College will have to wait for Iraq-bound UW student

SEATTLE — Spc. Amanda Labrum tries hard not to think about what awaits her when she gets to Iraq next year as a member of the Washington National Guard’s 81st Armor Brigade.

"Obviously, any time you go into a war situation, there’s going to be danger," said Labrum, 21, who began training at Fort Lewis in Tacoma this week for her eventual deployment.

"Obviously, I’ve never been to war," she said.

Much of Labrum’s life has been spent going to school and getting ready for her future. Now, that future is on hold.

A fourth-year junior at the University of Washington who is a year and a half away from getting her degree in political science, she had to drop out of school last week. She also had to leave her job as a manager for the UW women’s volleyball team, which is expected to reach the NCAA tournament for the second year in a row.

College and volleyball will have to wait. Labrum has 90 days of military training at Fort Lewis and in California, followed by deployment along with the 3,300 other members of her brigade to Iraq.

She works in personnel services and has a clerical position.

"I’m a soldier now," she said.

Labrum’s father, Joe, 60, and her mother, Diana, 59, both accountants, accompanied their daughter the day she signed up for a six-year hitch in the Guard after graduating from Vashon High School in 2000.

But her parents aren’t happy about Amanda’s call to active duty. They don’t believe the National Guard should be used as part of an occupying force in another country and they don’t think the United States has any business being in Iraq.

"I don’t want to say anything to get Amanda into trouble, but I think we were misled going into Iraq," her father said. "I don’t think it had anything to do with al-Qaida. I think George Bush is putting us at risk."

Diana Labrum is worried about what will happen to her daughter, the youngest of her four children.

"I hate it," she said. "It’s something I didn’t think would ever happen. I can’t even think about the danger. I can’t even think about if something were to happen. I just can’t."

Besides Labrum’s parents, her university and her boyfriend, a 23-year-old senior she didn’t want to name, she is leaving behind the Washington volleyball team.

She’s spent the past two seasons as team manager, setting up poles and nets for matches and practices, taking care of the balls and keeping score and charts for the Washington coaches. The 5-foot-3, 125-pound Labrum played volleyball in high school.

Huskies third-year volleyball Coach Jim McLaughlin, 43, will miss his manager, who made all the trips with the team this season.

"We have her e-mail," McLaughlin said. "We’re going to send her care packages. We’re for sure going to keep in touch with her. She’s a good kid and a good person. She did a good job for us."

The Huskies are expected to play in the NCAA volleyball tournament for the second season in a row. McLaughlin wished Labrum would be with them for the fun part of the season.

"She was a big part of the whole thing," he said.

McLaughlin said he won’t replace Labrum for the remainder of the season.

Labrum doesn’t want to disrupt her life and go to a foreign country where bullets are flying. But she believes she’s matured faster into a confident young woman because she’s joined the National Guard.

"Do I regret it?" she asked rhetorically. "There’s definitely been times when I’ve regretted it. I’d say I like to think of myself as pretty independent. Just the concept of somebody else or something else having control over your life doesn’t feel very good. But at the same time I think I’ve gained a lot from it."