Jolene Twohy, 27, is a combat medic in the Army and has served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Twohy enlisted when she was 24 and hopes to go to school to become a nurse when she's discharged.
Jolene Twohy shakes hands with members of the Patriot Guard Riders after they greeted her Oct. 27 at the airport and escorted her home on the first day of her 15-day leave. She returns to Afghanistan Thursday.
U.S. Army Spc. Jolene Twohy's youthful smile and humble demeanor belie the fact that she has treated gruesomely injured bomb victims in the Iraqi desert, and is in the middle of a tour in Afghanistan that sends her out on missions that include days without a shower and nights spent sleeping on rocks.
On leave for a few days' rest with her parents and brother, who moved to Morgan Hill about four years ago, Twohy has been on deployment in Afghanistan since March. She will return to the country Thursday, the day after Veterans Day.
Twohy joined the Army as a medic in May 2006, at the age of 24, to pursue her chosen career in the nursing field - and to gain the "focus and discipline" that college didn't offer her at the time. Since then, she has been stationed out of Fort Richardson, Alaska. In February 2007, her unit was deployed to Camp Kalsu, an American base about 30 miles south of Baghdad, Iraq.
The first part of her tour, Twohy plunged head-first into the real-life high-stress situations she had trained for at Fort Richardson. For about two months, she treated trauma patients in tents before they could be airlifted to the nearest hospital.
At her parents' home in a peaceful east Morgan Hill neighborhood Friday, she described her experience treating life-threatening gunshot wounds and roadside bomb blast victims. Many of the Iraqi police and civilians she treated required amputations.
"We would get hit pretty regularly," said Twohy, who grew up in San Jose where she attended Leigh High School.
After that, Twohy was assigned to an Army field artillery convoy as a medic supporting troops as they carried supplies, escorted engineers or provided security for specific operations - "in case we took injuries," she said.
Prior to her deployment in Iraq, Twohy's medical training in Alaska consisted of only simulated high-stress situations, and diving into the reality of severe trauma treatment prepared her for the rest of her experience - so far.
"You just jump with both feet and you learn quick," Twohy said. "That's what the military does, is teach you to function in any environment."
After returning to Fort Richardson for a few months of more training, and psychiatric and physical evaluations required of all active troops coming home from combat, Twohy was deployed to Afghanistan in March.
Stationed at U.S. Camp Salerno in the southeastern part of the country, Twohy said Afghanistan is "totally different" from Iraq, specifically with the mountainous, rugged terrain and the unique type of work she does.
She serves on a specialized, focused infantry task force in Afghanistan. She declined to discuss many details because she is serving on one of the Army's first such task forces in Afghanistan.
"We do dismounted missions, marching through farms and mountains - camping trips of sorts," Twohy said. "It's been an awesome experience."
Most of her team's transportation is by helicopter due to the remote terrain. Twohy and her task force were involved in the search for a missing American soldier in Afghanistan in July.
Once unusual in American combat operations, the female presence among U.S. troops is growing, especially among medical units. Even though she was the lone woman of about 600 troops on her convoy in Iraq, Twohy said her original company from Fort Richardson, consisting of about 40 service people, was roughly half female.
About 15 percent of the U.S. Army's total force is female today, and about 10 percent of the 62,000 Americans serving in Afghanistan are women, according to the Department of Defense.
Restrictions on what kind of jobs women can participate in combat have gradually loosened over the past three decades, but female medics still cannot serve in units that support troops on the front lines.
That's probably fine with Twohy's mother, Vickie Twohy, who said her daughter's experience has "toughened her up."
Spc. Twohy's enlistment in 2006 was "nerve-racking," said her mother. Vickie Twohy joined the South Bay Blue Star Moms, a support group for the local mothers of American service people deployed to combat.
Vickie Twohy described herself as "very liberal," and is not from a military family, so she did not know what to expect from her daughter's experience. The Blue Star Moms, who organize care packages to send to combat troops overseas and welcome young service members arriving home, has helped calm her down.
"I wasn't sleeping and I didn't know what to do" when Jolene was on her way to Iraq, Vickie Twohy said. "(Blue Star Moms) has been a good support group because of the people who know what you're going through."
Spc. Twohy's parents declined to discuss their opinions on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but they hope for the best for everyone involved.
"We're very proud of her and all the men and women that serve in the armed forces," said her father, Joe Twohy. "This country has a long legacy of very honorable people serving in the military."
Spc. Twohy will spend Veterans Day with her parents, either attending the parade in San Jose or the memorial flag raising in downtown Morgan Hill Wednesday morning.
"Veterans Day is about honoring the sacrifice that (service members) have made, being away from their families, not being able to watch their children grow up and on many levels, the ultimate sacrifice of becoming a (killed in action)," Twohy said.
Michael Moore Michael Moore covers county and law enforcement issues for the Morgan Hill Times. Reach him at (408) 779-4106, ext. 202, or mmoore@morganhilltimes.com.
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