thedrifter
01-08-08, 04:36 AM
Alabama `Mama' fills in young Marines on Iraq
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
TOM GORDON
News staff writer
Cpl. Jennifer Holt has become accustomed to having fellow Marines call her by her Alabama nickname, "Bulldog."
But lately, the former Clay Chalkville High cheerleader has been answering to another moniker: "Mama."
Some of the younger Marines in her unit, which is scheduled to head to Iraq next month, are calling her Mama because Holt is not only their senior - she will turn 27 on Valentine's Day - but because she already has done two Iraq tours.
Many Marines in her unit, the 7th Engineer Support Battalion, will be on their first tours. Individually and in groups, some of them have been asking her a lot of questions about what they can expect, and she answers with what she learned during her two previous seven-month stints in Anbar Province.
"They ask things even as simple as, `Is the food good, you know, at the chow hall over there?'" Holt said this week in a telephone interview from Camp Pendleton, Calif. "Or, you know, `What are the people like?' ... Basically, little things about their culture are pretty much the biggest things that Marines want to know when they go over there, which is good, cause they need to know those little things that ... can turn into big things if you don't know what you're looking for."
Some of the Marines' questions concern the way Iraqis treat their women, and how they regarded female Marines like Holt.
For her part, Holt said she does not think she changed the world during her two tours, but she does feel she made a positive mark when she was assigned to search Iraqi women and communicated with them in their own language. If such an assignment comes her way on this next tour, she will eagerly accept it again.
Holt, who expects to become a sergeant in February or March, is a combat engineer. In that capacity, she has been involved in construction and road repair in parts of Anbar. More of the same duties likely await her in February, but she and members of her squad will have an additional assignment: blowing up quantities of unexploded enemy ordnance.
Explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) units handle the high-powered explosives, but Holt and her squad will be able to take care of the less lethal stuff, as long as they can determine what it is.
"As long as I know what it is, then I can blow it up," said Holt, who underwent some specialized training for the demolition assignment earlier this year and is sharing her knowledge with her squad.
During her most recent tour, Holt spent more than a month with a unit of "grunts" (infantrymen) at their camp in Anbar. The assignment was part of "lioness," a program to give female Marines some infantry experience, prepare them in the searching of Iraqi women and to raise their effectiveness in combat.
Wary of presence:
Under Pentagon policy, women are banned from serving in front-line combat units. In Iraq, however, women have not had to seek out combat. Instead, it has found them, and some came Holt's way when she was with the grunts. All in all, she felt the way she handled herself earned her respect from some of those who were wary of her presence, and she hopes to do a grunt stint again on her upcoming tour.
"It gave me such a big, I guess, outlook on how other units work and how other MOS's (military occupational specialties) work and how the grunts work ... even though I had some hardships and ... some friends of mine got killed while I was out there," Holt said.
It also gave her additional perspective on the issue of gender and combat.
"I do agree that there are some women that should not be in combat," she said. "But I also agree that there are some men that have no place being in combat. I mean, I've seen guys just freak out and ... lose their bearings and all of that just as much as, you know, I've seen women do it."
E-mail: tgordon@bhamnews.com
Ellie
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
TOM GORDON
News staff writer
Cpl. Jennifer Holt has become accustomed to having fellow Marines call her by her Alabama nickname, "Bulldog."
But lately, the former Clay Chalkville High cheerleader has been answering to another moniker: "Mama."
Some of the younger Marines in her unit, which is scheduled to head to Iraq next month, are calling her Mama because Holt is not only their senior - she will turn 27 on Valentine's Day - but because she already has done two Iraq tours.
Many Marines in her unit, the 7th Engineer Support Battalion, will be on their first tours. Individually and in groups, some of them have been asking her a lot of questions about what they can expect, and she answers with what she learned during her two previous seven-month stints in Anbar Province.
"They ask things even as simple as, `Is the food good, you know, at the chow hall over there?'" Holt said this week in a telephone interview from Camp Pendleton, Calif. "Or, you know, `What are the people like?' ... Basically, little things about their culture are pretty much the biggest things that Marines want to know when they go over there, which is good, cause they need to know those little things that ... can turn into big things if you don't know what you're looking for."
Some of the Marines' questions concern the way Iraqis treat their women, and how they regarded female Marines like Holt.
For her part, Holt said she does not think she changed the world during her two tours, but she does feel she made a positive mark when she was assigned to search Iraqi women and communicated with them in their own language. If such an assignment comes her way on this next tour, she will eagerly accept it again.
Holt, who expects to become a sergeant in February or March, is a combat engineer. In that capacity, she has been involved in construction and road repair in parts of Anbar. More of the same duties likely await her in February, but she and members of her squad will have an additional assignment: blowing up quantities of unexploded enemy ordnance.
Explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) units handle the high-powered explosives, but Holt and her squad will be able to take care of the less lethal stuff, as long as they can determine what it is.
"As long as I know what it is, then I can blow it up," said Holt, who underwent some specialized training for the demolition assignment earlier this year and is sharing her knowledge with her squad.
During her most recent tour, Holt spent more than a month with a unit of "grunts" (infantrymen) at their camp in Anbar. The assignment was part of "lioness," a program to give female Marines some infantry experience, prepare them in the searching of Iraqi women and to raise their effectiveness in combat.
Wary of presence:
Under Pentagon policy, women are banned from serving in front-line combat units. In Iraq, however, women have not had to seek out combat. Instead, it has found them, and some came Holt's way when she was with the grunts. All in all, she felt the way she handled herself earned her respect from some of those who were wary of her presence, and she hopes to do a grunt stint again on her upcoming tour.
"It gave me such a big, I guess, outlook on how other units work and how other MOS's (military occupational specialties) work and how the grunts work ... even though I had some hardships and ... some friends of mine got killed while I was out there," Holt said.
It also gave her additional perspective on the issue of gender and combat.
"I do agree that there are some women that should not be in combat," she said. "But I also agree that there are some men that have no place being in combat. I mean, I've seen guys just freak out and ... lose their bearings and all of that just as much as, you know, I've seen women do it."
E-mail: tgordon@bhamnews.com
Ellie