thedrifter
11-29-06, 07:36 AM
Woman warrior works to build trust
On 2nd tour in Iraq, Alabama Marine aids female search team
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
TOM GORDON
News staff writer
Part of Marine Cpl. Jennifer Holt's mission in Iraq is to help repair roads around the dangerous city of Fallujah.
Above and beyond that, the former Clay-Chalkville High cheerleader is trying to build trust between Iraqis and the Marines who patrol their neighborhoods and sometimes search their homes.
She hopes some of that trust is established when armed Marines enter a household and she, not one of her male counterparts, searches the Iraqi women there.
The 25-year-old Holt, now on her second tour in Iraq, is a member of what the Marines call a female search team, or FST.
"I have searched thousands of women," Holt wrote in a recent e-mail from Iraq. "The female Marines take turns on who searches because all of us are doing this on top of our original jobs. I have had everything from women giving birth as they come through my search, women handing us their children to hold, and friendly handshakes to say `thank you' to us for being here."
In another e-mail, Holt indicated she has helped her own searches go smoother because she can communicate to some extent in Arabic.
"I have taken the time myself to learn a little bit ... so that I may better understand the people while I am in the city," she said. "It helps ease the women that I search, if as soon as I approach them, I greet them in their ... language. They sometimes have the look of surprise and gratefulness that I am able to communicate with them.
"I know we are doing a good thing," Holt wrote in one e-mail. "Even though my footprints are small, the steps we have taken to give hope and security to these people are enormous."
Holt is a combat engineer, and her company is part of Combat Logistics Battalion-5. Back home, she was working as a nursing assistant and had thoughts of becoming a doctor, but she left that job to join the Marines for a four-year hitch. That hitch already has included a tour in Iraq, from September 2005 to April 2006.
"I felt that there are many people that are unable to fight for our country, and I was healthy and able," Holt said. Joining the Marines, she added, has given her time and distance "to test all my options and help me to decide what I really want to do in life."
Iraq, especially Fallujah and surrounding Al Anbar province, is about as testing a place as she could find.
Marines have been dying in Al Anbar, a Sunni stronghold, almost since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq began in March 2003. Twenty-two have died in Al Anbar so far this month, and Holt indicated she has had some close calls in the three months she and her unit have been operating out of Camp Fallujah.
"Sometimes it is like fighting the invisible man," she said in one e-mail.
In another, she added, "You can never be sure of when something could turn into a heightened situation. I have encountered some sporadic small arms fire."
Holt also said she's been rocked by mortar rounds and survived crude bombs. "Any time something like that happens, all you can do is thank God you're OK, and go on with the mission."
Women warriors make up slightly less than 7 percent of the 141,000 U.S. troops operating in and around Iraq. Through Monday, according to the Iraqi Coalition Casualty Count Web site, 62 women, three of them Marines, have died in and around Iraq since the start of the war. That amounts to about 2 percent of the U.S. military death total, which was listed as 2,883 on Tuesday. Through Nov. 18, according to the Defense Department, 429 female troops had been wounded in action.
Wounds not physical:
Back in Alabama, Holt's father said his daughter, known in the family as Jenny, seemed wounded after her first Iraqi tour, though the wounds were not physical.
"She's worried about something, it seems like, all the time," James Holt Jr. said. "When she's home, she tries to have fun, but I can tell a different tone in her voice."
Now that she's back in Iraq, Holt said, "It's killing me."
In two e-mails Tuesday, Jenny Holt said, "Whenever I came home, I was still on my toes most of the time. I still found myself looking around for something out of place. I had difficulty with people being close to me ... It's one of those things that time takes care of.
"Of course it (Iraq) has changed me a bit. I am defiantly more grateful for my freedom, and our culture. I will have scars forever. Some physical and mental scars, but that just adds character, right!"
In her part of Iraq, Holt said, combat can break out at any time. A recent Marine intelligence report cited in The Washington Post states that U.S. forces have been unable to smash the insurgency in Anbar.
Despite that grim assessment, Holt said her unit is in "the hearts and minds stage" in Fallujah. Part of that, she said, involves "helping the IAs (the Iraqi army) and the IPs (Iraqi police) to understand what it means to be the watchful eye of the people, helping them to understand that there is something they can do to keep their people safe, and (reducing) the amount of attacks and possible deaths, without disturbing Iraqi culture."
Showing respect:
Showing respect for Iraqi culture is part of the reason she and other female Marines search Fallujah's women when a situation calls for it. It may be a long time, if ever, before the faces of some of those women leave her memory.
"A woman came through one day and her family had been killed by the insurgents," Holt wrote. "She was crying, and I could see the pain and hurt in her eyes as I searched her. It was a look you hope you never have to feel yourself. Her tears were so heavy they seemed to be pulling her cheeks downward as they rolled off.
"I immediately started thinking of my family back home, and the other Marine families we were fighting for. I felt my heart drop into my stomach with just the thought of if I were in her shoes and something was to happen to my family. As she left, though she was still crying, she turned to give me thanks for our help in protecting the only life she had left, hers."
E-mail: tgordon@bhamnews.com
Ellie
On 2nd tour in Iraq, Alabama Marine aids female search team
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
TOM GORDON
News staff writer
Part of Marine Cpl. Jennifer Holt's mission in Iraq is to help repair roads around the dangerous city of Fallujah.
Above and beyond that, the former Clay-Chalkville High cheerleader is trying to build trust between Iraqis and the Marines who patrol their neighborhoods and sometimes search their homes.
She hopes some of that trust is established when armed Marines enter a household and she, not one of her male counterparts, searches the Iraqi women there.
The 25-year-old Holt, now on her second tour in Iraq, is a member of what the Marines call a female search team, or FST.
"I have searched thousands of women," Holt wrote in a recent e-mail from Iraq. "The female Marines take turns on who searches because all of us are doing this on top of our original jobs. I have had everything from women giving birth as they come through my search, women handing us their children to hold, and friendly handshakes to say `thank you' to us for being here."
In another e-mail, Holt indicated she has helped her own searches go smoother because she can communicate to some extent in Arabic.
"I have taken the time myself to learn a little bit ... so that I may better understand the people while I am in the city," she said. "It helps ease the women that I search, if as soon as I approach them, I greet them in their ... language. They sometimes have the look of surprise and gratefulness that I am able to communicate with them.
"I know we are doing a good thing," Holt wrote in one e-mail. "Even though my footprints are small, the steps we have taken to give hope and security to these people are enormous."
Holt is a combat engineer, and her company is part of Combat Logistics Battalion-5. Back home, she was working as a nursing assistant and had thoughts of becoming a doctor, but she left that job to join the Marines for a four-year hitch. That hitch already has included a tour in Iraq, from September 2005 to April 2006.
"I felt that there are many people that are unable to fight for our country, and I was healthy and able," Holt said. Joining the Marines, she added, has given her time and distance "to test all my options and help me to decide what I really want to do in life."
Iraq, especially Fallujah and surrounding Al Anbar province, is about as testing a place as she could find.
Marines have been dying in Al Anbar, a Sunni stronghold, almost since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq began in March 2003. Twenty-two have died in Al Anbar so far this month, and Holt indicated she has had some close calls in the three months she and her unit have been operating out of Camp Fallujah.
"Sometimes it is like fighting the invisible man," she said in one e-mail.
In another, she added, "You can never be sure of when something could turn into a heightened situation. I have encountered some sporadic small arms fire."
Holt also said she's been rocked by mortar rounds and survived crude bombs. "Any time something like that happens, all you can do is thank God you're OK, and go on with the mission."
Women warriors make up slightly less than 7 percent of the 141,000 U.S. troops operating in and around Iraq. Through Monday, according to the Iraqi Coalition Casualty Count Web site, 62 women, three of them Marines, have died in and around Iraq since the start of the war. That amounts to about 2 percent of the U.S. military death total, which was listed as 2,883 on Tuesday. Through Nov. 18, according to the Defense Department, 429 female troops had been wounded in action.
Wounds not physical:
Back in Alabama, Holt's father said his daughter, known in the family as Jenny, seemed wounded after her first Iraqi tour, though the wounds were not physical.
"She's worried about something, it seems like, all the time," James Holt Jr. said. "When she's home, she tries to have fun, but I can tell a different tone in her voice."
Now that she's back in Iraq, Holt said, "It's killing me."
In two e-mails Tuesday, Jenny Holt said, "Whenever I came home, I was still on my toes most of the time. I still found myself looking around for something out of place. I had difficulty with people being close to me ... It's one of those things that time takes care of.
"Of course it (Iraq) has changed me a bit. I am defiantly more grateful for my freedom, and our culture. I will have scars forever. Some physical and mental scars, but that just adds character, right!"
In her part of Iraq, Holt said, combat can break out at any time. A recent Marine intelligence report cited in The Washington Post states that U.S. forces have been unable to smash the insurgency in Anbar.
Despite that grim assessment, Holt said her unit is in "the hearts and minds stage" in Fallujah. Part of that, she said, involves "helping the IAs (the Iraqi army) and the IPs (Iraqi police) to understand what it means to be the watchful eye of the people, helping them to understand that there is something they can do to keep their people safe, and (reducing) the amount of attacks and possible deaths, without disturbing Iraqi culture."
Showing respect:
Showing respect for Iraqi culture is part of the reason she and other female Marines search Fallujah's women when a situation calls for it. It may be a long time, if ever, before the faces of some of those women leave her memory.
"A woman came through one day and her family had been killed by the insurgents," Holt wrote. "She was crying, and I could see the pain and hurt in her eyes as I searched her. It was a look you hope you never have to feel yourself. Her tears were so heavy they seemed to be pulling her cheeks downward as they rolled off.
"I immediately started thinking of my family back home, and the other Marine families we were fighting for. I felt my heart drop into my stomach with just the thought of if I were in her shoes and something was to happen to my family. As she left, though she was still crying, she turned to give me thanks for our help in protecting the only life she had left, hers."
E-mail: tgordon@bhamnews.com
Ellie