Grandmother in Afghanistan helps heal troops

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Read more stories about Oklahoma at War and the Oklahoma National Guard produced by student journalists from Cameron University, Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma.

View photos and an interactive map of the 45th Infantry Brigade of the Oklahoma Army National Guard.

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Hughes is a nurse practitioner stationed at Combat Outpost Xio Haq in Afghanistan's Laghman province, the base of operations for the 45th Infantry Brigade's Special Troops Battalion.

At 54, she is the oldest soldier on the outpost, a grandmother of six and the unofficial mother to a lot of Oklahoma soldiers.

"I could be some of these soldiers' mother, and sometimes that's what they need - either a listening word of guidance or sometimes a boxing on the ears," she said jokingly.

Mostly, according to the soldiers at Xio Haq, Hughes is a soothing presence at a time when the 45th has taken heavy casualties.

"I think parts of it have been hard," she said. "We cry every time we lose a soldier, but it strengthens our resolve to serve. We try to keep going forward looking at the big mission, but we grieve every time we lose somebody."

Hughes' plywood desk is crammed in the corner of the small clinic. Her crude workspace is stacked with Army paperwork that never seems to end, but when a soldier comes through the aid station door, she and her small staff go to work on both the physical and mental well-being of the patient.

"We look at the whole person, and in this case the whole soldier, and these are young men and women who are seeing a lot of horrors," she said. "They're seeing their friends hurt, and sometimes just a listening ear is what they need."

Hughes began her military service in 1995 and joined the Oklahoma National Guard in June 2008. She is a registered nurse.

She just returned to Afghanistan from Edmond, where she spent her two-week home leave enjoying her children and grandchildren.

"My grandchildren call me 'Nana,' " she said, "and my little grandson said, 'Nana, I don't want you to go back.' So they are making sacrifices, too."

Despite the concerns of Hughes' family members about her deployment in Afghanistan, she feels that she is making a difference and is right where she should be.

"They worry about me, but I tell them I'm doing what I want to do and they need to understand that," she said. "It's hard on them, but we need to take care of these guys and girls who are out here putting it on the line."

Original Print Headline: Grandmother helps heal troops

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OU professor Mike Boettcher is embedded with Oklahoma's 45th Infantry Brigade.

Source: http://www.tulsaworld.com/site/articlepath.aspx?articleid=20111203_11_A17_CUTLIN987170&rss_lnk=11

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