Posted on 07/07/2005 7:07:40 AM PDT by lowbridge
About the time you're celebrating the Fourth of July, Lena Haddix will be en route to Iraq. She's a 73-year-old great-grandmother who recently finished a six-month deployment to Kuwait and then signed up for a six-month deployment to Baghdad.
Haddix is a store manager for the Army & Air Force Exchange Service and volunteered to work overseas because she wants to support the youngsters in the military.
"I'm doing it for our troops," Haddix said in a telephone interview from her home in Lawton, Okla.
"I was a little late getting started because I raised a family first. But now I can do something for the troops. . . . If you could just see the expression on their faces when I talk to them. Anything you can do for them, they appreciate it more than they do here in the States."
Haddix works for the retail arm of the Defense Department and is part of a network of volunteers who go overseas to bring movies, music, sodas and goodies to the troops. Post exchange personnel operate out of trucks and tents and, when conditions permit, set up PXs in buildings.
On most days, the exchange service has about 450 civilians operating 54 stores, 65 phone centers and more than 100 fast-food eateries throughout Afghanistan, Iraq, Qatar, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kuwait.
About two-thirds of the revenue generated by exchanges goes to fund military morale, welfare and recreation programs.
Haddix has been with the exchange service for 30 years, working in Virginia, Texas, Ohio, California, the Panama Canal Zone and Oklahoma. Her home base is Fort Sill, near Lawton.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
In 1950s Japan, going to the PX was a brief visit home.
I recall reading this story last year! Why has it
been revived now?
My guess is because last year she was serving in Kuwait and now she's just left for a hitch in Iraq...
Salutes and hoorahs to a great American.
bump
"I'm doing it for our troops," Haddix said in a telephone interview from her home in Lawton, Okla.
"I was a little late getting started because I raised a family first. But now I can do something for the troops. . . . If you could just see the expression on their faces when I talk to them. Anything you can do for them, they appreciate it more than they do here in the States."
Thanks for the ping!
Great Living American bump
http://www.garagelogic.com/lexicon.htm
Awesome story! Thanks for posting.
What!?! This is terrible. Females should not be in a war zone! < /sarcasm>
Go, Granny, Go!
Bump
Ha ha - that picture rocks. Granny in her boonie hat.
Please!
You still in the sandbox?
She's definitely making the site as a hero.
I wish they had mentioned which PX, or at least the base. There are quite a few in Baghdad and I can only get to a couple of them.
If I see her, though, I'll definitely chat with her and maybe even give her a hug. ;-)
Give her one for me as well. And tell her she's going to make our site (see tagline) as a hero within the next day or two. :-)
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