It is February 2003 and the 143rd Military Police Company of the Connecticut Army National Guard is training in 35 degree below zero weather up in Fort Drum, N.Y. They stay there for two months and are then told they are being deployed to Kuwait, where they would be faced with 143 degree weather and sandstorms. It then took them two days to make the trip into Iraq where they would be in combat for the next year as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.Among the 105 people who made up the unit was a pale skinned soldier with light blue eyes and cropped dark hair. Master Sgt. Jacqueline Milhomme, then 36, was only one of 13 women soldiers in her battalion.
It is stereotypically thought that the military is for men. Some people may not think that women are strong enough, whether emotionally or physically, to fight in a war. Historically, in most of the past wars, women were nurses in the armed forces and not actually on the front line. The turning point came in the Persian Gulf War where nine percent of the recruits were female.
While Milhomme, now 42, was with only a handful of other women in her company, she said there were no stereotypes within the group. “There were times where we showed the men up and there was nothing they could say because they knew we were tough,” she said. Even going as far to say that the males in her unit were all like fathers and brothers to her, Milhomme said she “would go back with them in a heartbeat if I could.”
In 1973, there were 55,000 women serving in the active duty military. That was only 2.5 percent of the entire armed forces. As of 2005, there were more than 202,000 women in the active duty, which was 14 percent of the armed forces. This figure almost quadrupled the previous statistic.
Milhomme received the news in 2003 that she was being deployed. “I had mixed feelings of nervousness and anxiousness. I had no idea what I was getting into,” Milhomme said. Her unit was told they were going to Southeast Asia, but did not know where they were going after that. The 143rd Military Police Company ended up being the first National Guard unit in the nation to enter Iraq.
“We had to put our normal life on hold and wonder every day if we were ever going to come back alive,” she said. At the time of her deployment, she was told she would be overseas for six months, which later turned into one full year.
The scene in Iraq was one that will be imprinted into Milhomme’s mind for the rest of her life. In between the large palm trees and telephone poles lining the dirt covered roads were multiple banged up cars, some of which had been burned to a crisp by bombs. The pictures she has from the war show rocks strewn across the puddles of mud surrounded by all sorts of debris. She even has one picture of a fellow soldier in her unit standing in about a 15-by-10 foot trench dressed in his camouflage uniform, clutching his rifle at his side.
Milhomme served her year long tour of duty but, like many other soldiers, now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Those who are diagnosed with this disorder have vivid disturbing memories of a traumatic or life threatening experience they have gone through. Often they have trouble sleeping, get scared easily, and do not enjoy the same things they used to.
In a study compiled by Ilona Meagher, editor of “PTSD Combat: Winning the War Within,” found that about 3,800 women veterans suffer from the disorder. Many veterans are diagnosed with PTSD because of what they witness in combat, whether it is watching a friend get killed, or being sexually abused by another soldier. In Milhomme’s case it was a combination of the loud bombings she heard and the horrific shootings she watched while in the military and as a result she was medically discharged in 2007 because she “couldn’t function anymore.”
She described the transition back to states as a hard change. She said the first few days home were filled with excitement, but then reality set in. Milhomme’s friends and family did not change in the year she was away, but she had been exposed to the bloodshed of war. She spent eight weeks in the hospital getting treated for PTSD and she continues to see counselors at the Veteran’s Center in Rocky Hill, Conn.
“It’s a tough adjustment. I still stay in the middle lane on the highway, I don’t look over bridges, and I’m still afraid of getting blown up when there’s a loud noise,” Milhomme said. “I still don’t go into crowds. I used to love shopping, but you won’t find me in a mall now.” She said she used to run seven miles a day, but her passion for running is gone now due to PTSD. It also cost her job in December 2008 after 22 years working as a parts attendant, ordering different parts for cars as they broke down.
Joining the Army National Guard in 1984, Milhomme did it as a means of paying for school. She wanted to attend college and if she signed up with the Guard, they would pay for her education. When Milhomme began boot camp the following year, the military was still segregated. There were 300 women who went through extensive physical training with her. She said they also learned basic Army skills like how to read a map, how to fire a rifle, combat life saving skills, and emergency skills.
While nowadays she tries to do different women’s things with other veteran’s when she can, Milhomme’s life now revolves around her 17-year-old niece who went to live with her in Broad Brook, Conn. three months ago. She said she would love to go back to Rocky Hill to help other veterans, but she is not sure she is able to. Milhomme now joins the other 15,353 women veterans in Connecticut.
Women Veterans Around New England (as of 10/08):
- Massachusetts--26,818
- Connecticut--15,353
- Maine--10,132
- New Hampshire--8,741
- Rhode Island--5,094
- Vermont--3,710
Photos courtesy of Jacqueline Milhomme
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