Colleen Packer ODwyer:  

My parents moved the family to West Dearborn in my senior year, had enough credits to graduate early on paper.  I immediately attended Henry Ford Community College.  I began exercising thoroughbred race horses in the summer and breaking them in the winter in Ocala, FL. My parents gave me an open end ticket to work on my cousins horse farm in Ireland for my 21st birthday. We worked the horses out at the seaside, brilliant!  I was eventually deported out of Ireland for taking a job an Irish person; I returned eight months later through England on the ferry to marry an Irish National.  I married David M O’Dwyer in 1979 and we bore two beautiful daughters, Deirdre and Sinead, in Doora, Quin, County Clare, Republic of Ireland remaining there for 8 years.  We came to the United States in 1983, so my husband could seek his fortune in America ( a common European dream).  At first I worked for my parents Irish Pub in Detroit, McCarthys Party; but since my first husband had trouble adapting to American lifestyle; I decided I must make a life for my children and myself and decided to join the Army in 1985. My first assignment as a Private E-1 was a Fire Control Crew member for HAWK weapon system and was assigned to Ft Bliss, TX.  During this time my husband acquired a position with his former Irish employer Syntax in Boulder, CO.  We relocated in CO and joined the Colorado Army National Guard full time force as a purchasing agent.  One day while repelling in Red Rocks my Command Sergeant Major pulled me off the side and suggested I consider being and officer, as he put it, “more money, better retirement, only difference, you take responsibility for decisions. “ That said, I passed the battery of tests, and an exception of policy was approved by the Pentagon for my age.  I attended and graduated from Fort Benning, GA, Officer Candidate School , in 1987, as a Public Affairs Officer; as the ‘oldest & smallest living graduate’ according to the brigade commander.  I was assigned to facilities, my mission to propose, master plan, justify ...Expand for more