Posted 12:55 pm Monday, September 13, 2010
Storyteller: East Texan Shares Soldiers' Stories Through Words, Pictures
Getting a story in Afghanistan was not always easy for Airman 1st Class Laura Goodgame. The photojournalist traveled from base to base and hitchhiked around the country, searching for a soldier who had a story to tell.
The photojournalist traveled from base to base and hitchhiked around the country, searching for a soldier who had a story to tell.
"Some nights were hard because you would stay out and you had no change of clothes, or it was hot and sweaty, or freezing cold," she said.
The experience was all part of her desire to travel the world and tell soldiers' stories -- the same desire that led her to join the military in 2008.
Two years later, the 26-year-old is home from a six-month deployment to Afghanistan.
She grew up around Lake Palestine and graduated from Bullard High School in 2003.
With her future ahead of her, she went to college at the University of California San Diego and then worked at East Texas Medical Center and Mother Frances Hospital.
However, she grew bored with her work and wanted to travel the world and do something more exciting.
She eventually decided that joining the military would fulfill her wishes, so she went to the recruiting office across from Robert E. Lee High School.
"I had a lot of friends and family that had been deployed, and I felt the need and wanted to go out and tell their (soldiers') story," she said.
After attending basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio and technical school at Fort Meade in Maryland, the photojournalist was sent to Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska.
It wasn't until January that she was deployed to Afghanistan, where she documented the history of the war and taught Afghans how to practice public relations for the military.
She said that although there was no typical day, her daily routine likely included a jog with a male escort, eating, grabbing her gear and going on a mission.
She specifically recalled her first mission, which involved a female gunner.
"It was high tempo the whole time," she said. "I never got hit, but the trucks in front of me and behind me did. That was stressful. It's hard going out, but they need their story told."
She also recalled a special experience she had when she left Afghanistan.
She said she ended up flying back to the United States on a plane that her brother, Stephen, had worked on at an Air Force base in Charleston, S.C.
"I snapped a quick photo and sent it to Charleston … ," she said. "It was a heartwarming thing that he had worked on something just a few days before it came and I got on it."
Overall, Airman 1st Class Good-game has written more than 25 stories and has published had more than 814 photographs.
Her grandmother, Margie Tuck, said her photographs are unique because she looks at things in a different way.
According to a narrative summary of her performance, she also helped in the planning and execution of more than 10 outside-the-wire combat, training and humanitarian assistance missions as a photographer, writer and photography mentor to Afghan National Security Force Public Affairs officers in Regional Command East.
Through all her experiences in Afghanistan, she said it was great to have other military members around her because they were like family and watched out for her.
She also was able to come away with a new appreciation for the United States.
"You get to see a third world country, and you see how lucky we have it here in the states and how blessed everyone is here," she said. "Even the poorest person born in the states is still better off than over there. It makes you not take food, water, showers, anything for granted -- even sidewalks."
And now that she's home, she said she is enjoying restaurants and even got to go on a cruise with family members.
She described being home as "surreal" and "almost like a dream."
Mrs. Tuck said she was grateful to have her granddaughter home, and it feels good to be able to set a dinner plate for her.
"She just seems a little stressed, but I think time will heal all the wounds," she said.
In the future, Airman 1st Class Goodgame would like to apply to a journalism program at Syracuse University in New York.
