News>Spreading Education: Reservist helps build University in Afghanistan
Photos
After speaking with local tribal elders, Senior Master Sgt. Linda Sturgeon, 315th Airlift Wing, Charleston Air Force Base, S.C., and a team of volunteers from the National Military Academy of Afghanistan bring clothes and toys to the children there. (Courtesy photo)
Local Afghan children who were happy to receive clothing and toys from a humanitarian mission organized by staff at the National Military Academy of Afghanistan. (Photo by Senior Master Sgt. Linda Sturgeon, USAFR)
A group of children gather with a local tribal elder to greet a volunteer humanitarian team from the National Military Academy of Afghanistan. The volunteer team distributed clothes and toys to impovershed Afghan Children. (Photo by Senior Master Sgt. Linda Sturgeon)
Sophomore and Junior cadets participating in field training while attending the National Military Academy of Afghanistan. (Photo by Senior Master Sgt. Linda Sturgeon)
Cadets from the National Military Academy of Afghanistan pose for a photograph while competing in the Sandhurst Competition at West Point. The Sandhurst Competition is a military tactics contest attended by military academies from around the world. (Photo by Senior Master Sgt. Linda Sturgeon)
by Staff Sgt. Jeff Kelly
315th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
10/15/2007 - CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. -- Senior Master Sgt. Linda Sturgeon sat across the table from the Afghan Foreign Minister and wondered how she ended up in Kabul, Afghanistan.
She was on a six-month assignment working in the National Military Academy of Afghanistan. Although she might think of herself as an "ordinary girl from Oklahoma," her accomplishments in war torn Afghanistan reveal she is someone much more extraordinary.
Representatives from the Army's West Point Military Academy and the Army Reserve took on the task of developing a four-year degree awarding military university in Kabul that mirrors the standards of West Point.
Sergeant Sturgeon served as a liaison for the English department at the institution, the only Air Force representative imbedded with the Army team.
"I worked as a liaison, but we wore so many different hats that we all had more than one job," she said.
Sergeant Sturgeon kept an eye on the National Military Academy cadets while they were in field training. She monitored them during rifle training, helped get funds to hire more teachers and scavenged supplies and uniforms from wherever she could.
This may sound like a full schedule but only scratched the surface of her duties and what she was able to achieve.
While performing her primary job, Sergeant Sturgeon worked directly with the university's English department procuring books and supplies for new students and helped start the process of obtaining a second English laboratory for the school.
She also processed visa and passport applications for a 15-member team of cadets who traveled to America to compete in the Sandhurst Competition at West Point. The competition is a military tactics contest that military academies from around the world compete in annually.
One of her greatest achievements was helping raise funds to hire four more English teachers for the university. Two of the teachers were women - a huge step forward for the school and women's rights in Afghanistan.
Less than 25 percent of all teachers in Afghanistan are women. The estimated literacy rate for Afghanistan's females is about 15 percent. Every female allowed into the education system in Afghanistan, whether as a student or as a teacher, is helping to narrow the educational gender gap.
"It was great to see the women hired," Sergeant Sturgeon said. "To watch the process of them being hired and being groomed into good professors was fantastic."
She also volunteered to go on humanitarian missions to remote villages to help Afghani people who lived in poverty. Many times when traveling on these missions, the humanitarian teams had to rely on Afghani security personnel for protection, which could be unsettling at times.
"It was a little unnerving, but very worthwhile," she said. " Seeing kids with no shoes and frostbitten toes running up to us and giving them shoes, even if they didn't fit, or a shirt or coat, or even a doll meant so much to them."
Sergeant Sturgeon thought of her own grandchildren when she took supplies to the children. Helping the people of Afghanistan by volunteering for these missions had an important effect on the local populace, but it provided a benefit for Sergeant Sturgeon as well. Seeing the remote mountain villages gave her a better understanding of the types of situations many of the National Military Academy students lived in before attending the school.
"When many of the students received word that they were chosen to come to the university, they had no transportation, so they would walk from their towns to Kabul, which could take weeks sometimes," she said. "It is a totally different culture and way of life. They were so happy to be clothed, and to be able to shower and have electricity."
Sergeant Sturgeon displayed a broad, proud smile for nearly an hour when she recounted her memories of the people she met in a volatile country 7,500 miles away from home.
"I was so honored to get to know them because they were so thankful to all of us Americans," she said. "Getting to know their culture, because they were so personable, was the highlight of the entire trip. I was one of the few people there who was able to interact with the Afghan people. They were so respectful and so full of thanks that we were there."
The Army leaders showed their thanks for her amazing work by nominating her for four medals. She received the Joint Service Commendation Medal, the NATO Medal, the Afghanistan Campaign Medal and the Air Force Expeditionary Service Ribbon with Gold Border for her diligent service while deployed.
While the medals were very much appreciated, Sergeant Sturgeon believes that the knowledge that she helped some very deserving people is the true reward for her time spent in Afghanistan. (Air Force Reserve Command News Service)
