52 year old female soldier dies in Afghanistan-oldest to die in combat [View All]

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She was 52 when Afghan bomb struck
Merideth Howard, the oldest known woman to die in combat, was behind the gun of a Humvee

By Kim Barker and James Janega, Tribune staff reporters. Kim Barker reported from Mehtarlam and James Janega from Waukesha
Published September 24, 2006

MEHTARLAM, Afghanistan -- The older soldiers called themselves the Gray Brigade, but Sgt. 1st Class Merideth Howard never talked about her age. Soon, no one asked. In training, the Waukesha, Wis., resident ran as hard as men much younger. She became a gunner on a Humvee at this small military base, building a wooden box to stand on so she could see over the turret. Her last night here, Howard and Staff Sgt. Robert Paul sat on the back stoop of their barracks with the base cook, as usual. "We started talking about the time she got shot at," said Air Force Tech. Sgt. Marlin McDaniel, 42, the cook. "I said I'd probably duck. I wouldn't know what to do. But they both basically said at the same time, `When it's your time to go, it's your time to go.'" The next day, Howard and Paul made a supply run to a U.S. military base near the Afghan capital. They never made it back, dying in a fiery suicide bombing in Kabul on Sept. 8.

At 52, Howard, who had gray hair and an infectious smile, became the oldest known American woman to die in combat.

The fact that she was even here, serving as a gunner on a Humvee, shows the drain that two wars have put on an all-volunteer military. She was the new face of the military's civil affairs units, which do reconstruction and relief work. Constant deployments have tapped out the regular Army Reservists who most often filled those jobs in Iraq and Afghanistan. Howard never had been deployed before, not since joining the Reserves on a whim in 1988. After her medical unit was disbanded in 1996, she was assigned to the Individual Ready Reserves, for soldiers without a unit. She still went to monthly drills but mainly handled paperwork, biding her time, putting in her 20 years before earning retirement benefits. But as a stopgap--and in a first for the U.S. military--provincial reconstruction teams in Afghanistan were being filled by a mix of Navy, Air Force, Army, National Guard and Reserve soldiers. And many in the Reserves were like Howard, in the Individual Ready Reserves, home also to retired soldiers who had recently left the Army. A few regular reservists, such as Paul, volunteered for civil affairs. The rest, such as Howard, were called up last December.

"We were a little surprised," said Master Sgt. Robyn Fees, 50, who became a close friend of Howard's after the two were called up. "We didn't even know what `civil affairs' was, to be honest with you."

Howard was a no-frills woman, more comfortable pounding a hammer than wearing a dress, those who served with her said. In Afghanistan, she often visited the base area known as Home Depot, where the wood was stored, and built herself a rudimentary armoire and a side table. Her hammer still sits in her room on base. An unfinished picture frame, made from Afghan carved wood she bought at a local bazaar, waits on her desk.

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