By ANN ALLEN
Indiana Correspondent

LAKEVILLE, Ind. — The Texas National Guard’s Agribusiness Development Team is not for men only: This particular unit includes three women, with a total of approximately 60 involved in all the teams.

“God sent me here,” said 2nd Lt. Laura Childs of Katy, Texas. She and her husband, the parents of three school-age children, decided “somebody’s got to go” and prayed about it.

Since he was too old for the all-volunteer team, she wrote a letter telling why she should be chosen, and was accepted. While he is happy to care for the children in her absence, she described him as a “tiny bit jealous.”

“He’s not jealous I’ll be working with so many men,” she said. “He’s envious that I’ll be having all the fun.”

As for her safety in the war-torn country, she said, “If I come home, good. If I don’t, it’s part of God’s plan. He’s in control.”
She and Sgt. Katie Williams see their primary roles in Afghanistan as empowering women to throw off restraints placed upon them by the Taliban. “The women are ready,” Childs said. “They’ve been stifled too long.

“Some of them were doctors and lawyers before the Taliban took over and hid them in burqas out of the public eye. The women are ready to start living again.”

They want women to gain confidence in their government, and to see an extension service developed.

“We’ll start with simple projects such as beekeeping, poultry, handicrafts – things women can do at home with their children, but that they have been unable to do for the past decade. We want to show them it’s possible to work and raise their children at the same time,” Childs said.

This is her first deployment, but Williams has been to both Afghanistan and Iraq.

“If more people knew what we are doing over there, they’d have a different view of the war,” Childs said. “The war is about protecting us so the Taliban doesn’t have a safe haven. We have to get the bad guys out and help establish a government that is less corrupt, one that is independent.”

In spite of leaving her family for a year, having to wear ACUs and mucking about in goat pens, Childs declared, “This is going to be a fun trip.” Williams agreed.