Refugee becomes Air Force nurse

Published May 10, 2013
By Staff Sgt. David Dobrydney
455th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- The first week in May is set aside as National Nurses Week in recognition of the hard work performed by nurses in the pursuit of health and healing.

Of the more than 120 nurses and medical technicians at the Craig Joint Theater Hospital here, one nurse brings with her a unique story.

Deployed from Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, 1st Lt. Wajeeha Omar, 455th Expeditionary Medical Support Squadron patient movement nurse, came to the United States in 1992 at the age of 13. For four years prior to that, she lived in a refugee camp in Turkey. Her family arrived there after fleeing the violence of the Iran-Iraq War.

"We actually lived in two camps," Omar recalled, "because the first was too close to the border with Iraq."

It was in this second camp she first encountered American medical personnel. Besides the large red crosses emblazoned on their tents, Omar particularly remembered one of the nurses who worked in the immunizations area, where the line could last for hours.

"Back then they wore the white dress and pretty white hat," Omar remembered. After living in the camp without access to regular showers, Omar felt rather embarrassed when she got to the front of the immunization line and the nurse confidently reached out her hand.

"It didn't bother her," Omar said. "I could tell she was telling me not to be afraid. She reassured me and... was very comforting. It was at that moment I wanted to be a nurse."

Omar admitted that at the time the dream of becoming a nurse seemed remote in a culture that prized family and childrearing above all.

"Living in the camp it was a very big dream, something I didn't think would be possible," she said. "I didn't think I would end up in America or a country where I would even go to school."

Even after arriving in the United States and being immediately placed in the ninth grade, Omar struggled.

"It was a very frightening experience," she recalled. As time went by though, Omar found herself discovering the world was more full of opportunities than she'd once thought.

"Living in northern Iraq it seemed very small; I didn't know the world was as big as it was," she said.

Realizing that she could become a nurse if she wanted to, Omar decided to go to nursing school while also working full-time and raising a young daughter as a single mother. Eventually, she was drawn toward the military to help her continue her education.

From the time she entered the service, Omar was keen to deploy, wanting to provide the type of service she had benefited from long ago in that refugee camp.

"I wanted to do the same thing that others had done for us," she said. "I wanted to give back to those who had given so much to ensure our care and freedom."

Omar has now been in the Air Force more than two years. Her current deployment to Bagram is her first, and while her work is primarily processing the paperwork that moves service members into and out of the hospital, she realizes the importance of her role.

"It's a big part of the mission," she said. "I don't provide their care directly, but I do send them home."

While Omar still hopes to do more humanitarian work in the future, today she's appreciative of the exposure the Air Force is giving her to various aspects of nursing work.

"There's a huge variety, you never get bored," she said. "I'm learning things here that I never heard of back home."

Omar's leadership considers her a vital part of the Craig Joint Theater Hospital Team.

"[Omar] is one of the best, hardest-working officers I've had the pleasure of working with in my 22-year career," said Lt. Col. Doug Houston, 455th Contingency Aeromedical Staging Facility flight commander. "She's very meticulous with details and is not afraid to hold people to standards. She has a bright future ahead of her."

Omar said people often ask her how she went from a refugee to a successful officer in the United States Air Force, thinking that she's either extremely smart or just had things handed to her. She said she has had to study and work hard to reach the point she has.

"Almost everything I have tried, I have failed the first time," she said, "Part of me getting this far, was not giving up ... and I continue not to give up."