Desiree Palmer: Back from Iraq
Bath native enjoying threeweek leave
By ROB PRICE THE COURIER-ADVOCATE

PHOTO BY ROB PRICE Desiree Palmer, a Marine Corps sergeant, stands at ease in front of her Freeman Hollow Road.

BATH - Denise Palmer is back home after a six-month deployment in northwest Iraq, and she has been loving just about every moment of her leave.

"It's good to be home," she said last week in the den of her family's home on Freeman Hollow Road.

Palmer, a five-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, holds the rank of sergeant and is a Marine Corps-trained expert in field radio operations. She deployed to Iraq In September 2007 and spent two months on the Iraq-Syria border searching women who were crossing the border from Syria.

The majority of the returning women had fled Iraq months, even years, earlier, and were being deported by Syria back to their native country.

The work involved 12-hour days working side by side with one other woman. "They were long days," she said.

In November she was posted to Al-Asad, located in northwest Iraq and the site of a major U.S. Air Force base. She spent the remainder of her Iraq tour stationed to the base and joining mission deployments as a field radio operator.

With her Iraq deployment behind her, Palmer hopes to join the U.S. Navy and complete her college work to earn a bachelor's degree.

A 2002 graduate of Haverling High School, she earned an associate's degree while serving in the Marine Corps.

After college, she hopes to earn a degree in nursing, then join the Navy as a commissioned officer and registered nurse. "Over the years, I've just decided I want to be a medical professional," she said.

Looking back over her months in Iraq - and years in the Marine Corps - Palmer said she made "some very good friends. ... When you're in a hostile environment, it's easy to get close to people because they're all you have.

"I've made a lot of close friends who will be lifetime friends," she said.