Malibu DAR hosts 9th Annual Women in Military luncheon; special guest speaker talks about first time experience under fire.
By Ward Lauren / Special to The Malibu Times
Telling the story of how it felt to be under fire for the first time in Iraq, Navy Lt. Jennifer Daniel spoke to a gathering of about 70 members and guests of the Malibu chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution at the 9th annual Women in Military Luncheon Saturday at the Malibu Riding & Tennis Club.
Daniel, a naval flight officer with more than 1,000 hours in combat aircraft who served two deployments in the Arabian Gulf aboard the USS Harry S. Truman, drew rapt attention from the audience as she described some of her six- to seven-hour combat missions during and after the initial push into Iraq in 2003. She flew as a radar intercept officer in F-14 Tomcat jets.
As a “nugget,” the fliers’ term for a new squadron member, she remembered her first day and the sudden realization that she was seriously in the war. “Hey, they’re shooting at us!” Daniel recalled her thoughts then.
Describing flying over environments that were hostile both geographically and politically, with mined borders between both friendly and unfriendly nations, she said, “You knew you would be on your own if you went down.”
Daniel, whose service nickname is Jack, came from a military family in Lynchburg, VA. As a Navy “brat” she knew she eventually wanted to fly off aircraft carriers. Obtaining a full college scholarship from the Navy, she was on her way.
In her two deployments to the Arabian Gulf she served as air-to-ground weapons training officer and squadron legal officer in Operations Noble Eagle and Iraqi Freedom II and I. Following sea duty with VF-32 Lt. Daniel reported to Marine Fighter Attack Training.
She is currently assigned to the Bloodhounds of the Air Test and Evaluation Squadron VX-30 at Point Mugu as Tomahawk project officer and lead airborne missile flight safety officer.
Daniel, who is 29, is contemplating life after her initial military commitment ends in two and a half years. She may yet be sent on a third deployment to the Arabian Gulf, but after that she said she feels she will be leaning toward a return to civilian life.
“I love the Navy,” she said, “but frankly, I really love it out here, too!”
Daniel concluded her remarks Saturday by thanking all women military veterans for their contribution to the current state of the armed forces.
“You cleared the way for people like me to get where we are today in the military services,” she said.
Retired Marine Corps Lt. Col. John Gaillard, whose wife, Capt. Paz Gomez, was a speaker at last year’s luncheon, was also a featured speaker at the event. Gaillard is retired from the Marine Corps after 24 years of service. He now lives in Oxnard with his Navy wife and their five-year-old twin children, who all attended the luncheon. He commended all World War II veterans, who inspired him, he said, to join the service.
His presentation at the luncheon dealt not so much with his service experiences, as his vivid memories of Sept. 11, 2001. Both he and his wife and children were in the Pentagon, but in separate places, on that fateful day. He described the chaos, fear, and worry, and the difficulty of travel and reuniting that marked the entire 24-hour period.
He concluded his remarks with a brief description of his present duties as training and exercise director for the Dept. of Homeland Security in the California governor’s office and voiced his concern of the need for vigilance in a new kind of war.
DAR also recognized several students on Saturday for their scholastic achievements.
Chapter Chaplain Patricia Scoggins introduced Samantha Hereu-Silverman, the winner of the Malibu DAR chapter’s American History Essay Contest, and classmate Sara Elizabeth Robbins, who received honorable mention. Both eighth-graders were awarded certificates and a $100 honorarium.
Kathy Merrill presented the chapter’s Good Citizen Award to Malibu High School senior, student body President and Valedictorian Sara Daoud, who came to Malibu from Afghanistan. She also received a certificate and $100.
In closing, DAR co-chair Marj Dukatz, who joined the Marine Corps after her fiancé was killed on Iwo Jima in World War II, reminded the audience that the main subject of the luncheon was women in the military, and the honoring of their achievements. She then conducted a brief discussion of “Our Women Veterans.”
Earlier in the afternoon, after a welcome by Regent Carol Jackson, the formal opening of the luncheon included the posting of the colors by the Trident Squadron Sea Cadets of Point Mugu. This was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by Jackson’s husband, Jerry, Vietnam War veteran whose book, “Remembering Stories from the WWII Pacific,” was recently published.