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Area woman home after 16 months in Iraq

Dec-25-2006 » Filed Under: 172nd SBCT

By Pam Wight, SGV Tribune

Today will be a special Christmas for Army Spc. Julia Thompson of Whittier.

She started feeling it even as the jet bringing her home safely from 16 months in Iraq descended through the fog at LAX. As other passengers on the commercial flight stared at her, Thompson began weeping.

"Nobody knew what I was feeling," she said. The 21-year-old Whittier resident returned Dec. 15 after serving as the only woman in a military intelligence combat unit, first in Mozul and then in Baghdad. She served with the 4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team out of Fort Richardson in Fairbanks, Alaska.

"When I came down the \ hall to my family, the world stopped turning. My dad never hugged me so tight, my mom never cried so hard. I'd been waiting for that day for 16 months. I didn't want it to end," she said.Gilda Granadino, Thompson's mother, couldn't be happier.

"There are no words to describe seeing her safe," Granadino said. "It was overwhelming to have my little girl standing there in front of me again where I could touch her and hold her."

Thompson, who began her military career as a cook, was quickly recruited into the intelligence unit because of her "people skills," she said. After six months of training, she was sent to Mozul, where she patrolled the city with the men.

"Normally combat units are off-limits to women," Thompson said. "But because of the culture \, they needed women to search or talk to the Iraqi women. Those women aren't allowed to talk to men."

She said she was often able to gain the confidence of the Iraqi women, who would tell her things they would not tell a male soldier. Although Thompson eventually earned the respect of the "alpha-male" contingent she worked with, she acknowledges having "a lot of doubts" about being the only woman. [...]


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