldiers from the neuropsychology department.

During her time in Japan, Smith was offered a reenlistment for Germany but her husband was to go to Thailand. She decided to leave the corps in August 1962.

“I didn’t want to be on the other side of the planet from him,” Smith said.

Fortunately after she got out of the WACs her husband’s orders were changed to Germany.

“I ended up going there anyway,” she said.

Smith lived as an Army spouse and moved with her husband where ever he went until he retired in 1976.

“I enjoyed every move we made,” she said. “It was an adventure.”

Her husband has since passed away.

Smith reassured the audience that she doesn’t regret going in to the service and would join again, even today.

When asked if she considered herself a “woman in suffrage” she said, “I never thought of myself that way; never thought of myself as being held back.”

Her final remarks offered advice to all that was given to her by her grandmother.

“If it is to be, it must start with me,” she said. “Live as the example and treat everyone the same.”

DVIDS
Story by Spc. Kimberly Browne

Military veterans come in all shapes and sizes. While the majority of America’s veterans are male, there are hundreds of thousands of women proud to wear the title “veteran”. We would like to honor some of the military women we have featured here over the years.

Female Chaplains Serve God and Country

Four female ministers – an Episcopalian, a Unitarian Universalist, a Southern Baptist and an African Methodist Episcopal – all join the military ….

But there’s no punch line here, just four strong-willed pioneers working in a career field with few others of the female persuasion.

There are ministers who are veterans. There are lawyers who are veterans.

Lady Lawyer in Battle Fatigues

In the middle of the largest rebuilding effort since the Marshall Plan, a young woman in Iraq joined the ranks of the legal profession this month via a video teleconference with an Iowa judge.

Melissa Head took the bar exam two weeks before she deployed to serve with the Army Corps of Engineers’ Gulf Region Division in Iraq.

Not all our female veterans escaped danger.

Portrait of An American Soldier

Shortly after her arrival, SSG Elliott and SPC Hauer was driving along in convoy when she saw the vehicle in front of her swerve to avoid a black bag. SSG Elliott was behind the wheel at the time and tried to swerve as well, but the 5-ton tractor-trailer responded too slowly. They clipped the mine inside the bag.

SSG Elliott, who was also injured in the explosion, recalls that “an orange flame blew SPC Hauer up to the ceiling of the cab and tossed her onto the “doghouse” where the transmission and controls were located.”

Some of our female veterans have the medals to prove that they are also heroes.

Airman 1st Class Charity Lee Trueblood

Airman Trueblood was driving an up-armored Humvee providing security to a group that was moving supplies on Dec. 5, 2005, when her convoy was attacked near Balad Air Base in Iraq. A driver indicated over the radio that he had been hit. Under fire, Trueblood moved her truck between the enemy fire and the other vehicles, which were not up-armored. The injured man pulled to the side of the road because his truck caught on fire. Trueblood drove up to the injured man’s vehicle, which was engulfed in flames. She performed first aid and helped to get him to a secure location for medical treatment.

Trueblood received the Bronze Star with Valor on Sept. 14, 2006.

Here is a veteran from the Rochester, New York area, who has been a hero at home and overseas.

Master Sgt. Luann Van Peursem

Sergeant Van Peursem led the initial medical response for two Airmen critically injured by shrapnel from an exploding rocket. After the rocket hit outside her building she quickly responded to moaning and cries for help. As she was providing aid to the first Airman, she heard additional cries in the distance. She passed care of the first victim to others and ran to the other victim. By herself she moved him to a bunker for protection and rendered proper aid. She then managed the care for both victims until medical personnel arrived.

Sometimes, all too often, our military women give their lives in service to our nation.

Spc. Rachael L. Hugo

The medic reached into her pocket and removed an Army honors coin she received for saving a sergeant’s life in Iraq in February. She told her dad, Kermit Hugo, she had carried it with her ever since then to make sure she didn’t misplace it before she had a chance to give it to him.

“She said, ‘Dad, I got something for you,’ and she pulled that coin out of her pocket,” Kermit Hugo said Monday.

On Friday, Rachael Hugo found herself in a similar situation to the one in February, but with much different results.

Hugo, 24, of Madison, was killed when she went to help injured colleagues after they were hit by an improvised explosive device and came under small-arms fire in Bayji, north of Baghdad. She was deployed just over a year ago and was expected to return home in November.

No one will deny the beauty of our women in uniform.

G.I. Jill – Army Medic Competes for Miss America

For the past 6 years, Jill Stevens has been serving in the US Military as a Combat Medic in the Utah National Guard, while earning her degree in Nursing at Southern Utah University. In November 2003, Jill was deployed to Afghanistan, returning home in April 2005. She has earned 5 medals for her outstanding service, and was the first female finisher of the inaugural Afghanistan Marathon, making a total of 12 marathons she has completed together with earning the highest Fitness award during Army Basic Training. In representing the Army National Guard, Sergeant Stevens recently addressed Generals from 40 different nations gathered at Hill Air Force Base.

All our women in uniform are volunteers. Some of the veterans volunteer for danger.

Soldier Profile: Sgt. Andrea Bills

“Every battalion was being asked for volunteers to become door gunners and crew chiefs for the deployment,” said Bills. “I heard about it through the grapevine, and I asked if I could go to the classes. Once I made it through the aerial gunnery and all the tables, I was sent to alpha company. I love being a mechanic, but I also love being a door gunner because it is a once-in-a lifetime opportunity, and something I would never be able to do in the civilian world.”

And, to close out this profile of women who are military veterans, we recognize the unique bond that mothers and daughters have.

Cheerleader and Mom Join Ranks

“I was looking at the community colleges, and thought I would go there,” she said. “Then I was talking to some people I know who are in the Navy Reserve, and some friends who have been in the military, and I thought that’s what I wanted to do.”

She presented the idea to her mother, Lisa Altoon, who wasn’t receptive to the notion of her cheerleader daughter joining the Army.

“I was dead set against it from the beginning,” she said.

Altoon, like many parents, was concerned about the possibility of Megan deploying to a combat zone. That is, until she met her daughter’s recruiter, Army Sgt. 1st Class Jessica Dean of the Fremont, Calif., recruiting station. Dean proved to be a persuasive recruiter.

After learning about the Army Reserve, Altoon, a postal carrier in Fremont, decided that she, too, would become a soldier. Until recently, someone her age with no prior service would have been too old to enlist. Since the Army increased its maximum age to 42 in 2006, however, the door was wide open for the 39-year-old.

Mother and daughter enlisted in the same military occupational specialty — computer information specialist — and were assigned to the same unit, the 351st Civil Affairs Command in Mountain View, Calif.