Photo By Spc. Jessica Haney | Pvt. 1st Class Alexander Sanders of Headquarters and Headquarters Support Company,...... read more read more
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Story by: Spc. Jessica Zullig
CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE SPEICHER, Iraq — Dedication, enthusiasm and loyalty are words that describe someone like Capt. Leighanne Brown of Headquarters and Headquarters Support Company, Division Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division out of Fort Stewart, Ga.
Brown, a physician's assistant at the Troop Medical Clinic, has only five months in the Army and less than a week on the ground at Contingency Operating Base Speicher, Iraq. With years of medical training and experience, she is equipped to take care of Soldiers' medical needs.
"I don't feel that I serve our country," said Brown, who was a PA for six years at Billings Clinic, Billings Mont., prior to joining the Army. "I feel that I serve the Soldiers who serve our country."
Co-worker Capt. Dale S. Sharp of HHSC, DSTB, 3rd ID out of Fort Stewart, Ga., says that her service to Soldiers has been outstanding.
"From the time she walked in the door, Brown has deeply impacted the TMC," he said. "She is so knowledgeable; she is a walking medical encyclopedia, and she is great with the patients."
With the coffee pot on, two stocked storage cabinets of medication and a refrigerator full of vaccines, she walks across her office to check her email, appointments and patient statuses.
"Medicine is a catch-22," she said. "The better I do my job and the more I educate Soldiers on how to sustain their health, the less work I have to do. When illnesses do come up though, my mission is to get Soldiers back into a fighting position."
Sharp said that she sees deeper into the effects of an illness.
"She has the background of hospital medicine and recognizes the long-term effects of an illness," he said. "All of the patients are impressed by her knowledge."
Not only is she dedicated to serving Soldiers, but Brown feels she is a role model to young girls in society.
"I love the fact that women in the military can show young girls that there is no end point to what a woman can do," said Brown. "There are woman generals, doctors and leaders in politics all over the world."
"We show younger generations of women that they can break through the glass roof of, 'girls don't do science, girls don't do math,' or even, 'girls can't do combat,'" said Brown. "Well, there are a lot of women in the military police, quick reaction force and at entry control points. Sure, we can't be infantry, but we carry a rifle just as well as a man. We might not be as physically strong as men, but we have more internal strength."
Brown explains that a woman's internal strength, especially with women in the military, comes from the ability to balance multiple things at once.
"Women in the military are never just doing one job," she said. "We have our military occupational specialty, then there's the second job of being a Soldier. Often, most of us also have the job of being a wife and mother; we multitask to the nth degree to do what most people can't imagine can be done".
Brown says that her mother and grandmother are the role models that helped shape who she is. They taught her to always strive to do her best at everything.
While Brown was in junior high, her mother balanced work, kids and college, graduating in the top five percent of the class.
The example didn't end with her mother; Brown's grandmother pushed her to get her master's in medicine.
"I have six years between my bachelor's and my master's," she said. "It was my grandmother who told me that I needed to do more with my life. She wanted to make sure I wasn't settling for just any job."
While still working as a PA at Billings Clinic, a plane ride conversation inspired her to do more with her life.
"I'm sitting next to a sergeant on the plane and, she and I talked for probably two hours," said Brown, who had worked as contractor for the Army at Fort Greely, Alaska. "She had been deployed a couple times and she was talking to me about some of the medical care she had had.
"She reminded me that these Soldiers, no matter where they are, really need good, quality medical care and she reminded me how much I enjoyed working with Soldiers when I was a contractor."
Brown began researching, talking to recruiters and friends in the Army. She was determined it was for her and started her paper work in February. By April, it was complete and she submitted her packet to the officer board in May. In July, she received her commission and barely made the cutoff deadline for the October Officer Basic Course.
Halfway through her class, Brown received an e-mail that her unit was deployed. After graduation, Brown attended six weeks of Individual Readiness Training at Fort Stewart, Ga.
"I knew I was going to be deployed," she said. "You don't go into the Army as a PA and not get deployed. I just didn't think it was going to happen so fast."
While discussing the deployment with her mother, Brown said, "It can't be that bad; they have a Baskin Robbins over there."
"Saying that put her at ease about me leaving," she said.
Brown has been on the ground a few days, but she's already made a difference serving Soldiers and identified some goals.
Her next goals are to continue to learn and be the best that she can at her job. She hopes to be accepted in a post-graduate surgical residency program and maybe one day to become a wife and mother.
| Date Taken: | 03.07.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 03.07.2010 05:01 |
| Story ID: | 46273 |
| Location: | CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE SPEICHER, IQ |
| Web Views: | 737 |
| Downloads: | 485 |
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