One of The Women Killed on Thurs. Was a Naval Reservist?

[leftchick]

Why in the hell was she even there? This makes me sick...



In this undated photo provided by Kerry Clark, Regina Clark, left, of Centralia, Wash., is shown during her 2003 deployment in Kuwait City with an unidentified buddy, right. Clark, 43, a Naval reservist was killed in Iraq when a suicide car bomber attacked her convoy outside Fallujah on Thursday, June 23, 2005, a Navy spokeswoman told The Chronicle of Centralia. (AP Photo

link for rating it...

http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/events/iraq/082701iraqplane/im:/050627/480/wacen10206270333;_ylt=Akp7qVTPfpFkSHf8UJoefmcZO7gF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5bGcyMWMzBHNlYwNzc25hdg--

edit: More about her at this link. Thanks to PassingFair..

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002349229_iraqmom27m.html

~snip~

In the Naval Reserve, Clark, a petty officer first class, was slotted as a mess-hall cook. And preparing food was a big part of her duties in earlier deployments in 2001 and 2003, according to Haubrick.


But this year, as she arrived in Iraq, the Marines, in an effort to be culturally sensitive to Muslim women, sought to find U.S. women to do the checkpoint searches, according to a Marine press release.

Fallujah has been one of the most treacherous towns for U.S. troops and was the focal point of a major U.S. offensive last fall that sought to flush out insurgents. But in a phone call a few weeks ago with her mother, Clark did not talk about the dangers of her job.

[ewagner]

1. The bio has to

show up pretty soon...

why is the MSM sitting on this?

assholes!

[PassingFair]

2. Thank you, Lefty!

I was looking for pictures...can you drop this into the thread theorizing a cover-up of the full extent of this massacre?
Also LOVE the Galloway shot. I wish I looked that wrathful.

[leftchick]

3. do you have a link?

Galloway kicks major ass! :)

[PassingFair]

6. This one...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3957336&mesg_id=3957336

[lenidog]

4. What is her MOS that should explain why she was there

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. Well, I didn't want to say it but...

someone told me that his brother in the Navy was being shipped out to Iraq. I thought it was odd, and I was wondering:

(1) Is the backdoor draft opening wider because of the low enlistment numbers?

(2) Or is there one last push in the making?

[MissB]

7. There were some posts on this last week

I think some people were suggesting that the armed forces were trying to fill some gaps with Navy personnel - think medics and other non-front-line positions.

[unhappycamper]

13. Correction to your post: A medic IS a front-line position.

She may not have been a combat medic, but forward hospitals are - forward.

[leftchick]

14. Her job was supposed to be a mess hall cook...

but that was then... :(

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002349229_iraqmom27m.html

~snip~

In the Naval Reserve, Clark, a petty officer first class, was slotted as a mess-hall cook. And preparing food was a big part of her duties in earlier deployments in 2001 and 2003, according to Haubrick.


But this year, as she arrived in Iraq, the Marines, in an effort to be culturally sensitive to Muslim women, sought to find U.S. women to do the checkpoint searches, according to a Marine press release.

Fallujah has been one of the most treacherous towns for U.S. troops and was the focal point of a major U.S. offensive last fall that sought to flush out insurgents. But in a phone call a few weeks ago with her mother, Clark did not talk about the dangers of her job.

[northzax]

17. and Marines always have navy corpsmen

with them. There are no Marine medics, only Navy.

[pocket]

19. the Marine Corps does not have it's own medics

they use Navy Corpsmen. Always have.

[leftchick]

8. I think they are grabbing anyone and everyone they can

I wonder if any Coast Guard are there? I used to work for a guy in the Naval reserve many years ago. He is about 54 years old now and retired. I wonder if he has been called back. His field was medicine so it would not surprise me.

[me b zola]

18. The Navy Reserves works a bit differently than regular Navy

A persons rate (mos) often does not indicate what job they perform in the Reserves. For instance, a person's rate could be an SK (store keeper), but if they are in a cargo handling unit, when they go on an OP their job will be either a crane operator or hold boss or hatch captain, or what ever. Everyone in that unit must train & pass classes in a number of things in order to be mission ready for that unit.If a cargo handling unit specializes in moving ammo, their training will be more extensive and they must pass more classes & exams.

After 9/11 the Navy Reserves required everyone to complete & keep updated a skills assessment. This was meant to have a pool of individual people that could be mobilized to perform certain functions for the military.

[unhappycamper]

9. She had an 18-year old son.

Story in LBN:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1585217

[Sadie5]

10. Rummy said yesterday

on c-span that there was no shortage of Army personnel. We had it all wrong! The recruit #'s had been upped, so...thats why we needed more bodies. Liar!

[Vickers]

11. When I worked at NORAD, we had squids in there

and that's inside a MOUNTAIN. :crazy:

Could be a communications technician, a linguist, etc. etc.

[Codeine]

12. A lot of medical types

...serving with the Marines are Navy personelle.

[leftchick]

16. no medical background for her...

I just added a link to the OP. This is very sad. :(

[TahitiNut]

15. Is the puzzlement due to her being in the Navy or being female?

It's a misconception to think that Naval forces are restricted to service exclusively aboard ships and boats. (Purely from a pop perspective, viewing the "Sand Pebbles" should disabuse people from such a notion.) It's common for medical corpsmen and other specialty MOS's (e.g. Navy SEALs) to serve wherever their training is applicable. Even further, the military has emphasized "joint force" operations for decades. Anyone in the military, regardless of branch, can be deployed wherever their training is applicable. While military regulations prohibit assigning anyone to a role in a combat zone for which they're not trained and qualified, the attachment of personnel from one branch of the service to units under the operational command of another branch is quite common.

Insofar has her being female, I really don't know what substantive difference that makes. During my tour of duty in Viet Nam, I never saw any job a guy was doing that a woman couldn't handle just as well. Not one. I think people get hung up on non-issues, issues like billeting, showering, latrines, etc. It seems strange to me that we've had coed college dorms for decades and people think its somehow a greater 'problem' in the military. Nonsense.

I personally don't think any of the 1740+ military deaths in Iraq is any more or less tragic and wasteful than any other, irrespective of age, gender, service branch, rank, etc. Indeed, I'm puzzled that anyone would think the death of an armed combat person would somehow be more tragic than that of an unarmed non-combat civilian. The entire thing is abominable.

[oldcoot]

20. You are correct

A human life is a human life. Whether or not that life belongs to a man or woman is irrelevant. Bush's incompetence has led too so much unnecessary sorrow.