Vassalo spent 15 months in Iraq as part of the five years and five months she spent in the Army. In recognition of her service, two area legislators are hoping to get her tickets to President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration.

A new direction for a life

Shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Vassallo saw a commercial for the U.S. Army advertising a need for Arabic interpreters, she said. She was in college, but did not really know what she was wanted to do.

"It said we could have predicted these 9/11 attacks - we probably have a recording of the plans for these attacks - but we don't have enough people to translate them. We don't have Arabic linguistics."

In those days everyone was feeling patriotic. Vassallo was single and in a place in her life that she didn't know what was next. She was studying international studies and French.

"I went into the recruiting office and said I want to be an Arabic linguist." Vassallo said she was lucky that after completing the initial tests to become a linguist, Arabic was the language the Army chose for her to learn. Vassallo said she had to sign a five-year contract to get the job.

While she was studying in California, the U.S. invaded Iraq.

"That was a wakeup call. The instructor came in the next day and said, 'Are you guys going to study now?'" she said.

Vassallo's first duty station was in Germany, where she worked on several missions during her 21 months there, and then her unit was deployed to Iraq.

"And then we got our first extension and then another extension and just when we began to pack up we were extended again. We ended up getting extended three times, and then I was stop-lossed," she said, referring to a program in which soldiers are kept in the Army past their initial contract. Vassallo was kept in for an extra five months.

Vassallo ended up being in western Baghdad for 15 months, where things got scary, she said.

Danger

and dialects

On a hill overlooking Jihad and Amara, Vassallo said, one night the normal booms and explosions took a serious turn. Vassallo was in charge of the night shift. Inside a bunker that night, Vassallo was accompanied by one other woman.

"Rocket-propelled grenades started to hit our trailers, and there were Ugandans manning a watch tower, and they started to fire. That night we all got in a bunker," she said. "Everyone started busting out cigarettes - even people that didn't smoke."

Vassallo also had a run-in with a few Kuwaiti men at the scene of an accident. A truck had crashed, and there was gasoline spilling into the road. One of the men had an injured leg, and the two male soldiers with Vassallo did not speak Arabic.

"I told them we should go over and talk to them about the truck, and the guys said, well, we don't speak Arabic, you do. But I was a woman, and I knew the man wouldn't talk to me," she said.

Vassallo tried anyway and approached the man and began to speak. She said he looked at her strangely, and she realized she'd made a mistake.

"I spoke Iraqi dialect instead of Modern Standard Arabic. He didn't respond to me; he turned to the male soldier who was with me," she said.

Iraq needs fresh ideas

At her grandmother's Beach Haven West home Monday, Vassallo was hesitant when asked whether the U.S. is winning the war in Iraq.

"There are all these cultural issues that are thousands of years old, and I don't know that Americans can fix that. Iraqis can fix that. Yes, we've won the war, but not the war for the hearts and minds of the people," she said.

"The stay-the-course mentality was stagnant and not accomplishing anything more. I feel like we reached a plateau and things were just not going anywhere. I think we need some fresh blood, some fresh ideas."

She completed her Army service in November 2007. She now is in the U.S. Army Reserve and looking for work. She has applied for a job with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Vassallo came home just in time for the Democratic primary debates, and she was supporting Hillary Clinton, Vassallo said. But when Barack Obama clinched the nomination, Vassallo said, she threw her support behind him, despite her family's Republican roots.

"He never wavered from his message. Even when I was in Iraq watching the primary coverage, I respected him. I really think he has the soldiers at heart," she said.

Hoping to see history

So what does Vassallo want for Christmas this year? She wants to see history made, she said.

"I just want to go to the inauguration. But I went online and the cheapest tickets I found were $1,300! I don't have $1,300. I'm in the Army," she said.

Monday evening, incoming U.S. Rep. John Adler said he does not remember Vassallo's name being on a long list of constituents asking for tickets. Adler was not sure of the number of tickets that are left.

"She's the sort of person America should honor, and I think giving her a ticket to the inauguration may be one of those ways. This is one great way to acknowledge her commitment to our country," he said.

Former state Sen. Leonard T. Connors, a family friend, got the ball rolling on trying to get Vassallo tickets, said her grandmother Marion Vassallo. But tickets to the inauguration are hard to come by.

"I've been out of the country for three years. I've been stop-lossed, and I feel like I've been deprived of all the things Americans can do. I just feel like doing something distinctly American," Vassallo said.

E-mail Donna Weaver:

DWeaver@pressofac.com