European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 6, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Profile she s Tarzan by Day Jane by night by Don Tate staff writer you could hear her hit the ground so feel away. Hie Young lieutenant Hud lost her coordination Ami her grip on the rope As she went Down in a hip Antl buttocks thumping thwack. Sheha been swinging through the French Mountain air across j chasm on something called the Tarzan s Lump. She Lay in the dirt on Het Back. Like a groggy Boxer she rolled slowly Over and pulled herself up. She was hurting and site Ilert grinning hurting and grinning with uly fat Bruise blossoming thai would slay with her for Day. She could rave quit right there. Gracefully wimp flogged out As the troops say. Or just shrugged and Aid who needs this the Nule soldiers would t have been too hard on her. After All Chi brutal obstacle course it the French commando school t Les mousses seemed More designed for Tarzan or one of ii big apes than some Little Lane. Her posterior was hurling like the Dickey but her ego was hurting Mare. Ousting herself off she moved without assistance toward the next test of nerve and strength. Att Girt a Soldier hollered. He had witnessed the first and Only obstacle that would Lake advantage of 1st. U. Cindy College Over four battering Days including an Arm and shoulder wrenching foot by Trug going foot climb up a sheer Rock Cliff on a Devil device known As the giant ladder. But she made it. And the troops watching virtually ail men airborne types cheered. At times dangling Over frightening Heights she had even encouraged some of the shakier ones Onward quietly talking them through it arming a Bond that transcended he she stereotypes. This seemingly fearless no . Lieutenant had the Knack and grit of making men Root for her rather than against her not the easiest task in the world for a woman competing in the More Macho Arenas of the . Army. Now it s evening and there s a Young woman sitting with a Small group of people sipping while wine with a French commando colonel who is also a wine expert erudite by discussing How White a the wine and the How rough Are the Rigours of French obstacle courses. She looks vaguely familiar. But it s not that dirty dauntless lieutenant in the clumping combat boots and Grimy camis the one with the set jaw theg linty eyes the bruised rear. It can t be that lieutenant. Because this Young woman is laughing and she is clean More than clean. Pretty. Out of uniform the hardness is gone. She wean Toft clothes that make her Shine softly. Her eyes do a Little wine dance. The transformation from the afternoon is stunning commando Cindy in t an easy lieutenant to pigeonhole a few weeks after he French adventure she s Back in her regular Job As military intelligence analyst with the Bih inf div in bad Kreuz Nach. Another transformation. Her Job is not Only less than physical arduous it s downright sedentary. Forget physical prowess adrenaline Nish commando guts what the doing Here f Eutres a quieter set of assets .7 patience precision cerebral Power the logical mind taking objective data and putting together Cool reasoned deductions. Silling on the sunny Patio of he officer s club at Rose Barracks the 5-foot-4,130-Pound lieutenant from Pennsylvania pokes a Fork into a huge potato Energy she notes and answers questions about herself and what it s like to be a Young woman of substance in this mans this woman s army of 1986. Well realty not so Young she corrects the m turning 25. I m getting up Cindy College working her tray up. Interviewer Way up there. But How did you get so physically adept adept Well where i grew up i had to play with the boys or play by myself. When we moved to a neighbourhood with girls i just was t interested in dolls. I played baseball and football tackle with the Guys when i was 10 or 12. In organized sports with girls i payed Field hockey basketball Tennis ran the 440, the 110 Low hurdles threw the javelin and discus i hangs like that. I be always been Good adept in sports. So was my dad. So was my mom though in her Day All she could be was a these Days the lieutenant runs bikes hikes plays racquetball and lifts Light weights on lop of regular army it. She s also jumped out of air planes enough to earn her wings. Anything else of yes she went Down to Austria Las season to skiing school. Asked How she did she grins and has to confess that she finished first in her class. I guess i be lust always had Confidence in the physical things. Things i can get a handle on things t can it s Safe to say she likes physical challenges but what about menial Gray matter challenges in College she quickly went from an Anmol Ivalee 2.36 average i spent the first semester majoring in partying to a 3.85 average motivated in the army wanting to be All she can be she got what she joined up for military intelligence. It May. Be sedentary but it s stimulating. It s satisfying. I need that feeling. It s no Treadmill it makes me feel like i m contributing interviewer so you be got it right now i do. Some of it one thing she wishes there were More of in the army is women. The percentage of women officers is so Small. Thai s Nice for getting Alt the dates you want with men one of whom she s unofficially engaged tout there Are very few women to talk to interviewer with a bit More than three years in and close to making Captain would you say women in today s army Are getting a fair shake if a great place for equal Opportunity. I d recommend it to almost anybody. But sure there s resentment from men out there. The first Boss i had did t think women should be in the army at All. Thought they were a nuisance. He did t even know what was going on in our shop. His impressions were secondhand what he heard what he wanted to hear i personally feel Good because i think i do a Good Job my Boss thinks i do a Good Job and his Boss thinks i do a Good Job. Interviewer any Good advice for military women do your Job be professional know what you re doing. Don t use your charms or whatever to gel ahead. Or be a get Over artist. Some women do , but they Are intensely disliked by the ones who Don t. I m not from the Charm school of gelling ahead interviewer what bugs you the most about the army the thing that really irritates me some of the enlisted males who think they re studs anyway you know will say things to us that they would t dare say to male officers. They think of us like we Are Well Chicks instead of officers. Yeah i be had to fire a Tew up. What s the matter Soldier forget How to Salute i Don t say that s prevalent but it happens. Or they might give you superficial military Courtesy because of rank but without the respect. Usually they put you through a lot More tests than they would a male officer before they give you real walking Down the Street in sad Kreuz Nach she might be regarded As a Chick but at commando school she earned respect in circumstances that had even the most dense chauvinistic members of the hairy species applauding her. To there anything at All Cindy College is afraid of yes she replies after a moment lowering her voice the interviewer trying not to laugh unseen. Vou mean voodoo stuff ghosts hails things that go bump in the night Are you serious she squirms a bit in her chair picks at the remains of her potato. Seriously. Thai s the reason i never watch those scary she s Gol to be kidding no i m not says the lieutenant of intelligence the Cool analyst of objective data beginning to Blush. I Don t need that kind of. Crap. To see someone get hacked up on a movie screen ugh. I get nervous. I bite my fingernails. After one of those weird movies like halloween. 1 Don t sleep. No Hank you i Don t need u. Nerves of steel can stand teetering on the Edge of precipices without missing a heartbeat Dangle a Hundred feet Over jagged rocks while Strong men sweat she can claw her Way fearlessly up a Cliff. But can t sit through a Little scary movie unbelievable. What can 1 say says the conqueror of commando courses Ullh a matter of fact shrug when it comes to the spooky stuff i guess i m interviewer a wimp which just goes to show you. Clem Loudner s restaurant review does not appear today because Clem is on vacation. At last report he and jumbo ferry Wel touring the Gre Seburger palaces of Central Europe. 20 toy Timber a 1986
