Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
6:40 | Army medic Stacy Donnelly recalls the interpreters she worked with in Iraq, as well as two people in her unit who were memorable to her. She remembers the humorous things, like the truck stuck in a ditch, and the not so humorous things, like the time she was near an IED blast.
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After two years of college, Stacy Donnelly was wondering how she was going to pay for the rest of it. Why not join the Army, like her cousin did? The attacks of 9/11 were an added incentive, a way to do her part.
Her folks were a little apprehensive but they gave Stacy Donnelly their approval as she went off to basic training. It was there that she learned the meaning of trustworthy.
Stacy Donnelly had a MOS of 68W, which is combat medic, so her Advanced Infantry Training was mostly medical instruction. It was at Fort Sam Houston in her home state of Texas, which was good. While there, she met her future husband, which was real good.
When her training was done, combat medic Stacy Donnelly got to her unit at Fort Carson and prepped for an Iraq deployment. Once there, she was just settling in when a mortar barrage gave her an eye-opening welcome.
FOB Warhorse wasn't bad. It was like a little town with a coffee shop and gyms. But it was in a war zone and for medic Stacy Donnelly, the toughest part was treating civilian Iraqi children that had been swept up in the violence.
She had no bad experiences related to being a woman at war in Iraq. Stacy Donnelly was lucky in that respect. She wrote home a lot but she had trouble communicating with her husband, who was also a combat medic serving there in a different unit.
Coming home was weird. It took Stacy Donnelly a few months to adjust to the fact that trash on the side of the road was not hiding an IED. She and her husband were both combat medics there and it took him a little longer to readjust.
Stacy Donnelly had left the Army and was home with her first child. Her husband, also a combat medic, was the lifer and he was still over in Iraq. They had scheduled a call and, when he didn't make it, she feared the worst.
"It's not for the weak-minded." Stacy Donnelly recalls what it was like going to war and the physical and mental toughness it requires. She got there just before Christmas and the Temptations Christmas album helped her make it through.
Stacy Donnelly met her future husband Justin when they were both in training as Army combat medics. Serving in Iraq with different units meant that their communications were limited. Then he deployed again and she waited at home with a newborn.
