Merideth Howard, Oldest US female soldier killed in combat (52)
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As a gunner, 52-year-old Texan Merideth Howard was a rare, but welcome,
sight in overtaxed Army
Fallen soldier defied convention
By KIM BARKER and JAMES JANEGA
Chicago Tribune
MEHTARLAM, AFGHANISTAN - The older soldiers called themselves the
Gray Brigade, but Sgt. 1st Class Merideth Howard never talked about her
age. Soon, no one asked.
In training, the Corpus Christi native ran as hard as men much younger.
She became a gunner on a Humvee at a military base here, building a
wooden box to stand on so she could see over the turret. She was only 5
feet 4 inches tall.
Her last night here, Howard and Staff Sgt. Robert Paul sat on the back
stoop of their barracks with the base cook, as usual.
"We started talking about the time she got shot at," said the cook, Air
Force Tech. Sgt. Marlin McDaniel, 42. "I said I'd probably duck. I
wouldn't know what to do. But they both basically said at the same
time, 'When it's your time to go, it's your time to go.' "
The next day, Howard and Paul made a supply run to a U.S. military base
near the Afghan capital. They never made it back, dying in a fiery
suicide bombing in Kabul on Sept. 8.
At 52, Howard, who had gray hair and an infectious smile, became the
oldest known American woman to die in combat. A 52-year-old nurse died
in Vietnam, but from a stroke.
The fact that she was even here, serving as a gunner on a Humvee, shows
the drain that two wars have put on an all-volunteer military. She was
the new face of the military's civil affairs units, which do
reconstruction and relief work. Constant deployments have tapped out
the regular Army reservists who most often filled those jobs in Iraq
and Afghanistan.
Unusual assignment
Howard had never been deployed before, not since joining the Reserve on
a whim in 1988. After her medical unit was disbanded in 1996, she was
assigned to the Individual Ready Reserve, for soldiers without a unit.
She still went to monthly drills but mainly handled paperwork.
But as a stopgap - and in a first for the U.S. military -
provincial reconstruction teams in Afghanistan were being filled by a
mix of Navy, Air Force, Army, National Guard and Reserve soldiers.
And many in the Reserve were like Howard, in the Individual Ready
Reserve, home also to retired officers and soldiers who had recently
left the Army.
A few regular reservists, such as Paul, volunteered for civil affairs
work. The rest, such as Howard, were called up in December.
Howard was a no-frills woman, more comfortable pounding a hammer than
wearing a dress, those who served with her said.
In Afghanistan, she often visited the base area known as Home Depot,
and built herself an armoire and a side table.
She was accustomed to challenges. Howard wanted to be a firefighter,
but her hometown of Corpus Christi didn't hire women.
So in 1978, she joined the Fire Department in Bryan, as its first
female firefighter.
In 1991, she started dating Hugh Hvolboll, who made fireworks for a
living. In 2004, the couple moved to Waukesha, Wis., for his job. They
never felt the need to get married, not until she got called up in
December 2005.
"As a boyfriend, I would have no status with the Army," Hvolboll said.
"As a husband, I did."
Enjoyed the 'adventure'
In late April, the nine members of Howard's civil affairs team arrived
at the Mehtarlam base in eastern Laghman province. They formed the core
of the provincial reconstruction team.
In May, Howard was filmed for a U.S. military video highlighting
reconstruction work. She is serious, with no evidence of her normal
laugh. She stands in a village near the Mehtarlam base, the wind
blowing through her hair.
"We have a good relationship with the people here in the village," she
says. "And of course, as (with) everybody in Afghanistan, they are in
need."
Howard told her husband that she enjoyed what she was doing. In August,
she told a colleague she was thinking of extending her tour.
"Merideth liked to live life as an adventure," her husband said.
On missions in Afghanistan, Paul was the driver and Howard was the
gunner. For Afghans in this conservative tribal area, where most women
wear burqas that cover everything, it must have been a bizarre sight: a
gray-haired woman in a helmet on top of a Humvee.
"That's why Sgt. Howard loved the turret," said Air Force Senior Airman
Brenda Patterson, 26. "She wanted to give little girls dreams of their
own."