Soldier Girls

Soldier Girls by Helen Thorpe is a non-fiction journalistic look into the lives of three military woman over a twelve-year period. They prepare to leave for war, come back to their lives in the states, and two of them ship out once more. Thorpe is a journalist and author specializing in multiculturalism, immigration, and America’s relationship to global culture. Stylistically, Soldier Girls is written as a narrative, focusing on the personal lives and experiences of its three main characters. The New York Times Book Review calls it a “breakthrough work...What Thorpe accomplishes in Soldier Girls is something far greater than describing the experience of women in the military. The book is a solid chunk of American history...Thorpe triumphs.”

Part 1 begins in Indiana from 2001 through 2003. It details Michelle Fischer’s journey enrolling in the National Guard and going through training. In 2001, twenty-year-old Michelle eagerly joins the Guard after hearing a pitch from a local recruiter. She doesn’t see herself as a military woman, but the offer to receive full college tuition, a housing allowance, and an enrollment bonus is tempting. Her boyfriend, Noah, goes with her and ends up enlisting as well. From there, they take a series of placement tests and eventually begin training. Her choices are limited to driving a truck, fixing vehicles, and repairing weapons. She begins basic training in June 2001, graduating in August of 2001. She moves on to the second half of her training in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland. Here, she experiences some of the difficulties of being a woman in a mostly-male company. The first chapter ends with the events of 9/11 and how this affects the military.

In addition to her military journey, the section describes Michelle’s personal life. She is the youngest of a number of half-siblings, close with her mother, but less close to her military father. Her father has been married six times to four different women. He drank heavily, and in one incident, her mother calls the police on him. He fails to support his family economically. Thorpe also describes an incident when, as a child, Michelle’s dress catches fire and she spends almost a full year in the hospital. The book follows her through high school and college, up to her present decision to enlist.



The next chapter details Debbie Helton’s life. Her father is also military, a drill sergeant in the Army. Debbie joins the National Guard at age thirty-two, and in 2001 is forty-nine, one of the longest-serving woman in the National Guard. She serves as a weapons specialist in Indiana and is a maternal figure to some of the men at the base. Before joining the military, she struggled with her identity, leaning more toward masculine pursuits though she also received a degree in cosmetology. This chapter also looks at her relationship with Jeff, how she doubts her desirability because of her unfeminine habits, such as not being a good housekeeper. She joins the military for a sense of community.

Desma Brooks is the third woman Thorpe follows. In her mid-twenties, she joins the military on a dare. Lacking life goals, she finds purpose in the military. She is the mother of three children. She gives up her guardianship to a relative so she can join. When she returns after being away for two years, her children are struggling and resentful. This section ends as these three women meet in training, proceeding to their experiences at war.

After 9/11, women are called up to participate in campaigns. They are first deployed to Afghanistan. The women of their battalion roughly account for a third of all soldiers compared to the men. Despite their resentment, the women adopt similar lifestyles to the men, including alcohol and affairs, as a means to pass the time waiting for battle. Though Desma and Michelle aren’t single, they have affairs with other soldiers while in Iraq. Debbie, continuing in her motherly role, is often confided in. One woman soldier tells her about an unwanted pregnancy. Another incident involves a sex tape that is leaked. The women of the base are subjected to varying levels of sexual harassment, constantly followed by male advances and uncontrolled sex drive.



Desma returns home with significant PTSD but is re-deployed to Iraq. This campaign is much harder, and she constantly fears sexual assault from fellow soldiers. She is ostracized by the male soldiers in her battalion to the point of not receiving proper training. She ultimately requests a transfer. Although the three women vary in their responses to how much value their time spent at war had for them personally and for the U.S., they all agree that their bond and solidarity is unwavering; their experience would have been vastly different without the support they gave each other as women.

Soldier Girls isn’t a typical war account in that it focuses on personal relationships rather than actual fighting. In many ways, the women of the army act similarly to the men and partake in the same vices. But the book illuminates how much more dangerous and difficult it is to be a woman soldier in a male-dominated military culture. Rank also comes into play; male officers with high rank were often not reprimanded for sexual harassment and assault. Thorpe also touches on subjects, such as PTSD, that are usually discussed only in relation to men. The book adds the voices of women to the conversation on the military experience – a voice that is often marginalized. The hardships of these women are on full display, and Thorpe points to the larger cultural and institutional circumstances that led to this precarious situation.