This regular feature profiles a soldier that is either currently serving or has recently served in the military to give you a closer look into the lives of the men and women that fight. They’re a lot more than just a potential casualty or statistic — they’re real live people just like you and me.

Sergeant Selena Coppa has recently arrived in Germany. Her job in the military involves classified intelligence therefore she was unable to speak at great lengths to her specific role in the army. Born and raised in New York City with a very patriotic father, she joined the military fresh out of high school in a pre-9/11 era. Originally very favor of the war in Iraq, Sergeant Coppa is now one of the most outspoken members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW).

Name: Selena Danielle Coppa
Age: 25
Birthday: February 25, 1983
Hometown: Brooklyn, NY
Rank: Sergeant
Years in the military: 7
Currently stationed: Wiesbaden, Germany

Were you in New York for 9/11? Where were you?

I was posted at Buckley, I was out by Denver. They weren’t taking phone calls for three days. My father worked at the World Trade Center. As it turns out he had been out drinking the night before and didn’t want to go into work early so he called in sick and that saved his life. It was tough though. I went to high school about 4-5 blocks from the financial center. I could walk through all these places and knew which security guards would be there at what time, but I didn’t know them by name. So when the lists came out of those who passed it was hard for me because they don’t list people as “really nice security guard in front of Borders.”

That’s tough…

It was definitely a really tough time for me. After 9/11 I was very enthused for tracking down Osama and really do anything I could do to go after who hurt my city and who hurt me. I was completely for the Iraq War at first. I didn’t think my government would ever lie to me. I just believed in the righteous of it. It took me a year or two to actually realize that “Hey… no, this isn’t right.” Once I was feeling that way I still didn’t speak out. I was buying into the belief that I was in the army so I couldn’t speak out. Integrity and courage are military values and I wasn’t expressing those values by not speaking out. I met some people involved with IVAW that were very outspoken, but at first I was very scared of exposure; I used to wear sunglasses to rallies because I didn’t want to be exposed.

What was the turning point?

More funerals. One of the real kickers, one of my soldiers [Larkin] actually survived Iraq but had PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). He started carrying a gun and ended up keeping it in his truck glove compartment. One night some of his friends got into a fight and the other people were beating his friends with baseball bats. He drew his gun at the side, which in the military is not a cause for deadly force, but there was an off-duty policeman not familiar that a lot of soldiers were coming back and had weapons and shot him in the chest six times. He was supposed to get married that next week and then his fiancé miscarried their twins. I felt the unit could have helped him [with his PTSD], I was told it wasn’t their fault because they had a training on gun safety; which had nothing to do with why he was dead in the first place! I wound up getting into a rant basically saying the company killed him because they didn’t offer him any help. My first sergeant said if I ever did anything like that again he would involuntary commit me to Walter Reed.

Woah.

I had my own issue from PTSD as well; my ex-husband pointed a loaded gun at me and tried to kill me. My first sergeant again had no sympathy for me. There is a lot of ignoring of domestic abuse in the military. Under the Lautenberg Amendment you can’t carry a gun for the federal government once you’ve been reported for domestic abuse, so the military discourages domestic violence reporting. I had a female soldier that was very young with a small child and her boyfriend beat her and tried to rape her in front of her child. I went with her to court to get a restraining order and when I got back I was reprimanded for going with her because I quote-unquote “ruined this guys career.”

I joined IVAW summer 2007 when Larkin was killed. The only way to do anything about it was to take a much more active role. I started going to speaking engagements, dropping the sunglasses, writing articles, created the blog, joined Winter Solider organizing committee, became an outreach leader and started talking to other soldiers. It was a complete reversal. My family knew that I was doing some stuff, but thought it was very small. My folks Googled me and then there was a really long interesting conversation.

What’s it like being a female in a heavily male dominated culture and environment?

Interesting… It’s a little frustrating. You constantly have to prove yourself. A lot of issues unique are to females. There are height/weight standards in the army and they tape your hips and stomach. These standards are very subjective, if they were male standards they’d be fixed and in fact the male standards were recently overhauled and fixed. Females are routinely dealing with this and often given eating disorders because the standards are so skewed.

There is a lot of pressure to just be “one of the guys.” A good soldier doesn’t report sexual harassment. You can be accepted as long as you can turn into someone who is almost not your own kind. If you can listen to someone talk disrespectfully about woman you’re okay, and if you’re bothered you’re not one of the boys anymore. I remember very vividly being in Korea and a couple soldiers in my unit got some prostitutes and started mistreating them. And because I wasn’t okay with that, I got “Sgt. Coppa – I thought you were cool.” It’s very much a boys club. There are all kinds of pressure. It’s hard to explain but there is a very large concept that there are three types of woman, there’s the bitches, the sluts and the good ol’boys. This isn’t necessarily true, but this is the perception, if you’re hard-ass you’re a bitch, if you had more than two boyfriends in the same unit you’re a slut, and if you go with all the things the unit does than you’re a good ol’ boy.

Have you been in the military non-stop since you joined?

Most of my time has actually been in the states. 2 out of 7 years have not been.

But in those seven years are you still in a military environment?

The army gives you money to live off post if you wanted to. But recently, because of the cost of Iraq war, you basically have to live on post. You essentially live in a military community. You could live entirely on the military post and never leave for years if you wanted to – everything you need is on base. It’s a little insulating; you don’t realize things are going on. They kind of shield you from a lot of things that are happening. If there’s a protest happening outside the base they’ll say there’s a riot and not go to that gate.

A couple soldiers I’ve talked to have said that it’s sometimes hard to make civilian connections…

Absolutely true. One is the sense that civilians just don’t care. I get the Army Times every week and look at the pictures of the dead to see if I know someone. It’s a weekly routine to me.

Do you find it numbing at all?

For me it’s actually the reverse. Funerals or memorials are always the same. The first sergeant will step into the aisle and do Last Role Call, which is where they call your name three times to see if you will come. Only once the soldier fails to appear is when the shots are fired and Taps begins to play. Instead of being numbing, the repetition makes it worse. Every time I hear last role call, taps playing, that first shot cutting threw the silence … I’m not just mourning one person, but everyone. For civilians it might be numbing for us it’s so much worse every time.

On a lighter note, tell us about your daughter!

Yes! She’s five years old and starting kindergarten in the fall. She’s very precarious. Actually I’m not sure how much is to please me, but she’s developing her own political conscious, which is really interesting. She’ll ask questions and I’ll answer her. She thinks Bush is as bad as Captain Hook. It’s her own little thing. I’ve gotta respect that. She’s with me in Germany. I wouldn’t go without her.

Are there a lot of other kids around?

One thing people don’t realize is the ponderous amount of kids in the military. It’s a very marriage conscious environment. The norm is 2-3 kids but you’ll see people with 5-6 kids easy. This is my own personal opinion, but the military will accommodate you. They won’t pay you anymore, but they’ll find you a larger house to accommodate your growing family. So that way when your time is up they’ll pressure you by saying something like “Do you really think you can find a house to live with your five kids on the wages you make? Go ahead if you want, but you’ll fail.”

Really?

It’s only getting worse. It used to be if you didn’t want to be in the military you still got a hand shake. Now even though they’re supposed to help you find a job and help with transitioning all those programs are being cut. So instead of helping transition, they tell you could transition but you’ll fail in life, so why don’t you just enlist again?

Do you plan on staying in the military?

It really depends on how the war goes. I believe in the military and that it has a lot of potential. When I joined the army it was warm and welcoming that did care about you genuinely. The problem is right now we’re so desperate that a lot of positive things cut out in order to put more emphasis on getting bodies for Iraq. I don’t know how much longer I can support that. The military still can be saved. Right now I don’t know how much work it will take; how possible it really is.

What do you do with your down time in Germany?

IVAW! [Laughs] No, I kid. Well, only half kid. I do spend lot of time doing IVAW work just because it’s so important to me. My boyfriend constantly is reminding me that IVAW doesn’t need a burn out. I recently spent lot of vacation time and combined an IVAW event and spending some fun time in LA with him. We went to the beach and salsa dancing. He’s coming to Germany month after next. There are a lot of good outdoorsy things in Germany. It’s all very clean and there is delicious, delicious beer. I don’t know if I can go back to States and drink beer without being sad; the beer here is so good! I don’t know why it’s not so good there, but its fabulous here. The food is also natural here and delicious. There are a lot of places to see and it’s all so close to other countries. You can go to Italy, like going to Cincinnati – it’s like six hours away.

I know you can’t discuss your job too much because it’s all classified but can you tell me whatever you can about what your job is?

I handle communications and non- communications intelligence analysis.

I think that essentially says nothing.

Exactly! It’s fun times.

Do you like your job?

I don’t like the war that is being pursued, but I like my job. I’m good at what I do. I like using my brain. Back when I believed in the war, I believed I could make a difference. I’m not enthused to work in Iraq, so now I’m only working for the guys involved [and their well being].

Is there anything you’d like to add?

I would love to talk about GI outreach because that’s a lot of what I do. I’m always happy to get it out there. It is legal to [speak out]. Everything I do with IVAW is permitted by 1325.6 Regulation “Dissident and Protest Activity within the US Military.” A lot of commanders like to tell their soldiers they’re not allowed to disagree, but that’s really not true at all. Most of my job is not convincing that the war is wrong – a lot of soldiers already believe that – my job consists of letting people know the rights they actually do have. Personally I’d be thrilled if people knew that this is legal and they do have that right. People may not like it, but they’re not doing anything wrong.

If you are in the military or know someone that is and would like to be featured in this regular column about the military and the war, please contact us at isgreaterthan@gmail.com