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Students Interview Vets About Their Service

Gary Pinnell/Highlands Today

Former Sgt. 1st Class Judy Puffen talks to Congressman Tim Mahoney. She addressed Avon Park High School students about the years she spent in Iraq.

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By Gary Pinnell | Highlands Today

Published: February 23, 2008

AVON PARK — Just in case they haven't been paying attention to the news, Judy Puffen gave high school students a personal account of what Iraq is like: frequent sandstorms, constant danger, grinding poverty, unvarying boredom.

"Please let me come home before I die," former Sgt. 1st Class Puffen said she would think. She was one of the first American soldiers to go there after Operation Iraqi Freedom commenced in 2003.

"It was all sand over there," she said. "The first thing I wanted to do when I got home was kiss the grass. It was like biblical times. The houses were made of adobe — mud."

"What kind of weapon did you carry," asked one student in Amy Love's American History class.

"An M-16," Puffen said, a 22-year veteran. Even though her job was administrative and financial, she carried a rifle.

"I was pretty good with it too," she said. Today, Puffen works at the Sebring Community Based Outreach Clinic for veterans, across from Highlands Regional Medical Center.

They drove Hummers, which she thinks is one of the worst-riding vehicles the military ever came up with. "I hate 'em."

Women, who are second-class citizens in most Muslim countries, had to walk as a group to the showers, where they brushed their teeth and groomed.

What did soldiers do when off-duty, another of the 22 students asked.

"We played cards, a lot," Puffen said. "After about six months, we could use our computers."

She wrote every day, even when it was just a few lines, and kept a diary.

"It was one of the hardest times of my life, and one of the scariest times of my life," Puffen said. Ominously, she was issued a gas mask.

A little thing that bothered her was the lack of cold drinks. "Europeans drink everything warm, but Americans, we want everything cold. As cold as we can get it."

Eventually, that problem was solved when the Army issued ice chests.

Work was constant. She rose at 5 a.m., and often didn't get back to the barracks until 10 p.m. Then, soldiers ironed their uniforms and shined their boots.

The culture is so different there, Puffen said. Frequently, she saw people urinate by the side of the road.

The roads were dangerous, she said. "We were told that if equipment broke down, leave it." Often, when they came back, they would find it had been burned.

"We were always on alert status," Puffen said, "mentally and physically."

Even so, Puffen enjoyed a soldier's life.

"I love the military, I love veterans, I love soldiers."

What Students Learned

Broadcasting students in Andrea Brown's videoed several soldiers, Love said. Some formulated questions on their own, others used questions from the Library of Congress Veterans History Project.

Later, they'll look through the interviews, determine common themes, and decide what's unique. Eventually, the film will go to Washington, D.C.

On Friday, Love said, "We went over the emotions and experiences they noticed that were common to each soldier. Those were compared with a classic book, "All Quiet On the Western Front," written from the perspective of a World War I German soldier who was fighting the French.

On Monday and Tuesday, students will relate what they've learned to their own lives.

Some students went home Thursday night and talked to their own family members about their military service, and in class Friday, they discussed their feelings about their own possible military service.

They were moved by the validity of the speakers, Love said. "They were real people."

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