Lt. Col. Deanna Brown - Never Be Weak, Never Back Down

     "It's Unca' Pat!" I often heard these sweet words from my beautiful little niece as she and her slightly older brother Stan ran to meet me as I arrived at my sister Barbara Lou’s house in the early 1960’s.

     Forty plus years later, I needed to call a relative in the military, who had a command at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky. This particular relative was in charge of many of the army’s veterinarians.  The only phone number I had was the business line. I had never used this number before. A rough, gruff (and frankly, somewhat scary) voice greeted me with, “This is Col. Brown. What can I do for you?” Shaken, my first instinct was to jump to my feet, come to attention, and salute. Though, never being military, I really didn’t know how. I finally stammered out, “This is Pat.” The roughness suddenly disappeared, and as she laughed, embarrassed that I had heard her business voice, she was that sweet little girl once more. “Family always calls on my other line."

     I had planned to include Deanna’s story as a chapter in Spreading Wing, my book. She agreed. I reminded her regularly to put some stuff down on paper and send it to me. “I want to do this. Don’t worry, I’ll try to start on it next week.” Next week just never rolled around. I finally realized, Deanna was one of those modest people who just can’t boast about their accomplishments. “I just happened to be in the right place at the right time for all these things to happen to me.” Yeah, right.

     But finally, a couple of hours on the phone with her today, with me asking questions and pushing her on, did the trick.

     As Deanna grew up, she admired many of the men in the family who had served in the military.  But what she really dreamed of was to be a veterinarian. In high school she learned of a program in the Army that would help pay for vet school, so she decided that was for her. But soon before graduating, she found that program was cancelled.  She then heard of the National Guard and decided that might be the best of both worlds.  Right after high school, she entered basic training and signed up for ROTC when she entered Mississippi State.  She knew MSU had a good vet school, and the National Guard gave some tuition help in reaching her goal. During the eight years of college, the cold war was raging. She served as a military intelligence officer in the guard, and loved her “part time” job.

     Active duty in the Army was not her plan. After graduating vet school, she found a position as a vet in Wisconsin, primarily in dairy practice, but remained in the National Guard.  She was pulling three or four newborn calves a day, sometime working eighty hours a week. It’s cold in Wisconsin in the winter. Pulling a calf can be somewhat of a complicated maneuver. It involves chains attached to a “calf jack,” attached to a come along to ratchet up the pressure. She had to keep the calf turned just right, as skinny as possible.

    The first Gulf War came along, and her National Guard unit was notified to deploy.  She was initially upset, but shortly after that notice, on a cold January night, she was called out to pull a calf on a beef heifer. The temperature was minus 43 degrees, and that lean to barn was not very warm. She just knew she would freeze to death.  She ended up having to perform a C-section, but she saved the calf and the cow.  She had just spent the good bit of her night, she was freezing, and the farmer was angry about the bill. She thought, “What the heck am I doing here?’ She decided being an Army vet and deploying might be better.

      She went active duty Army, but instead of going to the Gulf War, she was initially sent to the Gulf Coast, in Biloxi, Mississippi. As an Army vet she primarily worked with the army’s dogs, mules, horses. The military also uses dolphins and sea lions, though she would give me no details about that. I was surprised about the horses and the mules in this day and age, but she assured me mules, especially, played a very important role, later, in such places as the mountains of Afghanistan as a pack animal.  Camels are also used at times. Dogs, of course, are valuable as attack animals and detecting drugs and explosives.

     In 1994, Deanna was assigned to Ft. Bragg, NC to the civil affairs.  This unit is somewhat of a go between with the civil population.  Her battalion consisted of four companies and she was the vet assigned to one of them.  But the unit was short of officers, so she was also assigned to lead a civil affairs team.  To be in civil affairs, Deanna had to learn to jump out of planes and was trained to be a civil affairs officer.  She really enjoyed this.

CONTINUED  This story will have four parts, about four days apart. Thanks for reading!    Next post - Deanna's small team of 8 faces 200 bad guys, guns ready, in Haiti. Deanna, with an interpreter, disperses 300 Haitians who are attempting to tear down her team's brick wall. Her team lives for a month, outside, with no food provided, no bathroom, not even a tent, guarding an airport. Deanna successfully completes a 12 mile forced march with a 50+ pound pack. In all of this, she's the only woman. Much more. And, this entire, four part story is totally true. Don't miss it!

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