Winter Soldier by Iraq Veterans Against the War & Aaron Glantz

Author:Iraq Veterans Against the War & Aaron Glantz
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: QuarkXPress, ebook, epub
Publisher: Haymarket Books
Published: 2012-02-06T06:00:00+00:00

Abby Hiser

Sergeant, Wisconsin Army National Guard, Heavy Construction Equipment Operator

Deployments: August 2003–April 2004, Talil Air Base, near Nasiriyah

Hometown: Rice Lake, Wisconsin

Age at Winter Soldier: 26 years old

I have many thoughts and feelings on my service, some positive, some negative, and some indifferent. Yet, as a female in the military, I have encountered my fair share of inappropriate, unprofessional, and discriminatory acts.

I’m a friendly and confident person; I like to make friends and talk with others. Shortly after I joined I started to make friends, but my friendliness was misinterpreted as promiscuity. There were false rumors of me sleeping with a married man. I learned my lesson, and I kept to myself. But then I was labeled as rude, mean, snooty, or a witch or the “B-word.” I joined the military to defend my country and not my integrity and self-worth.

There needs to be more respect and professionalism in the training field. I was disrespected by an ROTC soldier during a summer assignment when he inappropriately patted me down during a training exercise. I was playing a role of the enemy, and he grabbed my chest with both hands and patted me down inappropriately, and he walked away laughing like it was a joke. He just laughed with his buddies, like, “Oh, look at her, she really enjoyed that.” Like it was no problem. This happens more than you think and it needs to be addressed.

I was assigned to an engineering unit as a heavy equipment operator. When it came to assigning equipment, my sergeant stated that he was going to advocate for me to be assigned as an excavator because I showed skill and confidence. My sergeant was a civilian excavator operator as well, so coming from him this was quite a compliment. Still, I did not get my promised equipment. My sergeant was told he was only advocating for me because he had a crush on me. This led me to think one of two things: Did he really have a crush on me and I wasn’t a good operator? Or do the higher-ranking NCOs not believe that a woman could be as good as this experienced operator reports?

Just shy of three years in the service, I was selected to go to Primary Leadership Development Course (PLDC), sergeant leadership training. I had worked very hard to get this opportunity. I even left college mid-semester for two weeks to attend. I was under the assumption that I’d be promoted as soon as the sergeant slot opened up. Shortly after completing the course, I volunteered to go to Iraq early and deployed with a unit that was not my own.

While sitting in the desert, I filled out the paperwork to be promoted and I sent it in, only to find out that I couldn’t be promoted while deployed with another unit. However, it was okay for them to promote a male sergeant who had barely been in our unit for six months and had volunteered to go to Iraq as I did.

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