Profile, Senior Airman Emma Lee

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Senior Airman Emma Lee
By Senior Airman Stephen Hudson
Florida National Guard Public Affairs
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. ? Senior Airman Emma Lee is an early riser.

The single mother of a two-year-old daughter crawls out of bed and begins her day at 5 a.m. She dresses her daughter, makes breakfast and by 6:30 her daughter is in daycare and Lee is on her way to work.

As she pulls to the checkpoint and hands the guard her identification card at the Florida Air National Guard's 125th Fighter Wing in Jacksonville, the sun is rising.

Lee is like many other women who proudly serve and make personal sacrifices in order to serve in the military. And since Sept. 11, that sacrifice has taken an even greater meaning.

Each day some of the more than 200,000 American women on active duty and another 212,000 who serve in the U.S. National Guard and Reserves go through similar morning rituals. They carefully try to find a balance between a career in the armed forces and their personal lives.

Lee, a heavy mobile equipment mechanic with the 125th, knows that finding that balance can sometimes be a challenge.

"With deployments and drill schedules it can be tough," she said. "My supervisor works with my schedule. It's tough knowing that I could be sent away at any time. There's always a possibility I could be deployed."

At no other time in recent history has that statement been more true. Within the National Guard, as in the active and Reserve components, women have also been mobilized alongside their male counterparts to support missions for homeland defense and for operations overseas. But for many, the sacrifices made for service have been a part of their lives long before Sept. 11.

"I have been married 26 years and I have sacrificed time with my family for drills, annual training and schools," Warrant Officer Bonnie Robinson said. Robinson, the only female shop chief in the Florida Army National Guard and a mother of two, runs Organizational Maintenance Shop 17 in Crystal River, Fla.

Her ascension as a leader has had its obstacles, but now she reaps the benefits of her hard work and she believes her choices ? selflessly placing her personal life second to her duty ? were the right thing to do. Last year she missed her 25th wedding anniversary because of military duty. But Robinson is not alone.

When National Guard personnel put their military obligations first, family members often experience that absence, and often not just emotionally.

Sgt. Faith Walker, a personnel clerk with the 83rd Troop Command in Tallahassee, knows that her military duty means her spouse has to take more of the child-rearing responsibilities while she serves.

"My husband has to take over the responsibilities of caring for the children when I am away," Walker said. "He has to juggle his schedule to make sure the kids get to wherever they need to."

Of the more than 12,000 Florida National Guard personnel, women make up 14 percent of the total number of soldiers and 16 percent of the airmen, according to the Florida National Guard's Equal Opportunity office.

Walker says that her military service has taught her children lessons in responsibility and commitment ? all things, she said, the Army taught her.

"My kids were supportive to a certain extent; when they were little they would ask if I could reschedule drill," Walker added. "But you can't put the Army on hold."

But since Sept. 11, Walker's children now have a newfound understanding about why she has missed many of the important events in their lives and why it was necessary for her to be away from them when she served. They know that the years of preparation are now worth it. Recently, Walker processed soldiers deploying for Operation Enduring Freedom.

"We (women) are the providers for the family," said Walker. "We are the movers and the shakers and sometimes have to put aside our goals."