074 FULL-TIME MOM, OCCASIONAL SOLDIER, TOTAL WOMAN

Math Major Counts on Hubby to Keep the Home Fires Burning

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Sept. 18, 2006
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Gina Logue, 615-898-5081

(GLENCOE, Ala.) – Home and duty, Christian and Muslim, American and Iraqi—Lt. Col. Stacey Garmon, former Middle Tennessee State University math major and 1987 graduate, is not only experienced at balancing the books. She can balance disparate cultures and values with comparable talent and a seemingly easy grace.
Garmon returned stateside July 16, when she arrived at Camp Atterbury, Ind., after a one-year deployment to Iraq with the U.S. Army Reserve’s 80th Division, headquartered in Richmond, Va. She is at home now with her husband Jeff, 44, and daughters Brynna, 11, and Alyssa, 9.
Although she has been in uniform for 21 years, her most recent job was to navigate the tricky territory between the contracting office and the companies whose job was to rebuild Iraq’s war-torn infrastructure, often soon after it had been bombed to the ground.
“I was the liaison between the contracting office and the contractor to ensure that the government got what it was paying for, that the services provided were the services that were needed, and that we didn’t take advantage of the contractor, but we held them up to their obligations,” the 42-year-old Garmon says.
That was a taller order than it might appear. Garmon’s responsibility was to tiptoe across the culture clash to keep business practices predictable and transparent without insulting locals who saw nothing wrong with nepotism and individual kickbacks.
While that hardly sounds like life-threatening duty, Garmon’s mission actually had a lot to do with sustaining life. The contractors with whom she dealt were charged with providing the water, fuel, power, sewage services and food necessary to create some semblance of normality. It was a daily battle against the odds, never mind the occasional mortar barrage.
Given those conditions, it is fortunate that Garmon lost her professional innocence early in her military career. She served 13 years in the Tennessee National Guard before transferring to the Army Reserve, and she admits she did not expect to make it to captain.
“Reality and idealism are two different things, and I was very idealistic about the military,” Garmon says. “It took me awhile to understand what reality was. I was a very hard-charging lieutenant, and, after I went to Desert Storm, I learned how to chill out a little bit.”
It was her six months planning for contingencies in a command and control center in Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm that taught her that there are no small parts, only small actors—but there had better not be any small soldiers when the going gets tough.
“From that experience, I learned that I’m just one little bitty cog in the wheel, and that, though I felt strongly about things, needed to understand where I could make a difference,” Garmon says.
This is hardly what Garmon had in mind when she received a card in the mail during her second year in college asking her if she wanted to know more about Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). She checked the box.
Garmon did not want active duty, but she did feel a compelling need to give something back to her country. To this day, Garmon, who was not reared by a military family, is unable to put her finger on the exact origin of that compulsion.
In high school, she thought she wanted to enter politics. Although she is grateful she did not pursue that path, Garmon still maintains that all Americans should devote themselves either to some sort of volunteer civic duty, political activity or military service.
“We really owe debt to those people who paved the way for us,” Garmon says. “I honestly feel like, as Americans, we owe a lot to this country because we have so much.”
Of course, having an understanding spouse can be very helpful. Jeff was working for BellSouth and Stacey was working for Third National Bank when they met. He had been out of the military when she returned from Desert Storm. He returned to duty shortly before they tied the knot in 1992. Jeff spent three months in Kuwait in 2003 with the Alabama Air National Guard’s 225th Combat Communications Squad out of Gadsden, Ala.
Between weekend duty and overseas deployments, Garmon enjoys the role of stay-at-home mom, occasionally teaching aerobics part-time, but preferring to transport her girls to extracurricular activities and to help with their Girl Scout troop. However, when she thinks about the people she came to know in Iraq, her voice takes on a wistful tone.
“I hurt for the Muslims in Iraq because they have so much unused potential there,” Garmon says. “That country has a lot of potential. I wish them hope because I think that’s what they’re missing right now … I think it’s going to take a couple of generations to get there.”

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ATTENTION, MEDIA: For color jpegs of Lt. Col. Stacey Garmon on duty in Iraq and at home in Alabama, contact Gina Logue in the Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-5081 or gklogue@mtsu.edu.