 "Photo: Peter Franklin")
Editor's Note: This is the first part of a series profiling UT students who have served or are serving in the Iraq war. Four years ago, 5-foot-3-inch Sgt. Mandy Millican spent her days driving a 5-ton truck through a stretch of IED-infested desert between Iraq and Jordan. These days, she makes a shorter trek to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio once a month to satisfy her commitment to the Army Reserve.
Millican, a communication studies and human relations senior, completed one semester at UT before leaving for basic training at Fort Jackson, S.C., in spring 2003. Her unit deployed to Iraq in late October 2004.
Millican said she enlisted in the Army in July 2002 after she graduated from high school due in part to the financial options the service offered. She said it was always something she considered doing but that she was hesitant to enlist when the U.S. was considering going to war since she knew she would be sent abroad.
"This is my country; this is what we're fighting for - it seemed very clear in the beginning," Millican said. "So I want to say that I was completely willing to go. I didn't want to go especially, but I knew that if I did, it felt like I was going to do something for a cause."
When her company arrived in Al Asad, Iraq, they learned that civilian contractors were already doing the jobs for which they were trained. Instead of serving as laundry and shower specialists, her company escorted civilian trucks with water, fuel and other supplies into Jordan.
Millican said the company took the 10- to 12-hour trips between western Iraq and Jordan every other day. She said the convoy measured one mile long with 90 to 100 civilian trucks to every 10 or 12 military vehicles.
The company encountered improvised explosive devices during almost every convoy trip. Though initially frightened, Millican said she forgot what it was like to be scared.
"The procedure becomes more important than being afraid," she said. "You just know what you have to do, and you do that."
There were several times when the trucks directly in front of or behind her were hit with IEDs. While only six people from her company had to return home early due to injuries, three soldiers from a company she worked with were killed in the convoy.
Millican returned to the U.S. in late 2004, and she said it took three to four months to feel normal again. Her feeling towards the war are no longer warm-hearted like they once were, she said.
"Nobody ever mentions Afghanistan as much as they should, in my opinion," Millican said. "I think that there's a lot of other things that the U.S. military could be doing other than sending hundreds of thousands of people into Iraq with bad equipment or no equipment."
While her company always had the necessary on-person equipment, she said they had to modify some older trucks with steel from junk yards.
"When I look back and realize what we were driving in - that was good - and I see what we started with, it's amazing to think that we were even allowed to do that," Millican said.
She is surprised that she has not already been redeployed. When new trucks arrive at her base in San Antonio, she said the company becomes suspicious about whether or not they will be sent to Iraq again.
"This new election is really important, because people are wondering if anything's gonna change or what's gonna happen," Millican said.
Millican's contract with the Army does not expire until 2010. She will spend two weeks of her summer break training in California.
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