Band of Sisters by Kirsten Holmstedt

Author:Kirsten Holmstedt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Land forces & warfare, Women's studies, History, Biography / Autobiography, Iraq, USA, Military, Military - Iraq War (2003-), Women, Nonfiction / Women's Studies, Biography, Iraq War, 2003-, United States, Women soldiers
ISBN: 0811740110
Publisher: Stackpole Books
Published: 2007-07-03T16:00:00+00:00

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Deployments, like life, have their ups and downs, highs and lows. A successful mission being a high; a not-so-successful tactics test, a low. Toward the end of Armour’s first tour, she dug a hole for herself and had a difficult time climbing out. The pilots in the squadrons take tactics tests to let their leaders know who is “staying in the books” and who isn’t. A big tactics test was coming up. The pilots were always notified about the tests a couple of days in advance. Armour had been on a mission in Iraq for a few days and had taken her tactics books with her. She learned ahead of time that there was going to be a test but didn’t find out what would be on it. She should have asked around and gotten the information but she didn’t. She was one of twenty-five pilots who took the test. Half the pilots failed. Armour got the lowest score. It didn’t matter to Armour how many others failed. What mattered was that she failed.

The experience crushed her spirit. She felt she had let herself and her squadron down, not to mention future female Marine aviators. She carried a lot of guilt for her poor performance. She

was taken off the flight schedule temporarily and her motivation level dropped. She took full responsibility for putting herself in a position to fail and for not rebounding like she should have.

Armour knows that as a Cobra pilot she has to study all the time because there is so much to know and it’s always changing. And when she feels she knows a lot, she has to keep reviewing it to stay sharp because her enemy is studying, too. Ruvalcaba, who had already returned to Camp Pendleton when this test was administered, said that if Armour was taken off the flight schedule, it was serious. But he also said it’s just one event.

Armour was in Kuwait and Iraq for eight months, from February 9 to September 22. She arrived home at nine in the evening on her thirtieth birthday. Being home was the best birthday present ever.

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