(Photos by 1st Lt. Meghan Keefe)
By AF Senior Airman Jarrod Chavana
"This is my Big Bertha," said Manning, who is deployed from Edwards AF Base, Calif. "Before arriving in Iraq, we were trained on smaller vehicles. Once we arrived here, I was assigned to drive this big beast. Believe it or not, I drive better in this vehicle than the smaller ones."
Since Manning's in control of the vehicle and its occupants, she decided to add a few personal touches of her own. "My favorite color is pink, so I tried to put in a pink steering wheel cover, but it wouldn't fit, so I sewed some pink fabric to the steering wheel,” she said. The mother of one of Manning’s teammates sent a pink-painted gear shift knob.
Those unconventional touches haven’t gone unnoticed. "Sometimes the guys tease me -- 'We can't drive around with all this pink in the truck,'" she said. "Then I have to tell them, ‘It's OK. It's my truck.’"
AF Senior Airman James Matthews, a gunner deployed from Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., said Manning is quite clear about her “my house, my rules” attitude. “It fits,” he said, “because she takes great care of the truck." She may get picked on about her pink steering wheel, but when it comes to a mission, Manning is all business.
"Once you get into the MRAP and you're ready to go out, you have to get into a proper mindset," Manning said. "That's probably the last thing I do before I drive outside the gates. I pray not only to come home safe, but also to be aware, and for my family in case something was to happen."
Being attacked isn’t her biggest fear, she said. The possibility of making a mistake and hurting those inside the vehicle is what scares her. "I've been here since December 2009, and we've done at least two to three missions per week since we got here," Manning said. "I'm at the point where I know the roads and where it dips, so I know what to do and where. Some roads, you hope and pray you don't roll over. That's my biggest concern. I follow the soccer mom rule: I tend to be more worried of hurting those inside than myself. If someone gets hurt because I rolled it, I would feel horrible. I'm very protective of my guys."
One of the biggest dynamics within the vehicle is the communication between the gunner, who scans from the turret, and the driver, who scans the roads while driving. "The gunner/driver relationship is the most communication 2 people will ever have, because what the gunner sees, I need to see, and what I see, he needs to see. You need to be each other's eyes. They can see things further out that I can't see, and I can see things closer to the ground that they can't see," Manning said.
Her truck mates admitted they may have had doubts at first about Manning being their driver. "She isn't what I expected," said Matthews. "I thought she would be frail and timid, and I didn't think she would be able to handle this type of machine. Now, I think she's one of the best drivers in the fleet."
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DoD Imagery
(DoD photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew Leistikow, Navy)
An Army soldier from Alpha Co, 1st Bn, 30th Inf Regt, 2nd BCT, 3rd ID hands bags of supplies to members of the Combined SECFOR, to give to local villagers in Hassad, March 28, 2010. The Golden Lions of the Combined SECFOR delivered bags of supplies and toys for children in 2 villages to demonstrate good will and maintain a positive relationship with local citizens.