University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: September 29, 2005

By KEVIN FRYLING
Reporter Contributor

When Jennifer LaBuda was called to active duty in Iraq at the end of 2003, she didn't have much time to prepare.

Although deployed to Iraq as a member of the U.S. Army Reserves, Jennifer LaBuda was able to continue her graduate engineering studies at UB via EngiNet, the SUNY-wide distance-learning program.
PHOTO: KEVIN FRYLING

"It caught me a little off guard, getting called up two days before Christmas," says LaBuda, a graduate student in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

LaBuda spent nearly a year in Iraq, cut off from family, friends, work and her studies at UB—she had taken only one class as a part-time student when she was called to duty. However, a UB engineering course she took via EngiNet, a SUNY distance-learning program, while in Iraq helped her pass the time and cope with her situation.

"I used the class to take my mind off of the events we had going on over there," LaBuda says. "It was a way to take your mind off Iraq and to continue my education."

LaBuda learned about EngiNet from the UB engineering school's Web site. According to Marge Hewlett, administrator of EngiNet, the number of students in the armed forces taking EngiNet courses has increased significantly since Sept. 11, 2002.

Of course, taking a course while in a war zone was no easy task for LaBuda. Reading material and CDs burned with video of class lectures came in the mail, with packages taking two to four weeks to arrive, she says. She occasionally took reading with her on the road—she served as a truck driver with the 369th Transportation Company—but mostly she worked from her laptop at Camp Anaconda, 45 miles north of Baghdad, where she was based, as long as there was electricity.

Although EngiNet streams lecture video over the Internet as well, access was spotty at the base, LaBuda says. "Sometimes it would work, sometimes it would be slow or down. You never knew what to expect over there."

LaBuda credits the support of her teacher, Carl Chang, professor of industrial engineering, with easing the difficult task of taking a class from Iraq.

"Considering the circumstances, EngiNet worked out perfectly for me," she says, noting she could work on papers and exams on her own time and do most of her research online.

LaBuda points out that some of the principles from the EngiNet course "Principles of Engineering Management I" assisted her as a staff sergeant, a position she was promoted to overseas. As a team leader, LaBuda had six people under her command. "The management part helped out a lot," she says. "I learned a lot about leadership and motivation."

"We had a job to do," she adds. "It's your responsibility that they're doing all right...You have a new family over there; the soldiers support each other."

LaBuda began her Army career by signing up for the U.S. Army Reserve following her sophomore year at the University of Rochester, where she earned a bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering in 2002. She was working at a pharmaceutical company on Grand Island when she was called to active duty on Dec. 23, 2003. Ten days later—one day after New Year's Day—she was off to Kansas to train as a truck driver with the 369th Transportation Company.

Soon after, she was deployed to Camp Anaconda, located at Balad Airbase north of Baghdad.

Balad is a very dangerous place, LaBuda notes. Incoming rocket attacks are not unusual. The routes the company traveled, navigating convoys of food, water, ammunition, medical supplies, soldiers and civilian workers to remote bases, were fraught with peril as well, she says. Soldiers were constantly wary of ambushes, roadside bombs and vehicle breakdowns. Days often began at 3 a.m. and in the beginning, missions took several days. There were more single-day trips later on.

"We saw a lot of roadside bombs," she says. Two of her fellow soldiers were seriously injured by roadside bombs; both are now on the road to recovery.

Vehicles were not supplied with proper armor much of the time she was in Iraq, she says. Soldiers had to use scrap metal to protect themselves. Only in the last few months of her deployment did she get to see sufficient military-grade armor.

"I got to see firsthand that it really works. It saved some people's lives; it's too bad we didn't have it sooner," she says

Driving transportation routes enabled LaBuda to see much of Iraq.

"It was a little bit shocking to see people's lives over there," she says, noting she saw garbage in the streets and children wearing rags and no shoes. She contrasts this rampant poverty with the opulence of Saddam's Hussein's palaces, of which she saw several. Sometimes when driving through populated areas, LaBuda and other soldiers tossed to children clothes and toys that had been sent to them by their families or donated by schools and church groups.

A native of Tonawanda, LaBuda returned to the United States on Feb. 20, 2005, after spending 11 months and 22 days in Iraq. The first thing she did when she got home, she recalls, was to eat a home-cooked meal and spend time with family and friends.

LaBuda has resumed work as an associate validation scientist at American Pharmaceutical Partners Inc. Currently on a leave of absence from UB, she hopes to return to her studies in January.