Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
7:08 | The second tour of Afghanistan was a much better experience for Dorri Vu than the first. The PSYOP specialist had more independence and got to operate with a lot of different units. This time around, though, she was the only woman in the outfit so she was really happy to meet two women in an MP unit she was working with.
Keywords : Dorri Vu Afghanistan Forward Operating Base (FOB) Czech Slovenian adrenaline camaraderie Skinny Mogenson Charles Burkett interpreter Military Police (MP) Improvised Explosive Device (IED) Psychological Operations (PSYOP)
Dorri Vu lost a close friend on that first deployment to Afghanistan. She first met Charles "Kit" Kitowski at her MOS training back in the States. She then shared the long miserable C-130 ride to the war zone with him. He liked to use his best Arnold Schwarzenegger voice as in, "Get to da choppa!"
They were Hmong refugees from Laos who had resettled in the United States. Dorri Vu's parents were teenagers when they arrived, met and got married and started a family in their new country. From a young age, she was fascinated with war history, especially the two World Wars. As she was coming of age, she felt the pull of service.
The physical part of basic training was nothing to Dorri Vu, who had grown up in a farming family. She liked the other side of it, as well, learning to work in teams and trust your comrades. Her first MOS had her running a printing press but then she became a 37F, PSYOP specialist.
On her first deployment to Afghanistan, PSYOP specialist Dorri Vu worked out of Bagram. Her job was designing communications in the form of posters, billboards and radio programming. She interviewed Afghan civilians to get to know what made them tick.
Dorri Vu was a small person and the weight of her kit with the body armor and everything was half her body weight. She recalls how great her PSYOP team was on that first Afghanistan tour. She especially appreciated the skills of one of the other women on the team, a Photoshop expert who brought the concepts to life.
Coming back from that first tour was hard for Dorri Vu. She had lost a close friend and couldn't relate to the young people her age who seemed clueless. A little older and a little wiser, the PSYOP specialist headed back to Afghanistan for a 2nd tour. This time, she was in a small detachment where she was the only woman.
During her second Afghanistan deployment, Dorri Vu met a lot of civilian contractors. She was impressed at the money they were making so, when her time was up, she went to work for a contractor and spent two more years in Afghanistan. Those two were way better than the first two years she was there as a soldier.
Dorri Vu has mixed feelings about Afghanistan, especially after that pull out. The fate of women there disturbs her. They had experienced for the first time some freedom from their oppressive male dominated culture. Now, they were forced back into burqas under the Taliban. What was it all for?
You learn from everyone you meet. That was the way Dorri Vu was while in the Army. She took what lesson she could from everyone, even if she didn't like them. When she finally got to see folks again at a reunion, she was reminded of her life before becoming a mom. (Caution: strong language)
