CMR grad handling media information in Iraq
Maj. Josslyn Aberle didn't make it back to Great Falls for her 20th high school reunion, but she has a decent excuse.
The 37-year-old, 1983 C.M. Russell High and 1989 Montana State University graduate is stationed nearly 7,000 miles away in Tikrit, Iraq.
"It was very disappointing, not being able to come," Aberle said in a phone interview from Iraq. But she sent photos home to her classmates.
Aberle is the public affairs officer for the Army's 4th Infantry Division, the unit that is on the hunt for deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. She's the spokeswoman for 27,000 infantry soldiers and provides information to the 50-plus reporters embedded with her division.
Aberle said she will be one of the first people called if and when Saddam is captured, so that she can address the media.
Reporters who travel with the 4th Infantry come from some of the biggest news organizations in the world including all of the major television networks, The Associated Press and the L.A. Times.
"You name the (news organization); if we don't have them now, we've had them," Aberle said.
The job often thrusts Aberle into the national media spotlight. She makes regular appearances on national network television. And she is frequently quoted in articles, including a number that were carried by the Great Falls Tribune.
"I get to meet plenty of well-known journalists and leaders," Aberle said.
She's been on a phone hookup with Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, was interviewed by Oliver North and Geraldo Rivera and appeared on Good Morning America.
But nothing, she admits, quite compares to the day she met President Bush and the first lady. That was back on Jan. 3 at Fort Hood, Texas, where she was stationed.
After a speech by the President, Aberle's job was to follow him around taking photos.
Suddenly, she said, "President Bush grabs me on the shoulder and says `this time you get in the picture, major.'
"He talked with me for about 45 seconds to a minute about the upcoming mission," she recalled. "It was pretty unbelievable."
But Aberle's job isn't always so glamorous.
She works 15- and 16-hour days, starting at 5:30 every morning with physical training.
"It's the coolest at that part of the day. It's only about 95 degrees," Aberle said. "An average high here is about 130 degrees with a heat index of 140 degrees.
"It's like standing in a blast furnace," she said.
She then is briefed on the day's happenings and major action. She compiles the information, then conducts a briefing for reporters.
Aberle said it's her job to not only give correct information, but also to make sure she doesn't release anything that could jeopardize troops or the mission.
The hardest thing, she said, is giving information about deaths in her infantry.
That's balanced by "being able to showcase what our soldiers do every day," she said. "It's gratifying when you're doing a job that you believe in."
Another duty is helping set up new provincial governments and area governors.
"We end up teaching them in what amounts to a Civics 101 class," Aberle said.
She says the Iraqis are a little skeptical at first, but they come around quickly.
"The reaction has been very positive once they understand that they have a choice in their own government," Aberle said. "They're very supportive."
Earlier this year she turned into a bit of a local celebrity in Kirkuk, Iraq.
While she was at work, a group of about 100 Iraqi girls, age 10 to 14, were demonstrating outside her building.
"The headmistress for their school locked the doors to the school and refused to open it until Saddam's Ba'ath party returned to power," Aberle said. "The girls just wanted to go to school."
So Aberle and a few other officers went to fire the headmistress, appoint a new one and reopen the school.
"The girls aren't used to seeing women in leadership roles," Aberle said. "So when I hopped out of the vehicle they went nuts.
"They were cheering and clapping. By the end of it there were two or three hundred schoolgirls and their mothers all cheering. Some were waving homemade American flags."
She stayed and signed autographs for over an hour. After that girls would stand outside her office and beg her to come out.
Her fellow soldiers began calling her Major "B," short for Britney Spears, because of her growing fan club.
When not at war, Aberle lives in Fort Hood, Texas. But she says she'll always have a special place in her heart for Great Falls, where she was born and raised.
"I think Great Falls is one of the best places to grow up," Aberle said. "As kids you didn't have to worry about walking anywhere or riding your bike to school. It's a safe environment."
Aberle joined the ROTC to pay for school at MSU. She graduated with a degree in communication and decided to sign up for active duty "to travel and meet different people."
Her parents Joe and Lillian Aberle, and brother J.J. all continue to live in Great Falls.
On a recent trip to Alaska Joe and Lillian Aberle were surprised to "hear from" their daughter.
"We happened to pick up an Anchorage daily paper and there she was, quoted in there three or four times," Joe Aberle said. "We're really proud of her."
For Major Aberle, getting in touch with family has been difficult and sporadic. Sometimes emails do not work, and the opportunity to call by satellite phone comes up infrequently.
"Once we went a whole month and didn't hear anything from her," said Lillian Aberle, who says she worries constantly about her daughter.
"She's definitely on my mind 24/7 - and then some," she said.
Aberle expects to return to the United States in April or May of 2004. She already has plans.
"I'll take a much needed vacation," Aberle said. "I'll come to Montana and visit my family."
But first she will get cleaned up.
"I need to do some girl stuff: manicures, pedicures, a spa and then come," she said. "I need to get all the sand off of me. I've got sand in places I didn't even know I had."
Aberle may have missed her 20th high school reunion, but she'll have plenty of stories for her 25th.
