KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – Linda Murphy, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Afghanistan Engineer District-South, says she is proud to have traded in her high-heeled work shoes for a pair of “Beverly Hillbillies” styled steel-toed boots.
Murphy, Water and Infrastructure Project Management Branch chief, was one of four keynote speakers taking part in the Kandahar Airfield International Women’s Day commemoration March 9. The ceremony recognized women service members from coalition forces and USACE employees serving on the airfield.
“Now that I have gotten my daughters off to college as fairly self-sufficient women, I decided to deploy to hopefully provide assistance to the women and men of the coalition forces and particularly to the women and men of Afghanistan,” she explained. “I forfeited my designer suits and three-inch stiletto heels for these lovely sand-colored uniforms and these Beverly Hillbilly type of steel-toed boots.”
Murphy said that about the Southern District has 67 women serving in Afghanistan out of a work force of about 300 employees. Their duties include engineering, contracting, construction oversight, human resource specialists, intelligence, operations, logistics and supply, information technology, legal counsel, internal review, public affairs, resource management, safety and project management.
“We are all here for a common purpose, a common goal which emulates the Corps of Engineers motto – Essayons, which means 'Let Us Try,'” she told the audience of about 100. “We have an incredibly exciting mission here, and we are proud of the work we are doing for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and for the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Every woman contributes to the mission here just like every man.”
The South District team strives to ensure that coalition forces have the Corps of Engineers technical support which enables them to perform their duties and to make Afghanistan safer, healthier and more sustainable place for the Afghan people, she said.
“We are daughters, sisters, aunts, nieces, mothers and even grandmothers – coming together here for one cause – to make a contribution for a better future for not only the women of Afghanistan but for everyone here,” Murphy said. “And like our Corps motto states – We will try. We will try our hardest.”
| Date Taken: | 03.09.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 03.10.2012 04:05 |
| Story ID: | 85042 |
| Location: | KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, AF |
| Hometown: | LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, US |
| Hometown: | NEW ALBANY, INDIANA, US |
| Web Views: | 66 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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