By Spc. Lee Elder
133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment |
MUQDADIYAH, Iraq, June 6, 2006 — She’s a small lady with big dreams.
U.S. Army Spc. Norchell Samuel, a cook with D Company, 426 Forward Support Company, 3rd Battalion 327th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, Task Force Band of Brothers, is one of the busiest people at Forward Operating Base Normandy in northern Iraq. While the cooking is left mostly to contract employees, she ensures that sufficient supplies are ordered, plans menus and supports units that use Normandy as their base of operations.
“I like to be on top of things,” Samuel said. “I like to be one step ahead.
“If someone asks me to do something, it’s already done.”
A native of Clovis, Calif., Samuel joined the Army in March 2004 after attending college at Fresno State University. After completing her military training, she was assigned to Fort Campbell, Ky., before her unit came here in the fall of last year.
“I was running track, cheerleading, living on my own and working two jobs,” Samuel said of her time before joining the Army. “I got kind of burned out.
“I wanted something new. I wanted something that I could be active in and make a career out of.”
Samuel, 21, found that challenge as a cook. She said she likes her job and enjoys helping her fellow soldiers.
“I do my job 10 times better because I don’t want to give anybody room to talk about what we do,” Samuel said. “If hot chow was not here, and we were eating MREs (meals ready to eat), the morale would really be low.
“It’s one of the morale boosters here.”
Samuel’s supervisor, Sgt. Angelo Avgerinos, serves as the noncommissioned officer in charge of the dining facility at Normandy. He said his unit’s food service soldiers are spread pretty thin, causing them to take on more responsibilities than usual.
“There are a lot of duties in the dining facility that would normally be done by a sergeant first class or a warrant officer,” Avgerinos said. “A lot of the soldiers have stepped up and taken those roles.”
Avgerinos praised Samuel’s work ethic. He said she shows poise far beyond her age and rank.
“There’s nothing here she doesn’t know,” Avgerinos said. “She knows her job and she knows all about dining facility operations.”
Samuel had worked in the fast food industry before joining the Army. It was there she learned the importance of customer service, which she has carried over to her military career. |
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“If somebody needs to be squared away, I love helping them,” Samuel said. “I don’t like when people say, ‘No, I can’t do it.’
“I will make a way to do it, I will find a way to please them and get them whatever they need.”
Samuel said her job satisfaction comes from helping soldiers, most of whom are members of 1st Squadron, 32nd Cavalry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. It’s what makes the hard work worthwhile for her.
“When they come back from a mission, they say, ‘Thank you so much,’” Samuel said. “That makes me happy.
“I love giving. I don’t care about receiving. As long as everybody is happy and they’re taken care of then I am fine.”
Besides a demanding mission, Samuel keeps busy in her off-duty time. She is pursuing a bachelor’s degree with hopes of one day becoming an X-ray technician.
“I’m really trying to re-enlist to get an X-ray technician job,” Samuel said. “That’s what I really want to do – it’s my long-term goal.”
A former high school track competitor, Samuel said she first became interested in the medical field after sustaining an injury while playing soccer in eighth grade. She described talking to the X-ray technician as “a life-changing experience.”
“What she was doing interested me a lot and I wanted to do it,” Samuel said. “I was asking a lot of questions about it.
“When I want something, I go after it. I have to have it.”
Samuel still works out a lot as well. She doesn’t rule out running again one day.
“I’m very competitive,” Samuel said. “It’s an adrenalin rush. It makes you strive to want to be the best.
“I always have something to look forward to and I set a goal to make a new time every time.”
Samuel credits her work ethic to her parents. She said she was raised in “a very strict and religious household,” but is now thankful for the lessons she learned growing up.
“I have a Plan A, B and C,” Samuel said. “I’m just afraid of failing. That is my biggest fear.
“I won’t let myself fail. I’m very hard on myself. My parents raised me that way I guess.”
Being one of only a handful of women serving on base has proven to be no problem for Samuel. She said she enjoys a strong sense of camaraderie with her male counterparts.
“We have no drama,” Samuel said. “I like working with mostly males because they don’t mess with you and you don’t mess with them.
“We all have become a family, and I’m like one of the guys.” |
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