Mother And Daughter Form Soldiers' Bond In Iraq

Mother And Daughter Form Soldiers' Bond In Iraq
by NPR STAFF
December 8, 2012

Courtesy of Jessica Pedraza

Marilyn Gonzalez (left) and her daughter, Jessica Pedraza, at their base in Kuwait in 2010.

Sgt. Marilyn Gonzalez and her daughter, Spc. Jessica Pedraza, served together in Kuwait and Iraq from January until December of 2010. But they weren't both supposed to go then.

They were in the Massachusetts Army National Guard, in the same company, but they had different jobs.

In 2010, Gonzalez was ordered to deploy to Iraq, but her daughter was not. Pedraza decided to put college on hold and changed her job in the military so that she would be sent to war with her mom. They didn't need supply specialists, but they did need a truck driver.

"When you told me that you wanted to deploy, I was so angry," Gonzalez, now 44, tells her daughter.

But Pedraza, now 22, said she couldn't stay home worrying.

"Whenever I would go out on a mission, you would go in my room and make my bed, and sometimes you would come back from your missions and catch me sleeping on your bed," she says.
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