Salute to Veterans: Army offered a way out for Merced woman

Seeing others around her caught up in gangs or drugs was enough to convince Lyniece Brooks to become a soldier.

The 26-year-old Army veteran graduated from Merced High School in 2006, in the midst of the American military action in Iraq. She said she was looking to get out of Merced County so she picked the Army because of one main reason. “Honestly, they had the quickest ship out date,” she said.

Brooks said she didn’t tell very many friends and family members that she was leaving until the day of her departure. Her mother, Rhonda, helped keep her secret.

Brooks’ tour of duty was about 100 days longer than the average soldier. She said she worked in finance on a base in Talil, Iraq, about 30 miles southwest of the southern city of Nasiriyah.

Brooks said most days she counted out cash to soldiers and paid contractors who installed concrete reinforcing walls that surrounded just about every building on the base. Contractors also were paid to restore a ziggurat, a massive stone structure built by the inhabitants of Mesopotamia.

One evening during down time, she said, a group soldiers was barbecuing. All of the sudden, they saw a flash and a mortar round hit a nearby trailer used by soldiers as living quarters. “That kind of freaked me out, considering my trailer was really close to it,” she said.

The blast tossed her and other soldiers 10 feet from where they stood, she said, but no one was seriously hurt. “It’s different when you hear about rounds hitting other places,” she said. “When it hits somewhere you actually lay your head, it’ll start to get to you.”

In 2007, Brooks said she was preparing to return home when the news came down that her unit was going to see roughly 100 more days in its tour than originally planned. “That was depressing,” she said. “They prep you for a year. They say a year is the standard deployment, and here they’re handing us orders for 15 months.”

Being a woman in a battle zone can come with other perils, she said. As was her duty, Brooks often interacted with local contractors who did not often deal with women in the workplace. “We have to learn how to respect their culture,” she said. “So basically, if they feel uncomfortable, we have to remain professional, do our job and get out of there.”

In the past year, the reports of sexual assault in the military have made headlines. The number of incidents remain unclear. The military’s best guess, based on surveys in 2012, is that 26,000 troops serving have been victims of unwanted sexual contact, according to media reports.

Brooks said she approached every situation with that on her mind, aware of whether she would be accompanied by a co-worker and ready to defend herself. As the mother of a daughter, with another child on the way, said she is unsure if she would recommend the armed services to her 4-year-old, Jordin.

“I would recommend it for those who are strong-minded,” she said. “Basically, if somebody were to attack you and you can’t handle your own, I wouldn’t recommend it, because you may have to fight a friend or someone close to you.”

It was on her way home, she said, that she experienced her scariest moments. It was Friday, June, 13, 2008, when the Humvee in front of hers was blown up by an improvised explosive device. She said no one was hurt, but to this day she doesn’t leave the house on Friday the 13th.

Brooks said she’s now studying at Merced College, on her way to becoming a probation officer.

This story was originally published November 10, 2014 at 4:00 PM with the headline "Salute to Veterans: Army offered a way out for Merced woman."