November 5, 2009 Woman vet honored for Iraqi service Play video

(NECN: Greg Wayland) - She moved from her native California to help open a Massachusetts center for combat-stressed veterans.

Her name is Michelle Wilmot, and she, too, has suffered the effects of war.

Today, at the Massachusetts State House she was honored as the state's outstanding woman veteran of the year.

"For being a recipient for the outstanding women veteran award, for your courageous service to our country. Thank you."

Michelle Wilmot was seventeen when she enlisted in the Army, following in the footsteps of her proud family of veterans.

She trained as a medic and mental health specialist, rose to the rank of sergeant and was deployed to Ramadi, Iraq in December, 2004.

Her love of language prompted her to study Arabic before shipping out.

"I really believe that, before you go to another country, you should be able to handle yourself in their language and I really do believe that it helps build report with the local Iraqis," she said

Such cultural sensitivity and courage helped earn her the outstanding woman veteran award.

The documentary "Lioness", tells the story of female soldiers like Wilmot attached to Marine infantry units in Iraq performing checkpoint operations, house raids and searches on women and children for weapons and explosives.

But this 28-year-old daughter of an Irish father and a mother from the Marianna Islands says she encountered her harshest military experiences at the hands

"One staff sergeant looked at me and said, 'Who's the raghead?' And a lot of times people look at me and say, okay, where's she from? Who is she?"

"And I actually had a predominantly female command, which was interesting because there was another female colonel who was Italian and Jewish and they picked on her for that as well."

She was even forced to turn in a male commander for fraud, waste, abuse and withholding supplies.

"They could take away everything they could from me, whether it's rank or pay, but they couldn't take away my integrity."

Now she directs a training and rehabilitation center in Gardner, Mass. for stressed, brain-injured and homeless veterans. It was dedicated last month.

"It helps me as well, because it gives me a purpose again. Coming back from Iraq I think a lot of people struggled to find their purpose again, because you just come back from a part of your life that is probably the most important as far as the most significant change in your life and a lot of people don't understand that and when it comes down to actually finding your path again. It's really difficult and I think I found my true calling here."

She plans to tell her story to a wider audience, write a book about it, in fact -- the good things, the painful things. All chapters in her life as a woman, and a soldier.