Posted on 04/05/2003 8:14:58 AM PST by Incorrigible
Saturday, April 05, 2003
Capt. Naomi Horowitz Griffin
Age: 28
Hometown: Madison and Chatham Township
Branch: Army, 4th Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division
Location: Somewhere near Baghdad, Iraq
At age 2, Naomi Horowitz Griffin would toddle around her father's Madison pediatric office and instruct his patients with authority. At age 5, she was quieting the cries of Alex Horowitz's littlest clients with a mother's ease and expertise.
She was different than other kids, said her mother, Madeline Horowitz of Livingston. "She just seemed like an adult. She was never like a little child. She was ambitious and she knew what she wanted."
When Griffin graduated from Chatham High School, she wanted to go to a college that offered a Reserve Officers' Training Corps program. After graduating from the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania, her superiors were looking for more women experts in case of a nuclear, biological or chemical attack, her mother said.
While stationed as a chemical officer in Hanau, Germany, she met her future husband, Capt. Darin Griffin of Ohio, who is a helicopter pilot also deployed in Iraq. They were married in a West Point ceremony in March of 2001.
In Germany, she and a colleague were attached to a cavalry unit and had the chance to "earn their spurs," a longtime military tradition where candidates volunteer to undergo a 48-hour test of fitness. It includes a 15-mile march carrying a 50-pound rock, an M-16 automatic rifle and field gear, her colleague, Capt. Ginger Shaw explained.
It was a physical effort for anyone, Shaw said, but it was a special feat for Griffin, who measured just 4 feet 10 inches tall and weighed less than a hundred pounds.
"She's small, but she's very capable," her father said.
In Iraq, Griffin is the primary adviser to the brigade commander on any issues nuclear, biological and chemical. Should such an attack occur, she would be the coordinator of decontamination in her brigade.
"She worries about us, not herself," her mother said. "She's doing the job she's there to do. She feels the world is much larger than we are, and she wants it to be here for her kids."
"Over There" features New Jersey residents who are serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom. To subumit a candidate, please call (973)-392-4169 or e-mail metro@starledger.com.
At 4'10" and less than 100 lbs, she must be quite a dynamo.
Contrary to some of the calls I've heard into WABC radio, here's the daughter of a Jewish doctor that probably had to overcome the resistance of her parents to do what she has volunteered to do. I'm glad she's on our side.
I have no idea if her parents would have opposed her joining the military, or not.
Mrs VS
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