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Taylor grad may head to war zone 
Kidwell |
By Leah Fillion Kidwell, 19, completing Air Force medical program Maegan Kidwell is only 19 years old, but she will soon enter hostile war zones in Iraq as a cardio-pulmonary specialist to care for injured soldiers while they are transported back to the United States for treatment. Just two months after graduating Taylor High School in December 2006, Kidwell signed up for the Air Force, packed up her belongings and left for seven weeks of basic training. For a young girl who had never really left home, being gone for almost two months with only three phone calls to her family was hard on her, she said. “My first conversation was only 20 seconds long to my mom. We could only write home for an hour every Sunday,” she said. “That part was hard to get used to.” But Kidwell quickly adjusted to life in the Air Force and eventually earned enough respect to graduate from the title of “female” to her real name. “It was weird at first but you really don't want people to know your name,” Kidwell said. “It is better to just blend in and not draw attention to yourself.” But Kidwell did get the attention of her superiors, who were in charge of assigning her a job for the next five years of her commitment to the Air Force. Jobs are assigned based on education level and experience. Kidwell qualified as a cardio-pulmonary technician - a difficult job usually not assigned to people her age. Kidwell took classes at Temple College to graduate with dual credit hours while attending Taylor High School. Upon graduating, Kidwell had 20 college credits under her belt and plenty of math and science to qualify her as a candidate in the program. “I was happy it was something medical because it is what I always wanted,” Kidwell said. “I knew I wanted to be a nurse or a pediatrician.” Kidwell is now stationed in Maryland where she is working on real patients for the first time. Even though she is the youngest in her program by at least five years, Kidwell said she is always the first to raise her hand when an opportunity arises to practice a new skill. “One guy in the ER came in and was not breathing. I got to intubate him, which means I put a tube down his throat to open the air passage, and then hooked him up to a ventilator,” she said. “All my friends were really jealous because they were too scared to try it.” Once she completes her training in Maryland, she will be sent to Arizona in preparation for deployment. Kidwell and others are given only a rough estimate of deployment - usually they are sent within one year. In that time they must immunized against diseases such as small pox and anthrax, file paperwork and write their last will and testament. “My job gets deployed a lot. Our classes are so small because the program is hard to get into. That's also why we are deployed so much,” Kidwell said. But Kidwell said though she worries about the risks involved with her job, in the end it is not about herself but about helping the soldiers overseas who are fighting in the war. “I love my job, it's honorable,” she said. “I know that I'm helping people and I feel like I'm doing something great.”
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