Think you know what women do in the military? Think again.

Think you know what women do in the military? Think again.
Armed Sources
Blogging military and veterans news with Lindsay Wise
Meet Katariina Fagering: a Marine veteran, warrior poet, artist and mom openly coping with post traumatic stress.

I interviewed Fagering last week for an article about Women’s Inpatient Specialty Environment of Recovery (WISER), an acute psychiatric in-patient program at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Houston. The 45-year-old Heights resident and mother of two is one of a growing number of number of female veterans seeking health care at VA hospitals and clinics nationwide as more women join the military and take on de-facto combat roles in Iraq and Afghanistan.


Marine Katariina Fagering talks to local women in Iraq in 2006. Photo courtesy Katariina Fagering
During Fagering’s 2006 deployment, she went door-to-door with another female Marine to talk to Iraqi women — a mission her male counterparts couldn’t do because of cultural taboos. This type of “engagement” carried out by women attached to male infantry and special forces units has become an integral part of the U.S. strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It’s dangerous work. Fagering’s friend, Maj. Megan McClung, was the first female Marine officer to be killed in the Iraq war. She died in a roadside bombing in 2006, devastating their entire brigade. “Everyone knew her, she was an exceptional athlete, more energy than humanly possible, smart, funny, and a mentor to so many,” Fagering said. “It’s hard to talk about.”
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