“They Just Sent Her Over There”

Reservist felt she lacked training
She is state's oldest war casualty in 50 years
By SCOTT WILLIAMS and SARAH LARIMER
You Can E-Mail Scott Williams

Posted: Sept. 11, 2006

Waukesha - An Army reservist who has become the oldest Wisconsin war casualty in at least 50 years told family members that she worried about being too old and poorly trained for combat.



"We had no idea why she was there," said Lorraine Stevenson, a cousin of Merideth Howard of Waukesha, who was killed Friday in Afghanistan, five months after her unit arrived there.

Howard was 52 years old, making her also the oldest female military member from anywhere in the United States killed in action since U.S. military operations began in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Army announced Monday that the Waukesha woman was killed in Kabul, Afghanistan, along with another U.S. soldier when a suicide car bomber struck a Humvee military vehicle in which they were riding.

Howard was a sergeant assigned to the Army Reserves 364th Civil Affairs Brigade, a unit working to rebuild roads, schools or other infrastructure in the war-torn country.

Susan Utley, another cousin from Howard's home state of Texas, said Howard told her that training of reservists was questionable and that she was "very worried" about being deployed to Afghanistan.

"She was trying to put the best face on it," Utley said. "But, yeah, her whole going over there was with a lot of misgivings."

The military issued a statement Monday that Howard was killed in Friday's suicide bombing along with Robert J. Paul, 43, of The Dalles, Ore., another member of her military unit.

As members of a civil affairs unit, they served with doctors, fire chiefs and other professionals who are helpful in rebuilding Afghanistan's government because of their "finely honed skills practiced daily in the civilian sector," according to a military statement.

As a civilian in Waukesha, Howard worked as a fire safety consultant.

Wisconsin has lost at least six service men and women in Afghanistan, along with 61 others who have been killed in Iraq.

At the Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison, records show that no soldier age 52 or older from Wisconsin has died in combat since at least the Korean War during the 1950s. The museum's archives do not indicate the age of casualties in the Korean War or World War II.

The state lost at least one 53-year-old soldier during World War I.

Records from the U.S. Defense Department show that six older soldiers, all men, have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. The oldest was a 58-year-old from Alabama, according to Department of Defense casualty reports.

Lt. Col. Tim Donovan, spokesman for the Wisconsin National Guard, said the National Guard has 28 members over age 50 serving overseas, out of a total estimated 1,800 members on active duty.

Donovan said the state had a National Guard member in his upper 60s who was activated during the first Persian Gulf War and was the oldest U.S. soldier on active duty at the time.

"They're not youngsters, but they're in good physical shape," he said.

Howard, who was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, joined the Reserves in 1988. She had graduated from Texas A&M University before marrying and relocating to Waukesha with her husband, Hugh Hvolboll.

Hvolboll placed a sign at their residence asking for privacy and declining to speak with the media. The family later issued a statement through the military Monday, saying that she was a "loving, affectionate and outgoing" woman who played tennis in college and later became the first female firefighter in Bryan, Texas.

"She gave the shirt off her back to help each and every friend she had," the statement said.

The family statement said it was Howard's wish to be cremated with her ashes "scattered with fireworks in the waters of both San Francisco and Corpus Christi Bay."

According to the Army, Howard worked as a "medical equipment repairer" and was assigned to the 364th Brigade on April 5, 2006, and shipped out to Afghanistan a short time later.

The Army also said her civilian occupation as a fire protection specialist taught her to design construction specifications and inspect fire alarm systems, sprinkler systems and fire pumps.

John Margowski, director of veterans services for Waukesha County, said the military might be activating older soldiers because of their specialized needs in trying to build new governments in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Noting that the military also could be shorthanded after nearly five years of military operations, Margowski added: "Unless it's an all-out war, I would question putting someone who was older on the front lines."

Stevenson said her cousin expected to go to a safer area of Afghanistan.

Stevenson also said Howard was given a gun that she did not know how to use, even after trying to train herself.

"She was not adequately trained," Stevenson said. "They just sent her over there."

Journal Sentinel researcher Ruth Ward contributed to this report.

From the Sept. 12, 2006 editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel