All I Could Be : My Story As a Woman Warrior in Iraq

Miyoko Hikiji, a young woman from Iowa tells it just the way it was when, as a young woman in the Iowa National Guard, she was deployed to Iraq after the invasion ten years ago and discovered that the peaceful world she knew amid the Midwestern farm land had been replaced by the wind driven sand dunes of Iraq. Peace she discovered had become a pleasant and distant memory. Armed with an M16 and the equipment of the modern warrior, Miyoko was told to take her weapon into the cab of a truck, sit behind the wheel, and join a series of convoys. Each day she drove deeper into enmy territory and each night was a nightmare in the making. .It is my war story, writes Miyoko, it is part military history, part personal revelation, part therapy, the stuff of so many war stories that have become a vital part of the great American tradition. Her book is a new chapter in that great tradition: the recognition of the woman warrior in America. As America was growing up at the turn of the 20th century, the challenge of educating the generations growing up in the rural countryside was met by innovative and imaginative teachers. It began with the homesteaders who did not wait very long to build schoolhouses out of logs. School districts, small in size to be sure, sprang into existence. And as the railroad went west, those school districts grew in size. Steve Grineski brings that time to life as it was in Minnesota and focuses on the legendary Moorhead Normal Institute and its preparation of teachers for their place in educating rural society. Its mission: A teacher needs better education and training to teach all grades alone in the country than she does to teach one or two grades under supervision in a graded school. There is no known reason why children who live in the country should not have just as well trained teachers in a city or village. Its mission was carried out and became the stuff of legend This inaugural account, during the onset of the Global War on Terrorism, by a female National Guard soldier provides evidence of the vitality of female fighters. It pays tribute to the two soldiers in her unit that lost their lives, and shows how love can be more vital in the desert than in water. This story exposes the comradeship, intimacy, cowardice and humor of soldiers living in physical and emotional grit. Through the candid telling of her encounters with battle buddies, the Iraqi people and enemy prisoners of war, Hikiji adds the timely, unexpected and fresh perspective about the Iraq war that readers are thirsting for The Heartbeat Of Heartland America Beats With Each Page Of This Book About The Remarkable People Who Educated The Children Of The Rural Countryside. Following The Civil War, School Districts In States Like Minnesota Began To Appear, And The Preparation Of Teachers At Institutions Such As Moorhead Became Legendary. This Outstanding Compilation Of Individuals And Stories Brings A Vital Piece Of American History To Life.