PORT ANGELES — April Gregory has witnessed war’s horrors.
Stationed by the Army in Mosul, Iraq, since September, the 23-year-old Port Angeles High alumnus flew home Tuesday night to spend two weeks of rest and relaxation with family and friends.
On Thursday, speaking from home and far from the stifling heat of Mosul, Gregory detailed how she was only a couple of hundred yards away from a bomb that ripped through an Army dining facility on Dec. 21, killing 22 people and injuring scores more.
“All I remember is throwing my gear off, running in there and starting to carry people out,” said Gregory, a communications sergeant who was awarded an Army Commendation Medal for her quick-thinking that deadly day.
“It was horrible . . . after that, it was hard for [soldiers] to talk about it and morale went down for quite a while.
“People were very angry, upset. They wanted revenge.”
Gregory lost friends in the suicide-bombing incident and admits it was the worst day of her 10 months in Iraq, where 138,000 U.S. troops are now stationed — 11,000 of them women.
But even seeing that carnage wasn’t enough to discourage her from signing up for more.
The soft-spoken woman is only a few months from completing her six years of Army duty that she signed up for just after turning 18.
While many of her comrades are itching to head home for good, Gregory recently signed up for another six years of duty.
She knows it means probably ending up back in Iraq, or maybe even Afghanistan.
“For me, I love my job,” said Gregory while her father, sister and nephew huddled around her in their living room.
“I love meeting new people, traveling, and I feel like I’m making a difference over there in Iraq.”