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Nurses ready for tour in Iraq

• Two Darton College professors are preparing for active duty in Iraq.

Barbara Rivera Holmes

ALBANY — At 54 and nearly five years inactive, Bonnie Gary didn’t expect to hear from the Air Force Reserve.

But a shortage of medical professionals and ongoing strife in the Middle East brought the Air Force a-callin’: Gary, a registered nurse and Darton College nursing professor, will deploy to Iraq sometime in the next month.

“It was out of the blue,” said Gary of the notice for service she received in April 2007.

Gary joined the Air Force Reserve in 2000, and prior to that had been in the U.S. Army Reserve since 1987. She last was a flight nurse and flew “in and out of Haiti,” she said, “but I didn’t have to stay.”

She joined the reserve, she said, “mainly because I was just patriotic. I wanted to do my part.”

Although she’ll leave behind a husband and grown children, three of whom have served in the military, Gary said she’s excited about the opportunity.

“Somebody took care of him (Gary’s son), so I’m going to take care of someone else’s family,” she said of giving back.

“Over there, I’ll be taking care of our heroes that are injured.”

Gary was in Texas recently for weeklong training and now heads to Alabama for two weeks of training.

Gary’s unexpected call to duty was all the motivation her friend and colleague Barbara Miller needed to take another shot at military service.

Miller, also a registered nurse and Darton nursing professor, initially applied for the reserve in the late 1990s but said there were no openings then. Soon after, she had a baby girl.

In October 2007, a few months after Gary’s news, she reapplied to the Air Force Reserve.

“I feel like if they’ve (other military personnel) got to be over there, somebody’s got to be there to help them,” Miller said. “I’m just real patriotic.”

Now she awaits the details of her commission as well as her orders.

“To get commissioned is why it takes so long,” said Miller, 42, who like Gary, has a Master’s degree. “I was wanting Bonnie to swear me in.”

“I was so honored,” said Gary.

Miller, who is married and whose children are 8, 18 and 21, said the family is supportive of her decision.

“She’s real excited,” said Miller of her 8-year-old daughter, Emma Miller. “She’s told her class.”

Her husband, she said, “was in the military, so he understands. He’s patriotic, too.”

But the pair won’t leave behind just family; they’ll also say goodbye to dozens of students.

Gary, who is in charge of Darton’s Americus-Cordele satellite program, said she’s most disappointed that she’ll miss the graduation ceremony for her Sumter County students.

Miller and Gary said the college has been extremely supportive of their involvement with the reserve and already had made arrangements to cover their classes.

“Our students are taken care of,” Gary said. “Nobody is going to be neglected.”

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