Unexpected call 

“I did a total turnaround of my decision. I knew I would be needed,” she recalls. She was in New York when the World Trade Centre twin towers came crushing down, shaking the foundations of the nation’s security for years to come. She stayed in New York to help the Red Cross with counseling traumatized people. Feeling strongly that her country needed her, she decided to stay with the military.

Gwen had joined the military as a reservist in 1981, well before the traditional front lines were blurred as they are in many contemporary conflicts. She was working as an intelligence analyst with a master’s degree and a license to practice as a social worker. 

“It was Private Benjamin the movie. I wanted to see if you could do these things physically and mentally. And get training you would not get in civilian life,” Gwen says.

Through the years, Gwen had attended reservist monthly drills, but was never deployed. In 2008, she managed a team of social workers in the Santa Clara County Department of Family and Children Services in California. She had just turned 58 when she got an email, telling her to pack her bags. She would be sent to Balad, Iraq, in thirty days to work as a therapist with a combat stress unit. 

The federal government has called up tens of thousands of reservists and National Guard members because of the two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The “weekend warriors” have no choice but to obey the order and report for duty.

Thirty days was just enough to pack, organize home issues, and take online courses, followed by a strenuous seven-day combat training session. Gwen kissed her husband goodbye and boarded the plane to Iraq.