Marine Sgt Darhonda Rodela, 25, who's stationed at Camp Pendleton, was in Baghdad, Iraq from July 2007 to January 2008. In that time, she had so many close calls with explosions from improvised explosive devices (IED's) and incoming fire from insurgent attacks she lost count.
Since her return, she's been suffering from vomiting and dizziness and headaches and was just recently diagnosed with traumatic brain injury (TBI). But bravely, determinedly, she continues to work full time on the base - and she denies she has post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), though she says her family insists she does.
It's a new and much more dangerous world now for women in the United States Marine Corps. Rodela, who joined in 2003, says she always wanted to be in the military. She and her sister joined at the same time, though her sister is now out, Darhonda remains in. "I always liked the idea of the the discipline, the stature, of being regimented and really believing in something," she says.
She studied to be a public affairs officer to work with the media, and when she completed her training she immediately asked to be deployed. She wanted to be where the action was. The thing is, the difference between this war and previous American wars is that there really is no battlefield, there are no safe havens. Today, women are right there in the thick of things alongside the men and face the same dangers. "There are no front lines," says Rodela calmly. "You can get shot at or blown up any place and at any time."
She definitely remembers her first attack. "Not long after I got to Iraq, I heard really loud noises and asked a colleague, "Are those mortars?" She said "yep." It was a huge attack. It was on Sept. 11, 2007, actually. One person was killed and 11 were wounded that day, and they were right next to me. It was an Iranian missile that got us, as a matter of fact. After that attack, I was like, "OK, I'm really in Iraq. I'm really here. It is what it is. I wasn't horrified, but I learned that day that you can never, ever be complacent. It can come at any time. No place is safe."
While in Iraq, she worked with the media, edited newsletters, wrote stories, took pictures, and went out with her fellow Marines in Humvees as well as flew with generals in Black Hawk helicopters. And all the while she was a potential target for an insurgent attack. "We got a lot of explosions, a lot of incoming," she recalls. "But you never see the face of the enemy. They're like invisible, you know they're out there just firing and hoping to hit us. You're sitting on the back of a Humvee, it's a pretty uncomfortable ride."
She spent most of her Iraq tour at at Camp Victory, which is with coalition forces. "I made friends with people from all over the world," she says. "People from Georgia (the country), Tonga, Uganda, you name it. I even learned how to speak Tongan, but I've forgotten most of that now."
When I asked her if it was difficult to be a woman in the Marine Corps, she said flatly, "No. If you don't have the strength and moral courage, then yes, you could have a hard time and some women do. But I learned fast that in the Marines we take care of our own. It was hard at the beginning, because Marines are a different breed. I felt like a puppy around a bunch of big, giant dogs. But once you get in and work with them and train with them, you're fine. The guys I work with are like brother and father figures to me, more than I've ever found outside the military. Some female Marines don't have that kind of experience, but I have. And now that I'm in charge of some Marines, I look at them like my little brothers, and sisters."
Rodela admits that she is struggling with her TBI and its accompanying symptoms. Her speech is slightly affected, she says, though it's hard to detect when you talk to her. Since her return from Iraq, she has seen all kinds of doctors.
"I was throwing up constantly, and passing out," she says. "I was also having extreme headaches and seeing flashing lights and whenever I closed my eyes to sleep the room would spin, so they sent me to neorology. I just said 'give me some Motrin,' but they did all the tests, the MRIs, and diagnosed me with TBI. I'm on medication now, and getting physical and speech therapy, and I'm seeing a counselor. I still have the headaches, you never know when they're going to come."
She pauses for a moment of silent reflection, then adds, "I mean, I've been through a lot, I've seen a lot. I've been through attacks and explosions and stuff. But hey, infantrymen go through so much more. How can I complain?"
Rodela, who said she listened to NPR in Iraq "all the time," still works every day in Camp Pendleton's media office, fielding calls from reporters like me from all over the world. "My family is so proud of me, they call me Superwoman," she says, laughing. "Like I eat spinach every morning or something. They tell me I'm a hero, they call me that every day. But I'm just doing my job."
When I asked her what her proudest accomplishment has been as a Marine, in typically humble fashion, she said it was seeing one of her female students complete her training and head off to Afghanistan: "I trained her from the start, I've known her since she was a Pfc, and she used to hate me and she really didn't think I liked her. I was hard on her, but she has grown so much. She's a corporal now, she's catching up to me. She will be working in media affairs in Afghanistan, at Camp Leatherneck, doing just what I did in Iraq. Yes, I am worried about her, I know things are getting rough over there. But I just know she'll be fine."
Rodela, who's been in the Corps now for seven and 1/2 years, says she isn't sure what she'll do come re-enlistment time next month. Her stint would end next June if she doesn't re-enlist. If she does get out, she will pursue a career in public relations, hopefully, she says, "as a civilian still doing PR for the military." We shared a big laugh when she added, "But I definitely don't want to be a journalist."
Rodala says she thinks the women Marines of her generation, the ones who've been a part of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, are making history. And of course she's right. "It's really historical what we are doing, we are side-by-side with the guys now and face the same risks," she says. "We're making footsteps for the female Marines who will follow us, just like the women Marines from years past made footsteps for us. I know I'll be sitting in a rocking chair 50 years from now telling my grandkids about these days, and going to reunions and seeing my fellow Marines,many of them will be friends for life. I've made so many friends here, male and female."
And she believes we'll be seeing more and more women joining the Marine Corps. "I'm sure they'll all have i-Pads and who knows what other cool new high-tech stuff in the future," she says. "And I'll be totally jealous."
