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thedrifter
03-12-06, 06:11 AM
Article published Mar 12, 2006
Petite Marine adopts military as family

By Allison Perkins
Staff Writer

Once, someone told petite, blond Kelly McGuirt that she could never cut it as a Marine.

Well, that was a mistake. She did. She has. She is.

"I wanted to show them that I could do it, even though I'm a female," she wrote in an e-mail from her current deployment in Balad, Iraq.

The 2002 Southeast High School graduate has been serving in Iraq for the past year. Her main job is as a warehouse clerk, but McGuirt prefers to leave the relative safety of the base for duty on convoys.

She said she can't say much about what happens on the Iraqi roads.

"We did the mission and returned safe to the base every time I went out," she wrote. "You don't know what is going to happen 'til you get out there, but you get the mission done either way."

She said she avoids answering the question she hears the most, both in Iraq and at home: "Are we winning?"

"Everybody has their own opinion to that," she wrote. "But that's not what's important."

Soon, she said, "we will all be back with our families again, and that's what everyone wants the most."

McGuirt has enjoyed her time with the Marines so much that on one bright, hot October day in the desert, as the American flag flapped in the wind behind her, she re-enlisted for another four years.

"I'm still having fun with the Marines," she said. "There is so much more that you can do when you are in the military -- go to school and play sports -- so the fun never stops."

Not that every day is easy, especially in Iraq.

For McGuirt, the Marines have become her family. She said it was hard to celebrate her 22nd birthday in December without her family, but her Marine friends were there to stand in.

"I think (what I will miss) most is all the friends that you have made over here," she wrote. "You are working with people from all across the world, and when you have been working with them for so long, you end up making some really good friends."

But be certain, McGuirt says she will never forget Iraq.

Her tiny frame is covered in several tattoos, including two inspired by her life as a Marine. She's considered adding the dates she served in Iraq, leaving room for more tours since she says she knows there are more to come.

She's just not certain she needs to.

"It's kinda hard to forget that you have spent a year of your life over here," she wrote.

If you have a friend or family member serving whom we can profile, contact Allison Perkins at 373-7157 or aperkins@news-record.com

Ellie