EVERY MAN THINKS MEANLY OF HIMSELF...

Injured soldier back to normal (Michael Rubinkam, AP, 12/17/05)

[Capt. Tamara Montgomery] oversaw more than 20 reconstruction and medical resupply projects, created a program at the University of Hillah to translate Western classics into Arabic, and won the prestigious General Douglas McArthur Award for her leadership.

She also survived three firefights. . . .

Insurgents peppered Montgomery’s convoy with automatic rifle fire on April 11, 2004, killing a Romanian security guard in her SUV. Montgomery, the rear gunner, was shot in the leg, and shrapnel severed the brachial artery in her arm. She managed to kill two insurgents, according to the military. . . .

Twenty months later, she is recovered from her wounds and back at her job as a biologist at Merck & Co.

She could retire from the military.

But she says she likes it too much.

“There is good being done, a lot of good being done. We want to see it finished. We want to see the Iraqi government (and the Iraqi military) be able to take over their country before we come home. Otherwise, all we’ve done is for naught.”