What was the ratio of younger to older soldiers?
KL: I would say the average was three to one. There are a lot more young people. I’m 26 and the average age was 22. You may not get deployed if you’ve been in the military longer and you know somebody that can get you assigned to a unit that’s not going anywhere, whereas you don’t have that kind of pull when you’re younger. The only way not to go is if you’re a female and you get knocked up. Women are doing that left and right; They just want to get pregnant so they won’t have to stay in Iraq. How did this war affect your life? KL: Before I went to Iraq, there was so much stuff I wanted to do. Those chunks of time make you lose motivation. The second time I was deployed, I was enrolled in pharmacy school at Florida A&M University. I was supposed to start in August 2007. They sent the FedEx saying I had to go back to Iraq in May. I had been home for two years working and minding my business. That was discouraging because when I joined the army in 2001, I didn’t want to go to school nor
