A whole new meaning to “Hot Landing Zone”
It’s not every day that a young lady makes an NFL franchise’s cheerleading squad or earns an officer’s commission in the United States Army or even delivers a baby in an Afghan mud hut during a raging snowstorm. Yet that’s exactly what Rachel Washburn has done as reported on Dec. 20, 2013 by USA Today, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and the sports news portal PlayersView.com.
First Lieutenant Washburn of the Army’s Military Intelligence Corps has just returned to her Ft. Stewart, Ga., home base after completing her tour of duty in Afghanistan.
There she served on a “Culture Support Team,” in which American servicewomen attempt to reach out and communicate with Afghan women in a culture that would just as soon beat their womenfolk for as much as speaking to any American or allied serviceman.
The young lieutenant managed to win hearts and minds, while providing an example of leadership, through her actions during a raging snowstorm in an isolated Afghan village after a local woman went into labor with no doctor or midwife available.
With the woman’s husband refusing to allow any men to lay eyes on his wife who was sans burka and nearly naked, the former Drexel University Dragon took the woman in a military vehicle to her unit’s mud hut.
A Special Forces medic helped he deliver the baby via military radio. “Everything was successful,” Washburn later said. “Her husband gave us a little trinket. He was so grateful to have a boy.”
With Washburn’s obligated 4-year hitch coming to a close, she has stated that she very well may put “a few more years” into her Army service.
But not until she is honored as a “Hometown Hero” by the Eagles at this weekend’s home game against the Chicago Bears.
What Americans Value…
With the exception of a few vets who were recently on various practice squads, no ex-military, much less anyone who has set foot in an officially designated combat zone, currently serve as active players on any of the NFL teams.
The average salary for a player in the NFL is $1.9 million per year.
The average take-home-pay for those in the Armed Forces, from Private/Seaman Recruit to any 4 star Flag Officer, is roughly $40,000 a year.
