Photo By David Overson | Lithuanian Army Lt. Col. Viktoras Bagdonas, chief of staff for the Lithuanian Army...... read more read more
By Army Spc. Marc Loi
Prior to that fateful day when Americans, young and old, got together for the All-American feast, Jaeger was living out the American dream.
She was a school teacher, living in a nice apartment with her Lithuanian husband whom she met in Spain. Her day-to-day activities were filled with admiring smiles from children. Her job was to show children the wonders of arts and drawing. She was also a television actress.
Waking up from a nap, Jaeger had an epiphany. She had a vision. She would go against the wishes of some family members and leave the cozy apartment behind to become an American Soldier.
"I felt like it was God telling me to do that," said Jaeger, who grew up in Huntington Beach, Calif. "I had a great apartment. My husband had a great job and we were close to friends and family, but I've always wanted to join."As a teenager growing up in the coastal city that runs along the Southern California coast, Jaeger had always wanted to be a Marine, she said.
Movies like Full Metal Jacket, one that tells the story of boot camp, friendship and sacrifice only fueled her burning desire to join, she said."My dream was the Marine Corps. I definitely thought I was going to be a Marine. I wanted to wear the camouflage and shoot the guns," she said.Her mother, however, had other intentions -- and, "like a good girl," Jaeger said she complied.While friends traded in beachwear and volleyballs for camouflage uniforms and M-16s, Jaeger went to college. Later, she would also travel to Spain to teach English. There, volunteering at a Hare Krishna temple as a dishwasher, she met her future husband, Zania, a Lithuanian who was in Spain to "wait out the winter."
The rest of that chapter in her life, as the saying goes, was history. For many, this is where the book ends. This was supposed to be when Jaeger lived the American Dream with her husband and "lived happily ever after."But even Scheherazade herself, the storyteller in Arabian Nights, with her everlasting imagination, couldn't have thought to throw the life-changing curveball that was Sept. 11, 2001.
Prior to that September day, Jaeger's head was filled with vocabulary she taught the kids. Her head was filled with multiplication tables, ways to write in cursive and double-digit addition.
Certainly, phrases like al-Qaida and weapons of mass destruction were uttered by talk radio hosts and fear-mongers -- not a first-grade school teacher."I knew nothing about them," she said, almost apologetically. "I was not political and I didn't realize we had anything to be afraid of."All Jaeger wanted to do was to make a difference and to plant the seeds of success in the children's impressionable, young minds.After the attacks on America, however, it seemed her focus, as that of the children, changed.
"They asked a lot of questions," Jaeger said. "I asked them to draw pictures of what the experience meant to them, and it was interesting. They asked a lot of profound questions. It was interesting to see it through the eyes of children."
Though the children were nearly 3,000 miles from Ground Zero and what little they knew of the attacks on America were fed to them by bits and pieces, their lives were about to be impacted with a dose of harsh reality.At the end of the school year, Jaeger, who already had made up her mind to join the U.S. Army as a chaplain's assistant, broke the news to the children and their parents."They were petrified and crying and thought that if I joined the military, I would die," Jaeger said. To comfort them, Jaeger promised she would write to let them know "Mrs. Jaeger is O.K."
Even after she got to her unit in Germany and deployed here, Jaeger said she still keeps correspondence with the students. In return, the children, who are now in second grade, sent her pictures of their class.Although to the children, Jaeger may still be the sweet and comforting teacher who always took control of the class, her role here has changed. It's a change, she said, that is positive and will help her in the end."I went from being the teacher to being the student -- from being the boss to one who's taking orders," Jaeger said. "I think it'll help me be more compassionate and understand what it's like to be a child."
More than just taking directions and helping out with worship services for her Protestant chaplain, Jaeger also counsels service members coming through Camp Buehring -- the last peaceful respite for service members prior to crossing the berms into Iraq.
"I counsel Soldiers who come in and are freaked out about family problems or are concerned because they are going up north," she said.In addition, Jaeger also shares her spirituality with others. Four of her roommates are Christians and one is Mormon. They often talk at night -- on issues that most concern them on a deployment, including boyfriends, sins and other matters of the heart.Though a mixture of Hare Krishna and Christian, Jaeger said her unique belief hasn't presented a problem. Perhaps this is because growing up in Huntington Beach, the melting pot of Southern California, Jaeger had seen many cultures, people and religions that diversified her.And even here in Kuwait, Jaeger is embracing those cultures and differences. This, perhaps, will open another chapter in her life.
Her presence here in Kuwait as a chaplain's assistant, perhaps, will also open more chapters to other people's stories -- stories of success and reaching for the American dream, while helping the people of Iraq reach for theirs.
| Date Taken: | 07.22.2004 |
| Date Posted: | 07.22.2004 09:12 |
| Story ID: | 136 |
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| Web Views: | 239 |
| Downloads: | 164 |
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