December 01, 2009 9:21 PM
For her, Afghanistan isn't far
By GREG HARDESTY
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Katrina Faulkner calls herself "just the neighbor... the girl next door."
And, indeed, when you see her wearing an Ann Taylor black-knit top and yellow-and-black polka dot skirt, she could be any Orange County working woman.
Then she tells you where she got her pearl earrings.
Not Fashion Island; Afghanistan.
Senior Emergency Management Coordinator Katrina Faulkner
Photo by Paul Rodriguez, the Orange County Register
Faulkner spent four months there this year, deployed as a reservist in the U.S. Air Force, assigned to a large airfield, high in the mountains, which got bombed almost weekly.
"Got these earrings for 28 bucks," says Faulkner, who will be returning to the war zone again – in January 2011.
While President Obama faces a political fight after Monday's announcement to deploy an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, Faulkner, 40, says for the troops in war zones and the families they leave behind, politics almost never is part of the discussion.
"I worked with the same people for 13 hours a day for four months, and never once did we ask, 'Should we be here? Should we not?" says Faulkner, who served as an air terminal operation center duty officer at Bagram Air Field.
"It was the absence of politics over there. It was all about getting the job done.
"It's a dual reality," she adds.
"Normal life continues back here in Orange County – go to work, go to school, complain about the freeway traffic, moan about how long you have to wait in line at Starbucks.
"In Afghanistan, I just focused on the mission that had to be accomplished."
At home, Faulkner works at the Orange County Sheriff's Emergency Operations Center, a fortress-like building that sits atop Loma Ridge east of Tustin.
To read the full story in the Orange County Register click here.