Stryker Brigade News

“She’s never been outside the wire,” a Soldier said under his breath with a snicker.

That assessment is false.

Brown is an Army registered nurse assigned to Company C, 225th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team “Warrior,” 25th Infantry Division, MND-B. She supports the units of 2nd SBCT with immunizations, traveling to wherever the Soldiers are – even outside the wire.

“I’m the immunization Nazi,” Brown said. Her laugh, so infectious and frequent it can almost make a person forget that her job is to inflict pain.

“I will find anyone who is delinquent,” she said.

But today, she is not wielding syringes or tracking down Soldiers, she is joining her fellow doctors, physician’s assistants and medics from the 225th BSB and 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd SBCT, to give medical aid to the people of Batta Village.

“I’m so excited,” she said. This mission is Brown’s first CME, and she said it is a great way to help the Iraqi people and build positive relationships with them.

“This is a great thing, and I hope we can help as many people as possible,” she said.

Admittedly, Brown said she didn’t always want to be a nurse, but she knew it was a great way to help people – and that is always something she wanted to do.

Brown joined the Army 10 years ago as a transportation officer, and it was because of she what attributed to “great leadership” she was able to transfer into the medical corps.

Shortly after making the decision to transfer, Brown graduated nursing school from the University of New Hampshire.

The thought of all she’s accomplished “floors her.”

“Being a nurse is great,” she said. “There are not many people who are nurses and even less can say they serve in the Army.”

Her accomplishments, to date, are perhaps somewhat unfathomable to her at times.

“I mean, here I am, this petite woman,” she said. “I know I can’t be infantry, and I know I will never be able to lift what those guys lift or do what those guys do, but this is just as amazing. I am here, and I can do a lot as a nurse.”

The line at the CME seems endless. Patient after patient shove into the over-crowded room.

“This is exhausting,” Brown said. “I didn’t imagine …”

Her sentence, cut short by a patient looking for her help. Immediately Brown’s mood changes from the bubbly personality introduced earlier in the day to a more somber and empathetic one.

Like so many places in Iraq, there are not many opportunities to see a medical professional in a small village such as this one.

Watching Brown talk and work with patients is almost surreal. Her caring and ability to calm are fascinating. She easily breaks the barriers of culture and language with her actions and tone of voice.

Only when she is satisfied with the level of care she has given to her current patient does she move on to the next.

“She’s a great nurse,” said Capt. Drew Webb, a native of Monterey, Calif., and physician’s assistant with Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd SBCT, 25th Inf. Div. “She’s very caring, and we are happy to have her here.”

And Brown said she is happy to be in Iraq. She volunteered, against the wishes of her husband, Capt. Steve Brown, to deploy by his side.

“Quite frankly, he was mad,” she said of her husband who is the commander of Company A, 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 2nd SBCT, 25th Inf. Div., based at Camp Liberty. “He couldn’t think of his wife in a combat zone.”

Brown said the deployment has made her stronger, and she and her husband talk whenever they can.

But for now, Brown is focused on the task at hand, working side-by-side with the Iraqi Army medics and the town doctor to help the people of Batta Village.

“I know I can’t help everyone,” she said, “but just helping these people is a start in the right direction.”