Military: Former Cherry Sweetheart Rebekah Duman, from The Dalles, Wasco Co., Ore
serves in Iraq.
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
************************************************
*********************************************************************************
Transcribed and formatted for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Earline Wasser <vhambv@hotmail.com.    January 2004
*********************************************************************************    
A Sweetheart of a Soldier
Former Cherry Sweetheart Now Searches for WMD in Iraq

Patriotic New Mom Finds Faith Helps Her Through
By Kathy Gray of The Chronicle   Front Page

[TEXT ONLY]

Photo: Former Cherry Sweetheart Rebekah Duman, nor Rebeka Florence, stands guard
At Uday Palace in Baghdad

Photo: Rebekah Florence stands ready to use her machine gun in needed. Below: her
portrait as 1997 Cherry Sweetheart.

	In the deserts of Iraq, a former Cherry Sweetheart seeks out weapons of
mass destruction. Rebekah Joy Florence, better known to The Dalles residents as
Rebekah Duman, 1997 Northwest Cherry Sweetheart, is part of the Iraqi Survey 
Group. The Goal of this heavily trained and armed group of civilians and 
soldiers is to Dismantle and eliminate weapons of mass destruction (WMD). 
Florence is the Daugther of Deniese Sajdak of The Dalles.
	She is stationed in Baghdad at the former palace of Uday Hussein, once
Known as Victory Palace, now bearing the name Camp Slayer.
	“This was Uday Hussein’s palace before the first bombs fell over Baghdad,”
explained Florence in a letter. “There is a big plaque on the main palace 
building entrance that declares victory over the U.S. in the Iran/Iraq Gulf 
War.”
	Florence is part of a Mobile Collection Team (MCT) that goes out on
Daily missions to seek out WMD.
	“Part of our job is to search for documents and/or chemicals in
laboratories and homes that may affect or pertain to any WMD,” Florence wrote.
“We find clues and small pieces of proof every day. We are soldiers and we are
trained to kill – if necessary. However, unless we are aggressed upon, we do
not fire our weapons.”
	Small groups opposed to the coalition forces continue to launch rocket-
Propelled grenades and mortars at convoys and around Baghdad, Florence wrote.
However, the attacks are declining in number and frequency. “The once friendly
Iraqi people that once greeted us with ‘We love America’ and ‘I love you!’ and
‘Bush Good! Saddam Bad!’ are beginning to feel the strain of still having a 
strong military force roam their streets and land.” She wrote. “They are not 
quite as friendly and are beginning to frown and fold their arms across their
chests when we pass by.”
	Regardless, Florence remains committed to her role in the war, says her
Mother. “She’s pretty much at peace,” Sajdak said.
	Florence joined the Army a month after her reign as 1997 Northwest Cherry
Sweetheart. She was active during high school, also serving on one of the first
Youth Action Councils for the Wasco County Commission on Children and Families.
	Her mother occasionally thinks about the contrast.
	“From that moment when she was riding down the street in her beautiful
gown, two months later she was crawling under tracer bullets in the mud and
rushing dummies with bayonets,” Sajdak said.
	Florence, the oldest of five children, was the first member of the Duman 
Family to join the military.
	“She’s always been very patriotic,” said Sajdak. “She really believes in
what she’s doing.”
	However, she’s not the last of her siblings to serve her country, Sajdak
Noted. Sajdak’s son, Peter Duman, is stationed at the Naval Air Station on
Whidbey Island. Esther Duman Sizemore is also in the Navy, also deployed in 
Support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Daniel Duman serves in the National
Guard.
	The youngest Duman sibling, Chris, is still at The Dalles High School, and
Hopes to be an airplane pilot, but is undecided on the military or civilian 
route.
	“However, he did comment that he felt he wouldn’t be doing his duty (if he
didn’t serve in the military),” Sajdak said.
	Florence was stationed at Fort Riley Kansas from 1998 to 2001, working
As the Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Operations Specialist.
	“I ran an NBC room, which is an office or section in the Army unit or
company that is in charge of all NBC training, issuing and supplying for that 
unit,” Duman wrote.
	She also worked with the Better Opportunities for Single Soldiers (BOSS)
Program at the base, eventually becoming post president.
	The program is geared toward improving the life, welfare and morale of 
Single soldiers. Sajdak considers it an important contribution.
	“She built it up from basically nothing to being very active.” 
	It was a single soldier at Fort Riley in 1998 that she met her future
Husband, Ronald Florence of Concord, Georgia.
	“I met my to-be husband at the post roller skating rink,” she said. “We
both worked there as volunteers and we fell in love.”
	That same year, Ronald Florence got out of the Army and returned to 
Georgia, but the two kept up their courtship at a distance.
	In July 2000, the pair were married on the same skating rink – wearing
Roller skates.
	Florence remained at Fort Riley until July 2001, when she left active duty
And moved to Georgia to be with her husband. In Georgia, she joined the U.S. 
Army Reserves.
	“I became the NBC recom NCO (noncommissioned officer) with the 587th 
Service Company from Fort Gilliam Georgia,” Florence wrote.
	She also became a new mother, giving birth to Bradley Sean Florence on 
November 26, 2001.
	Throughout her active-duty Army career, Florence had remained stationed in
The United States, but on March 31 of this year, she was activated with the 
314th Chemical Company in support of Operation Enduring Freedon.
	“On April 24th, we deployed from Fort Benning Georgia,” she Florence 
wrote. “We arrived in Kuwait 16 hours later on May 11th, Mother’s Day, we 
traveled 375 miles in Humvees, smoke vehicles and five-ton trucks to what was 
called Victory Palace, Baghdad.”
	It was during that trip that Florence came to terms with her purpose in 
Iraq, her mother said.
	“At every village, all the little children would run out and beg for 
food,” Sajdak related. “She told me ‘That’s why I’m here and I’m really glad’”.
	The palace where she’s stationed, now Camp Slayer, was once a beautiful
Place, Florence wrote.
	“Surrounding lakes and palm trees with dates growing on them, and fig 
trees, make the place look more like a resort than a home. The buildings are
beautifully decorated with all marble floors and huge, extravagant chandeliers.”
	The palace contrasts harshly with the conditions in other parts of the 
city.
	“It is a very sad fact to see the Iraqi people pushing around little 
donkey-drawn carts, collecting any spare metal they can find so they can sell
it to survive, and living in blown up little stone buildings – living in dirt 
and dust and heat.”
	“It boggles the mind to see how they lived compared to the wealth and
riches the Hussein family stole from them. This alone makes our cause completely
justified.”
	Far away from her family, husband and baby, Florence relies heavily on her
Faith to see her through, Sajdak said.
	“She’s taken it on herself to read the Bible all the way through,” Sajdak
said. “She has strength of faith and she feels like she’s got a bubble of
protection around her.”
	While other reservists have recently received word that their duty hitches
Have been extended, Florence says she will be in Iraq until her job is done.
	“We will be here, doing our job, until we are satisfied that we have
found all there is to be found.”
	In the meantime, her husband has also received word that he is being 
Called back to active duty, Sajdak said. He expects to be called to 
Afghanistan sometime soon.


The Dalles Chronicle   September 14, 2003.





Written permission to reprint given by The Dalles Chronicle, The Dalles, Oregon.