NRI California Sikh
girl back in Iraq as a US soldier
Resolute Sikh girl back in Iraq as a US soldier
Submitted by Mudassir Rizwan on Sun, 12/16/2007 - 07:33. India
News
By Jaideep Sarin, IANS
Chandigarh : The burst from a malfunctioning automatic weapon
may have injured her but not her spirit to be where the action
is. Ranbir Kaur, 21, a Jat-Sikh girl born in India, is headed
back to Iraq - one of the most troubled spots in the world - to
make up on lost work as part of the US armed forces.
Being in the middle of hotspots is nothing new for Kaur, who
is attached with the US National Guards.
She was assigned duty in war-ravaged Iraq earlier this year after
having done a stint in patrolling the streets of another hotspot,
Kabul city in Afghanistan.
After her injury in November, Kaur rested for four weeks and
on Saturday she headed back for Iraq.
"She is very determined. The accident in Iraq meant a cooling
off period for her in the US. But she is now headed back to work
in Iraq. She seemed quite enthusiastic about going back there,"
Hoshiarpur-based horticulturist-author Khushwant Singh, who featured
her in his book "Sikhs
Unlimited" this year, told IANS after speaking to her
in the US this week.
Kaur's new assignment in Iraq will be as a trucker and a gunner
at an undisclosed Iraq city.
The dauntless Kaur slung an M-16 rifle on her shoulders when
she was 17. At 20, she patrolled the streets of Kabul in 2006.
"I have test-fired almost every weapon in the US Army now,"
Kaur told the author in his book that featured successful Sikh
men and women among the Indian diaspora. He referred to her as
"Specialist Kaur" - a name she acquired in the US forces.
She was the first Sikh girl to join the US Armed Forces, becoming
one among the over 200,000 women soldiers in the force. That was
in 2003. Her work in Afghanistan and Iraq has ranged from protecting
airports, streets of Kabul and heritage and religious buildings.
For a girl whose favourite conversation line is "If I gotta
go, I'm gonna go", things were not as easy even after she
joined the US Armed Forces. She received hate mails and one criticism
levelled against her was that she found it convenient to join
the US forces in order to get citizenship. The truth, however,
is that she got her citizenship before she joined the forces.
"In countries like Iraq and Afghanistan, everything is frontline.
If death does not deter me, nothing else can," she told Khushwant.
She took an "awesome" fascination for the uniform while
still in high school where marines and regulars from forces used
to distribute fliers to students outside the school career centre.
Born in Nijjran village of Punjab's non-resident Indian (NRI)-dominated
Jalandhar district, the young girl reached US shores as a seven-year-old
after her father Mahan Singh, pursuing dollar dreams, secured
a US green card in 1990.
Singh, who lives with his large family in San Joaquin Valley,
Earlimart-California, is now a grape-grower.
Kaur's liking for action was revealed when hurricane Katrina
hit New Orleans in 2005. She responded to the request of an organisation,
the United Sikhs, to help salvage from the rubble the holy book
of the Sikhs - Guru Granth Sahib - also referred to by the community
as a living guru.