Tag Archives: national guard

Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Izanne Zorin

DR. IZANNE ZORIN

BIOLOGY PROFESSOR

SCIENCE, BUSINESS, AND TECHNOLOGY DIVISION

ALEXANDRIA CAMPUS

GulfWarA long time ago I was a combat medic in the Army National Guard out of South Carolina. People find this interesting because I am a small person and a nerd – so it just goes to show that you can’t judge a book by its cover. I appreciate my 7 years with the National Guard – I met wonderful people, had access to great equipment and had amazing experiences.  I enlisted to get the funding to complete my undergraduate degree, and the military did provide me with the GI Bill and other programs so that I graduated college with almost zero debt. While training as a non-commissioned officer, I met my husband of 20 years – so I can thank the Army for that too.

While deployed during the first Gulf war, my unit was tasked with running a hospital on a military base in Saudi Arabia. The photograph is of me in the ER with an Egyptian nurse, Adnan, who made friends with all of us (he also proposed marriage to almost all of us women medics). After seeing American and Iraqi soldiers and Saudi civilians with serious injuries and burns, I realized that we are all the same: when we are in pain or scared, we all need support and understanding regardless of our country of origin, race or religion. Although I haven’t been in the military for years now, I will always be grateful for that experience. Go Army!