Pfc. Sam Huff decided at age 16 she would enlist in the Army. On Monday she was killed when a roadside bomb detonated next to her Humvee in Baghdad.
Posted on 04/23/2005 5:17:22 AM PDT by Former Military Chick
Pfc. Sam Huff decided at age 16 she would enlist in the Army. On Monday she was killed when a roadside bomb detonated next to her Humvee in Baghdad.
Eighteen-year-old Pfc. Sam Huff was born with a man's name.
But she was a consummate "girlie-girl," said her father, Robert Huff.
She liked to wear false eyelashes and played flute in her high-school band. Last July, she joined the Army, the first step in a career she hoped would take her to the FBI.
On April 18, Huff, an only child, became the 37th U.S. female to die in combat since 2003.
Yesterday, her parents and comrades gathered in a Fort Lewis chapel to recall Huff's independent spirit and her unfulfilled ambitions.
But what they remembered most was that she loved soldiering, and she was good at it. The memorial became, in part, a testimonial to the growing role women are playing in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Born in Tucson, Ariz., on July 12, 1986, Huff was 16 when she announced her intention to enlist in the Army, go to college to study psychology and become an FBI agent.
Pfc. Sam Huff's father, Robert Huff, second from left, her mother, Margaret Williams, and her fiancé, Nicholas Neally, before yesterday's memorial service in a Fort Lewis chapel.
by THOMAS JAMES HURST / THE SEATTLE TIMES
"We just stood there, dumbfounded," said Robert Huff, a retired Tucson police detective. His wife, Margaret Williams, served as an air traffic controller in the Marines.
But there wasn't any family talk of women not belonging in the military, he said: "Not in our house, are you kidding?"
Huff was assigned to the Fort Lewis-based 170th Military Police Company, which helps train Iraqi police.
"Beneath that beautiful young lady was a backbone of steel," Sgt. Sam Jones wrote in a letter read aloud during her funeral.
Huff was killed when a roadside bomb detonated next to her armored Humvee in Baghdad.
Role clarified
In 1994, after the Gulf War, the Pentagon adopted a policy to clarify women's role in the military. While women could serve on just about any ship or aircraft, they were excluded from Army units whose primary mission is to engage the enemy in direct combat.
Elaine Donnelly, who studied the issue when serving on the Presidential Commission on Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces in the early 1990s, said there were compelling reasons to restrict the deployment of female soldiers.
Women generally are unable to carry heavy loads, and their presence can spark interpersonal tensions within the ranks, she said. Also, she added, pregnancy can present unforeseen challenges, and females run a greater risk of sexual torture if captured.
Donnelly said the 1994 policy was intended to exclude women from pitched battles between opposing forces. However, military-police units such as the one Huff was assigned to are increasingly taking on missions that put them in harm's way, she said.
"The nation has gotten used to the idea of women dying in combat," Donnelly said. "I don't think that's a good thing. It's a setback for women."
But Huff's superiors said females have shown their value in Iraq.
About 350,000 women are serving in the U.S. military, about 15 percent of active-duty personnel. One out of seven soldiers in Iraq is female. More than 260 have been wounded.
"There's no frontline (in Iraq). Whether we want to say women are going to be in certain military engagements or not, they are needed," Lt. Col. Thomas Tatum said. "Culturally, for many people, it's something they got to get used to. And I see no evidence they are not pulling their weight."
Or, as Spc. Justin Saunders, a friend of Huff's, put it: "Women have a place in the Army. Male or female, it would have happened the same way. They bleed as we do."
When he heard of his daughter's death, Robert Huff thought for a moment that he should have done more to dissuade her from military service.
But then he realized she died doing something she loved, on her own terms.
"You start to feel sorry for yourself," but you think about other parents grieving the death of their children, he said.
"There's nothing but tragedy in losing a soldier."
Outside a Fort Lewis chapel yesterday, Robert Huff, father of Pfc. Sam Huff, hugs Sgt. Courtney Leonard after the memorial service. Spc. Justin Saunders, right, also was a friend of Sam Huff's, and he and Leonard served with Huff in Iraq. Huff will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington, D.C.
by THOMAS JAMES HURST / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Seattle Times researcher David Turim contributed to this report.
Alex Fryer: 206-464-8124 or afryer@seattletimes.com
I salute you and thank you and all those who gave the ultimate price to keep our country safe.
Another soldier reminding us of the cost of freedom. I wonder if any of the lib rags will ever report on the, thankfully occasional now, sacrifices of our brave military personel, male & female, in over 130 countries around the world, not just Iraq!
She was first and foremost a Soldier. She served her country honorably, and did things most of us don't want to do. Seh deserves only respect, and her parent deserve only admiration. Thag's monitor is all blurry now.
One who gave the ultimate price PING
I too salute you, Pfc. Sam Huff, and thank you and all those who gave the ultimate price to keep our country safe.
Well, that's the reporter's fault, not PFC Huff's. God bless her family and all those who continue to serve after us.
The others who want to gripe about women in the military can go to France.
RIP Private First Class Sam Huff.
The lib rags and lib politicians will not until they no longer enjoy the freedoms that our troops are fighting for, then it will be too late.
"Robert Huff thought for a moment that he should have done more to dissuade her from military service. But then he realized she died doing something she loved, on her own terms."
A Salute to Pfv Sam Huff. We are all proud of you and what you have done for us. A debt that can never be repaid but will never be forgotten. RIP Pfc. Huff.
Seapartion is frequently painful, but the good news is she's now been promoted to be face to face with the Lord in his promoted ranks. We still have time in grade to serve.
It actually isn't as bad as some other articles I have read in the past few years when a female dies while in Iraq.
I just pointed it out so as not to have folks dwell on it .. that like you said her parents were proud and our country will forever be in her debt.
Thank you for the comment.
A fallen hero.
God bless her, her family and her comrades in arms.
As the big huskey sons of Mitt Romney and Phil Grahm watch it all on television. Eliminate the quota's and double standards that make these enlistments possible. Resume the draft.
No the draft would ruin the all volunteer Army. The Army today is much more efficient and motivated than the draftee Army from Vietnam on back to the Civil War. Not that they fight any better, but.....
God speed, Soldier...
Thank you , Sam...
The quote above is little more than drivel... I do not wish my daughters to be in combat, but women carry loads we can't, and put up with pain that would shrivel us men!.
Women can carry heavy loads, as well (water= 8.33 #/g)!
Bump.
Thanks to you all. God bless you, Sam. Your job is done. You are an inspiration to each of us.
I know I am probably going to sound like a broken record..but here I go..(again)
It takes guts to put on a uniform,
It takes guts to serve,
To those of you who have, and who are..
THANK YOU.
For such a young age, I applaud her.
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