Memorial Day--Remember the Fallen!!!

Today I've been working on my next book, When the Girls Come Marching Home. It's a good day to be writing about women in combat. About 100 American women have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. We need to remember them as we honor all of the fallen today. We need to remember they are in the fight and they too are making the ultimate sacrfice on the battlefield.

I'm writing a story about a female JAG officer whose Humvee was hit by an IED. Three of the five soldiers in the Humvee were killed. It's a good day to remember CPL Coty J. Phelps, CPL Victor Fontanilla, and SFC Jesse Albrecht. And to remember those who survived and struggle with how to move on after they've been through such a traumatic experience. Another woman I'm writing about was in the Lioness convoy back in the summer of 2005 that got hit by a suicide bomber, killing and wounding male and female Marines. And yet another watched as an EOD tech was blown up by an improvised explosive.

Our service members are dying every day in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the ones who love them are dying a little, too. Remember those who have died, their families, and friends. Honor them. They deserve it!

Daily Lit launches Band of Sisters

Exciting News

Band of Sisters is now available as a digital download from Daily Lit.
Daily Lit offers books digitally in installments, sending you a chapter a day, so in a sense it’s a serialized way to read a book.

Please see: http://www.dailylit.com/books/band-of-sisters.

Woman Gains Silver Star -- And Removal from Combat

What do you think of this story--

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/30/AR2008043003415.html

This isn't about Brown receiving the Silver Star. That is awesome!!! It's about her being pulled from her combat unit.

Pfc Monica Brown received the Silver Star in March for repeatedly risking her life on April 25, 2007, to treat wounded comrades. She is the second woman since WW II to receive the nation's third-highest combat medal.

Within a few days of her heroic acts, the Army pulled Brown out of the remote camp in Paktika province where she was serving with a cavalry unit apparently because Army restrictions on women in combat barred her from such missions.

I guess what concerns me about this is that it makes what Brown was doing--supporting a calvary regiment--seem unique. I understand the soldiers were fighting against the Taliban in Afghanistan, the fighting intensified, and she became a line medic. As a line medic, she spent days on combat operations--constant combat operations.

Was she pulled from the unit because of the intensity of the fighting? Is it okay for women to be in a firefight every other day or once a week, but not continuous, back-to-back missions ... at least not until they are found out? Thousands of our female service members support combat operations and are in harm's way on a daily basis. Apparently someone (a politician?) read about Brown and her Silver Star achievement and complained about her being attached to a combat unit? I think that whomever that was is very naive.

Women serving in noncombat roles throughout Iraq and Afghanistan face danger all the time. If the military pulled every woman who was serving in these countries and in danger, the size of the military and the success of its operations would be greatly reduced.

Once again we are denying our brave and courageous female service members the credit they deserve. I wish people would wake up and give credit where credit is due!!!

When The Girls Come Marching Home

As many of you know, I'm working on my second book, tentatively titled When The Girls Come Marching Home. The book will feature stories about women in combat and how they handle or don't handle their transition back home. The stories will take on PTSD, TBI, and wounds. They will show women who have been strengthened by their experieinces on the battlelfied and those who continueu to struggle. This is a book, for the most part, of survival.

If you know of someone who you think might be interesting for the book, please contact me at kaholmstedt@yahoo.com

Thank you!
kirsten

Catching Up

Sgt. Chrissy DeCaprio (featured in Band of Sisters), Band of Sisters Author Kirsten Holmstedt,and SSgt. Tamara Velding, a drill instructor at Parris Island

Hi Everyone!

It's now approaching the end of May and I haven't blogged in a while. But I've had some great experiences that I wanted to share with you. The Marine Corps (Garden City Recruiting District) invited me to travel with educators from the northeast down to Parris Island in Beaufort, SC, to get a better understanding of our recruits and their training. The trip allowed me to spend a few days with Sgt. Chrissy DeCaprio, who is the MP featured in Band of Sisters. I also got to meet some female drill instructors from 4th Battalion who I hope to feature in my next book, When the Girls Come Marching Home.



Earlier in May, I traveled to Germany for book signings at Ramstein Air Force Base and Vogelwegh. While there, I had the good fortune of meeting some of the medical staff from Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. I didn't make it to Landstuhl on this trip. That is a source of great disappointment for me because many of the women featured in my next book were treated at Landstuhl. I will do better on my next trip.

I did have the pleasure of meeting many female service members on this trip, including --

Captain Cindy Bond, who works in critical care air transport

Tech Sergeant Kim Blaum, a civil engineer who helps planes land after they've been shot up

LtCol Anita Greenlee, an MP

LtCol Teresa Bisnett, who is the latest director of the ICU at the hospital in Balad

LtCol Carol Fox, TBI nurse coordinator at Landstuhl

Thank you all for your service and leadership!!!