2-tour ‘Mama’ advises young Marines

[unhappycamper]

2-tour ‘Mama’ advises young Marines
By Tom Gordon - The Birmingham News via AP
Posted : Tuesday Jan 8, 2008 17:09:40 EST

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Cpl. Jennifer Holt has become accustomed to having fellow Marines call her by her Alabama nickname, “Bulldog.”

But lately, the former Clay Chalkville High School cheerleader has been answering to another moniker: “Mama.”

Some of the younger Marines in her unit, which is scheduled to head to Iraq next month, are calling her Mama because Holt is not only their senior — she will turn 27 on Valentine’s Day — but because she already has done two Iraq tours. Many Marines in her unit, the 7th Engineer Support Battalion, will be on their first tours.

Individually and in groups, some of them have been asking her a lot of questions about what they can expect, and she answers with what she learned during her two previous seven-month stints in Anbar Province.

“They ask things even as simple as, ‘Is the food good, you know, at the chow hall over there?”’ Holt said this week in a telephone interview from Camp Pendleton, Calif. “Or, you know, ‘What are the people like?’ ... Basically, little things about their culture are pretty much the biggest things that Marines want to know when they go over there, which is good, ’cause they need to know those little things that ... can turn into big things if you don’t know what you’re looking for.”


Rest of article at: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/01/ap_twotourmama_080108/