Ortonville-Donning about 40 pounds of body armor, a tan sand colored Army uniform and matching helmet, Sheila Collins has experienced the War in Iraq from a rather unique perspective’from behind the wheel of a truck.
Collins, 33, a 1988 graduate of Lamphere High School in Madison Heights, is the daughter of Ortonville residents, JoeAnn and step father Darris Ball. She arrived home on Aug. 7, following a seven month stint in Iraq.
In January, Sgt. Collins as part of the U.S. Army 66th Transportation Co. departed Kuwait near the Persian Gulf and convoyed to Tikrit, Iraq the hometown of Saddam Hussein. The trek across Iraq was one of several Sgt. Collins has made through the war-torn country.
‘We’ve driven everywhere,? said Collins. ‘We’ve been averaging 5,000 per month and seen more of that country than I want too. Some places are good, some places are bad.?
‘He (Saddam) had his picture everywhere’he loved himself,? said Collins. In almost every city or town you’d go through there are big billboard that had him on it or statues of him. His faces are all ripped off.?
Collins? Army experience began in 1998 when she enlisted and reported to Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. for basic training. During the next few years she was stationed in both Fort Carson, Co. and Fort Knox, Ky. She currently resides on a military base in Kaiserslautern, Germany about 80 miles southwest of Frankfurt, with her husband Tom, a Gulf War Veteran and children Randy 14, Leah, 11 and Tyler, 9.
‘Me and my husband have a saying ‘you don’t join the home team to sit on the bench,?? says Collins, who plans on making a career of the Army.
‘As women in the Army I think we have to prove ourself a little more,? said Collins. ‘Especially with our job’there’s no front line in this war, everybody is on the front line’we get out there and do what we gotta do. Females that I’ve known can do their jobs just as well as their male counterparts. I’ve not run into any chauvinistic views, after serving with them they have changed their minds very fast.?
During her cross country missions Collins says that the Iraqi children often ask for ink pens and are glad to see the Americans.
On Aug. 15, about 80 friends and family gathered at the Clarkston American Legion Post #63 to welcome the Collins home.
Collins says she will return to Iraq later in August and her family will head back to Germany.
‘I hope to be back with my family in Germany in January. ‘Hopefully we’ll get out of there and then I’ll have two more years.?