In Iraq, A Mom Marine’s Urge to Serve

In Iraq, A Mom Marine’s Urge to Serve
Nov 5, 2012
During the run up to the Iraq War, Tee Hanible, a young Marine working a desk job, asked to be deployed. It meant leaving her child behind. What makes a mother of a 3-year-old girl feel such a powerful need to sacrifice for her country?

You’re not Marine Corps material—you won’t make it.”

Photo by Melissa Golden

That was Tawanda Hanible’s brother, Lindell, running down the sister who had always shown him up in school. Lindell was two years older and already a Marine. He told “Tee,” as she was called, “you’re too girly.” He forgot that she was also stubborn as a fence post.

The odds had been against Tee from birth. Her biological father was shot and killed when she was an infant. She was raised in a strict foster home on Chicago’s deep South Side. Minnie Hudson, who lat­er adopted her and her brother, had four children of her own. Anywhere from two to 20 foster children rotated through Hud­son’s three-bedroom apartment, sleeping three in a room or on a couch or floor.

At 15, Tee turned rebellious. Drugs had saturated the South Side like a plague. Crime went rampant. Drive-by shoot­ings picked off some of her friends. Tee lost her way. “Poor grades, wrong crowd,” was the rap on this once-star student.

When word surfaced that her best friend was going to be jumped, Tee’s teenage rebellion found a cause. She smashed the glass on a fire alarm. “Run, take the side exit!” she shouted. The girl escaped a beating. For this tiny act of personal heroism, Tee was thrown out of school.
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