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"From age 15, I decided I wanted to be a dentist. One of my college professors told me about a scholarship the military offers called the Health Professionals Scholarship Program. They pay 100 percent of your tuition, living expenses, and your books for all four years but in return you have to give time back after you graduate.

Once I graduated from [college] I had to give my time back to the military. So, I was sent to Germany. I go to Germany, go to my unit and eight months later we received orders to go to the Middle East. It was when the [Iraqi] War first started, so we went to Kuwait. From there we convoyed up in vehicles to Iraq and I spent a year there.

Being a woman in the military, you get a lot of attention, even more so in Iraq. It was the first time we were down there, there was nothing there. We had to eat those MREs (Meals, Ready-to-Eat), there wasn't hot food. We had to take showers in tents and go to the bathroom in these wooden stalls and basically pee and poop in these tin barrels and burn it. It was a good challenge for my personal development. In terms of being a female when you are down there it's male-dominated, you get a lot of attention so you have to have your guard up and be strong. You also have to careful because people play games. People don't have their spouses there, so there is a lot of potential and opportunity to [be unfaithful].

One experience that sticks out was when I was in Kuwait. We were supposed to be wearing our mock gear. Mock gear is a chemical suit you wear in case of a chemical attack. It consists of a big mask, a bulky jacket and pants. We are supposed to carry it around on top of all our gear. I was coming back from an errand and a siren goes off, which means prepare there is possibly some sort of missile coming your way. You are supposed to run to a bunker, and I start to freak out like ‘Oh my God, I am all alone and I have no idea where the bunkers are!' I just started running with like 40 pounds of stuff on me, struggling, and I run into this bunker and it's filled with a bunch of guys. We all put our masks on, and it hit me that this is real. I was literally scared for my life.

I think it's difficult to say what the U.S. should do now regarding the war in Iraq. I feel like I was a part of something. It would be a shame to say I went through all this [time in Iraq] and that the country went through all this for nothing."