Iím Katrina Goldby and I served with the U.S. Army Reserve.
I joined in 1991 during Desert Storm; served in a medical unit, reserve unit,
for the first nine years and pretty much the only place that I went was San Antonio,
and transferred into a civil affairs unit in 2000. And then in 2001, of course,
um, 9/11 occurred. After that happened we started predeployment training.
We didnít know where we were going until we had been at Fort Bragg for a couple weeks,
and then someone saw that it had already been labeled on our vehicles
that we were going to Iraq. So that was how we found out where we were going.
And, um, the only other thing we knew was that our orders were written as, um,
for the length of time, undetermined, uh, but not to exceed two years.
A lot of people, even in the army, donít know what civil affairs is,
but we work as liaisons between the host country government, our own government and military,
and other non-governmental organizationsÖthe U.N. We get to spend a lot of time out in the
communities in Iraq and get to know the Iraqi people. Our initial objective was to return
their city back to a predeployment state, which was basically restoring electricity,
running water, roofs over their heads if they had been displaced.
And then after that it was to upgrade things because the health care in the area,
they had state-of-the-art capabilities but it was extremely limited as to
who was able to access that. It was pretty much Saddamís circle that had access to that.
The regular people had about a 1950s-1960s level of care.
My unit was 10 percent female. It was a special ops unit.
Often we were in smaller teams and there might be only one female on the team.
We prided ourselves on being able to do whatever the men can do, live in the same conditions,
and not require anything different or special. From my perspective, I had some real
advantages being over in a Muslim country as a woman, because in their women donít
hold the same status. But the Iraqis are very adaptable and they came to realize very,
very quickly that as an army officer, I did hold the same status as a male army officer
of the same rank and they learned quickly to work with me because, you know, there were
times that I was the person assigned to help them. We were frequently invited to feasts,
and there was a particular sheik that I did a lot of work with and I was always an
honored guest along with my team. Sometimes other sheiks that were there were very
uncomfortable with that, but through that, their perspective changed and they
realized that I was doing the same job as the men. But where I had the advantage
was that I had also had access to speak to the women and our male soldiers absolutely
could not do that. That was extremely disrespectful for them to even make eye contact
with the Iraqi women. I could go sit with them and talk to them and find out was
going on with them, and what their needs were.
Military sexual trauma is a prevalent problem because of the living situations and things.
I had a commander in Iraq that tried to break down my door a couple of times in the night.
He was drunk, and, uh, you know, when I reported it, I was just told,
"Well, you know nothingís gonna be done." And it wasnít; you knowóthe person I was reporting
it to would have loved to have seen something get done but, you know, it was higher levels.
And what got done was he got promoted and moved out where he wasnítÖhe was no longer,
um, really directly supervising a unit. And I have no issues from what happened because
I was able to deal with it myself and I handled it. But how it was handled, you know,
by the military and specifically one particular leader who has climbed very high on the
ladder since then, so I wonít mention the name, but, uh, you know, itís justÖit was just wrong.
I canít even think of anyone in my unit when we redeployed and came home that
wasnít having adjustment issues. This was early 2004 but there were no reintegration programs.
They did a really quick check for PTSD. Well, PTSD doesnít kick in that fast, and, um,
military sexual trauma wasnít really talked about much, um, so that we werenít being
assessed for that. And thereólike I said, there just were no reintegration programs.
I was in my last semester of law school when I deployed, and I came back and my class
had graduated a year and a half before, and I felt very displaced. I finished, but
I had lost my desire for that career path and never did practice law.
Now when a unit returns, thereís someone from the VA there to meet them and to talk to them
and let them know what their benefits are. I just had, um, other members of my unit that
were maybe Veterans from Desert Storm or something, or even some that were from Vietnam saying,
the first thing you need to go do is get enrolled at the VA. Otherwise
I wouldnít have even known that. The VA wasnít ready yet for that, and now they are very much so.
There are reintegration programs, and homeless programs, PTSD programs, MST;
things are in place and the issues are being addressed early.