All Over Albany

From Albany to Iraq and back

Kate Hoit, a UAlbany student and Iraq veteran, writes about her time in the Army this week in the Albany Student Press:

In the summer of 2004, I got a phone call while waiting tables at the Fountain Restaurant on New Scotland Ave. It was a sergeant from my unit in Schenectady telling me I was being deployed.

I hung up the phone and stood there for a minute. I should've known this was coming.

I picked up the phone and called my parents.

"Hi Mom," I said.

"Katie, your sergeant just called here," my mom said.

"I know, I just talked to him," I said "I'm being deployed to Iraq."

There was an awkward moment of silence. There was nothing she could've said that would've made me feel better. I was a soldier. This shouldn't have fazed me -- but it did.

"You've got to be kidding me," she said through her tears.

"I wish mom. I gotta get back to work."

"Okay, I love you."

I hung up the phone and walked outside. My eyes started to fill with tears as I wondered if I was going to be killed over there.

I remembered the couple that had just come into the restaurant. I walked back in and took their order.

Here's part two of the piece.

Kate also writes a blog: My American-Iraq Life.

photo: Patrick Dodson / ASP