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Remember The Fallen

Kathy Waters/Highlands Today

Army Sgt. 1st Class Judy Puffenbarger spent a year in Iraq.

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By Jim  Konkoly | Highlands Today

Published: May 25, 2008

SEBRING — When Army Sgt. First Class Judy Puffenbarger went to Iraq, a photo of her taken when her unit was being deployed to the war was sent to her hometown in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. Everybody who saw it broke out in laughter.

Puffenbarger's blonde hair has grown back, but the day before she left for the war zone she shaved her head.

"I did it on a bet, a bet I lost," the 49-year-old Avon Park resident said at the Veterans Administration Community Based Outpatient Clinic, where she works as a receptionist.

Puffenbarger, whose father was a World War II Army veteran who lost one of his legs in the battle of Okinawa, bet members of her squad that they would not be deployed to the Iraq war.

She offered to shave her head if the order came down for her 33-person unit to ship out to the war.

"The funny thing was," Puffenbarger said, "that when I shaved my head, every other person in our unit shaved their head, too. All of us went over there bald."

If that showed an esprit d'corps in her unit, Puffenbarger was glad that she had friends to help her get through a fierce year in what she calls a nasty part of the world.

"What do I remember most about being there?" she said, repeating the question.

"Well, it was like if you turned an oven on, let it heat way up, then opened the door and stuck your head inside," she answered. "And there was a fan inside the hot oven blowing the heat right in your face, and at the same time somebody was constantly throwing salt in your face.

"That," she added, "was what the sand storms were like. And there were sand storms all the time. What I remember is how hot it was, and it was a nasty hot."

Florida summers are mild by comparison, she said.

"Summer in Florida, that's like a cool breeze," Puffenbarger said. "You never felt cool over there. Even when the sun went down it was hot – nasty hot."

Puffenbarger said she was fortunate because she was with a criminal investigation unit, so they didn't have to go on dangerous patrols. She did, though, have to venture out of her base frequently on convoys to run supplies out to other units.

Army convoys, of course, have been the frequent target of lethal attacks throughout the Iraq War, but Puffenbarger didn't have occasion to shoot in defense of her life.

"One thing you remember is that from the moment you get there, every second of every hour, you're 'locked and loaded,'" she said. "You are always ready."

Early Army Career

Puffenbarger grew up in the small country town of Bridgewater, Va., and joined the Army at 19 in 1979. Through her career in the Army, Puffenbarger said, "you always practice with your weapon but you never think you're going to have to really use your weapon. But when you get over there you're ready to use it at every moment."

Puffenbarger said her unit was lucky because, despite the horrid heat, they lived in a palace.

"Saddam Hussein built it for one of his sons, who only spent one day there," she said. "It was built so that he could look out and see the main palace of Babylon."

After 14 years on active duty, Puffenbarger left the Army for six years when she divorced and became a single parent raising two young daughters. Six years later she went back into the Army Reserves and, with the Iraq War dragging on, her unit was called up and shipped over to the battlefront for a year.

A Woman In A Man's Army

Puffenbarger said her father and mother were proud of her when she went into the Army at a time when few women joined the armed forces.

"When I went in, the Army had just ended the Women's Army Corps, and so a woman who went in then was not a WAC anymore, but a soldier," she recalled. At that time, she said, "the men had no idea how to treat a woman as a soldier."

While she faced some resistance to a woman entering a so-called "man's world," Puffenbarger said, "I was trained by Vietnam veterans. And so I know I was trained by the best."

Puffenbarger never learned from her late father how he lost his leg in the battle of Okinawa, or how he got the piece of shrapnel in his back that stayed in his back until the day he died.

Like many World War II veterans from what author Tom Brokaw called "the greatest generation," her father never talked about fighting in the war.

The only time she heard anything about the tough times of his World War II duty was when an old Army buddy from his unit, who lived in another small town in Virginia, visited her father.

Her father's friend stayed for the entire weekend. They reminisced and had a great time and while the friend told stories about the war, Puffenbarger's father didn't, at least not within the hearing of his three children.

The Civilian Life

Now a mother of two grown daughters and a grandmother, Puffenbarger retired from the Army in 2007 after 22 years of service, but says she still feels like she's part of the Army.

"They say once you're a Marine, always a Marine," she said. "And I feel the same way about the Army."

On Memorial Day, Puffenbarger said, she plans to go fishing with a friend. On Saturday she attended one of the Memorial Day ceremonies honoring the nation's war dead.

While ceremonies are important, Puffenbarger said, she remembers the nation's military people in a quiet, private, personal way.

"I try to always remember and say a little prayer, every day, for the troops, to bring them all home safe," she said. "When you're a soldier, there is a common bond and they all (American military personnel) are like family."

During the interview for this story, Puffenbarger easily answered every question except one. When asked if she agrees or disagrees with President George Bush's decision to keep American troops in Iraq, she answered:

"When you become a soldier and you raise your right hand (and take the oath), the president is your commander in chief, and it's still like that for me. I'm not going to ever say anything bad about the president. He is the commander in chief and a soldier goes wherever you are sent."

Whatever she thinks about the war, she said, she'll express her personal opinion privately, when she votes in the November election.

While her father has passed away, her mother still lives in Bridgewater, Va., in the heart of Shenandoah Valley, and is proud of Judy and proud of all Americans who have or are serving in the military.

"My mom's Virginia license plate has an American flag on it and it says : 'RWB Mom,'" Puffenbarger said.

What does RWB stand for?

"Red, white and blue," Puffenbarger answered. "She's the Red, White and Blue Mom."

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