Emily Waide is happy to be back in Auburn.
Last week she celebrated an anniversary of sorts -- one year of being stateside.
It has been one year since she was in Baghdad and slept in a trailer guarded by slabs of concrete 15 feet high, the only protection against random missile fire.
Waide said she was lucky during her tour of duty with the Army Reserves -- lucky that there were only two or three rocket attacks on Camp Liberty, where she was stationed from May 2008 to February 2009.
Three months before Waide arrived on the base, an attack killed approximately 50 people in the same spot where she ate all of her meals.
"It's so senseless," Waide said of the violence, remembering how it felt to eat in a place where so many of her fellow soldiers died.
Aside from the two or three missile strikes, Waide mostly stayed insulated from the day-to-day battles, analyzing intelligence in the tactical operations center for 926 Engineer Brigade, a reserve unit.
Her unit was tasked with checking roads for explosive devices.
Waide kept the group informed on what it would face as it worked to rebuild Iraqi schools, hospitals and government buildings and restore the utilities.
Waide's boyfriend, Matt Scalese, is also in 926. They met in the unit and he was there for the interview, smiling and commenting as Waide talked about her trip to an all-girls school in Rusafa, Iraq, to hand out backpacks filled with toys and candy.
Waide's most vivid memory of that trip makes her laugh. It's one of a small Iraqi schoolgirl wearing gold cowboy boots and belt. "That little girl was a diva,"
Waide said. Waide and Scalese talked about what a contrast it was to see the girls in such stereotypical Western gear, wearing jewelry and make-up, standing next to their more traditional rode-clad parents. Contrasts like those, the small reminders, are what made Waide miss home. Camp Liberty had a Starbucks, a Taco Bell and a Burger King for its 50,000 soldiers.
"You've got to walk 20 minutes to get there and it's 140 degrees outside and it really sucks getting there, but you go anyway because there's nothing else to do except work out," Waide said. But even the workout room held its own surprises. "I walk in the gym one day," Waide said. "Lo and freaking behold, what do I see?" Three posters: one is Auburn Tiger Paws, the second is Auburn Softball and the third is Auburn Football. She even knew the woman on the softball poster and e-mailed her jokingly that she can't get away from her, even in Iraq. Waide said every time she walked in that workout room, she wanted to be home. Now that she is, she said she realizes just how much her own world has changed. Waide said the biggest change is a greater appreciation for many things others take for granted, such as driving down the road without worrying about explosive devices.
"You can sleep easy because a rocket's not going to come in and explode where you live," Waide said.
She said she is sometimes affected by the offhand comments of her classmates.
Waide said she is bothered when she hears a fellow student refer to an Iraqi veteran from another class as socially awkward and weird.
Waide said she feels this is a fine example of the importance of the newly-chartered Auburn Student Veterans Association's role in providing a peer group for returning servicemen and women.
"We really have it good here and I guess it's hard to see that until you have been somewhere like that," Waide said.
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