Voices of Valor
Semper Paratus: USCG Woman is Always Ready—Even in a War Zone

You’re issued desert camouflage uniforms; and for five months you carry everything you own on your back. In the deserts of Iraq and Kuwait, it seems like everything is the color of sand—and everything is covered with sand. Never spending more than a few nights in any one place, you sleep in trailers, huge 20-man tents or even abandoned buildings. Mortar rounds and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) are only two of the dangers you face on any given day.

You may not think this is a place you’d ever find members of the US Coast Guard serving; but you’d be wrong.

	MST2 Sarah Vega, member of Coast Guard Redeployment Assistance Inspection Detachment Team IV, Operation Iraqi Freedom, 2006. Photo courtesy of MST1 Sarah Vega.

USCG in a War Zone
After spending a year of duty, or sometimes more, serving in the Global War on Terror, US soldiers were about to ship out to return home; but before they could leave the hot and dusty streets of Iraq behind, everything had to be inspected. Everything that the Army brought into Iraq—from tents to vehicles, and even personnel—had to be inspected to ensure that cargo containers were safely packed and loaded for the trip home. And a small but highly trained team of Coast Guard personnel, including then MST2 Sarah Vega, was on hand to make sure it happened.

The then-25-year-old Vega, a marine science technician (MST), and other members of the Coast Guard’s Redeployment Assistance Inspection Detachment (RAID) Team IV spent five months assisting the Army with its hazardous materials (HAZMAT) inspections, preparations and training—all the while facing the constant threat of hostile fire at some of the most forward operating bases in Iraq and Kuwait. Her exemplary performance of duties and exceptional leadership during her voluntary deployment in this joint operation earned her the Coast Guard Commendation Medal with the Operational Distinguishing Device.

From Alaska to Iraq
Although Petty Officer Vega proudly wears the decoration she was awarded for her service in Iraq, the eight-year Coast Guard veteran says it was her desire to serve that took her half way around the world from her Alaska duty station, Coast Guard Marine Safety Detachment Kodiak. “The Army was having some issues with HAZMAT segregation and it was prolonging getting troops redeployed home after their tours in Iraq,” she says. “I liked the mission—HAZMAT is one of the things I am trained to do. This was my chance to do something that meant something.”

	Following their arrival at Balad Airbase, Iraq, in October 2005, Coast Guard RAID Team IV members, (from left) MST2 Joe Price Larsen, PS1 Pete Ranieri, MST2 Sarah Vega and Master Chief Petty Officer William Dikun, were transported to temporary housing for their first night in Iraq. Photo courtesy of MST1 Sarah Vega.

MST2 Vega got her chance to “do something that meant something” in 2005. After intensive pre-deployment training, she traded in her Coast Guard blue uniform for a set of desert camouflage and headed to Southwest Asia with nine other Coast Guard members from across the United States. Arriving at Balad Airbase, Iraq, and following a brief stay in the US military’s “tent city” in Kuwait, Vega and her team hit the ground running. RAID IV members were broken off into smaller teams of two to be imbedded with the Army’s Redeployment Support Team (RST).

“After we split off by twos to go with the Army, we spent the entire time FOB [forward operating base] hopping,” says MST2 Vega, one of only two women on RAID Team IV and the only woman from the team to be assigned an RST. “We hopped from base to base, continuing until the entire 3rd Infantry Division was out of Iraq.”

The Mission: HAZMAT Inspections and Training
Staying no more than 10 days at any FOB, the RST conducted HAZMAT field inspections of containers and vehicles, which the Army calls “rolling stock,” and made on-the-spot corrections of hazardous conditions, all in an effort to get troops and their equipment out of Iraq—and often ahead of schedule. Her brief stays at each FOB also included critical field training for Army transportation officers, so that the Army could learn proper labeling, segregation, loading and bracing procedures to ensure that transportation of HAZMAT complied with US, international and Army transportation laws and regulations.

At the end of five months, MST2 Vega and her team completed the inspection of 2,000 freight containers and 8,100 pieces of rolling stock; and they conducted training for more than 60 major Army units, all of which greatly reduced the delay of containerized military cargo and significantly enhanced the movement of these vital military assets—and troops—on their way home.

	MST2 Vega (back row, third from left) and RST members at the famous Crossed Sabers in the park, Baghdad, Iraq, 2006. Photo courtesy of MST1 Sarah Vega.
	MST2 Vega at "the Sabers," Baghdad, Iraq, 2006. Photo courtesy of MST1 Sarah Vega.

Despite the “in and out” nature of her mission in Iraq, MST2 Vega’s deployment was by no means easy—or safe. She spent many a night sleeping on little more than a cot or a makeshift bed in the Army’s temporary housing that included abandoned warehouses, trailers, and even some residences and palaces that once belonged to Saddam Hussein. The now-27-year-old Vega says she learned to travel light because she had to carry all of her belongings from base to base. “When you carry everything you own on your back, you learn not to bring much with you,” she says.

Dangerous Duty
The very nature of FOB hopping made her assignment particularly dangerous. Because of the RST’s constant movement and transferring personnel between units, Petty Officer Vega and her team faced constant threat of insurgent attacks. “It seemed like the mortar rounds followed us from base to base,” she recalls. “One night I was blown clear out of my rack [bed] when the base got hit by mortar rounds. And traveling between units was never easy. Often, we’d get into a HMMWV for a convoy but as we were leaving [the base] we could see a person with a cell phone waiting in a vehicle just outside the gate. The next thing we knew, an IED would explode and we’d have to turn around and return to the base because it wasn’t safe.”

Contact with the enemy like this also earned this single mother the Army’s Combat Action Badge (CAB)—making her and four other RAID Team IV members the first Coast Guard personnel to earn the CAB, according to Vega.

	MST2 Vega's RAID Team IV head out on their final mission in Baghdad, Iraq, February 2006. She said it was a very sentimental moment for her as they headed out, "It was our last job and we had made it this far without any casualties of our own." Photo courtesy of MST1 Sarah Vega.

When she and the RST were in Baghdad finally ready to head out for their own final mission, she says that it was a very sentimental moment for her when she and the others stood at the now-famous Crossed Sabers in the park. “It was our last job and we had all made it this far without any casualties of our own,” she says.

Second Deployment: Afghanistan
The now-MST1 Vega, who was born in Bitburg, Germany, to a career Air Force father and mother, made it home safely from her Iraq deployment; but it was not her only trip to a war zone. A year later, in October 2006, she deployed again with RAID Team V, this time to Afghanistan.

“After I got back from Iraq, I had a hard time adjusting,” Vega says. “I felt like there was still more I could do, so I volunteered for another RAID Team.”

This deployment did not involve FOB hopping. She and her team again conducted inspections and training but they also did a lot more customs screening work one on one with the troops, preparing them to leave Afghanistan. After five months, Petty Officer Vega came home again; and although she’s flattered to have been invited to join another RAID Team for a future deployment, she doesn’t plan to volunteer for the assignment.

A Lesson for Her Daughter:
Being a Strong Woman Has Many Rewards
For now, Vega is satisfied knowing that she has “done something that meant something,” to help her brothers and sisters in arms. But she also hopes that her deployments can be a lesson for her six-year-old daughter. “This has allowed me to show my daughter that being a strong woman has many rewards—and it proves to her that she, too, can be and do anything,” she says.

MST1 Vega, who is now assigned to Marine Safety Detachment Cape Canaveral, FL, has retired her desert camouflage uniforms but her experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan will stay with her forever. Grateful for the opportunity to have served, Vega says, “I wanted more than anything to give back to my fellow soldiers and shipmates,” she says. “They have spent many nights fighting, the least I could do is help get them home as quickly as possible.”

(March 2008)

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