SSG Marline I. Santiago-Cook Oral History Tape 1, Side B

title:

SSG Marline I. Santiago-Cook Oral History Tape 1, Side B

creator:

Santiago-Cook, Marline (Garcia Casiano) (1967 September 10 - )

subject:

Army

description:

Tape 1 of 2, side 2 of 2. Marline Santiago-Cook (formerly Garcia Casiano) was born on September 10, 1967 in Puerto Rico. Her father had been in the Army but left because her mother didn’t like the travel and having to speak English, so he worked as a USDA inspector and was in the Puerto Rican National Guard as she grew up. She grew up with an older half-brother and a younger brother and sister, attending public schools in Puerto Rico. They would spend the week in the city and weekends on their grandparents’ farm. Although she was somewhat of a troublemaker in school, she maintained good grades and was able to go to a special science and technology high school. She graduated from this high school at only 15 and went to college soon after. Her college was two hours away from home, and she wasn’t really prepared for college when she went, dating her future husband and hanging out with the “wrong crowd”. She initially joined ROTC and did basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky, but her grades dropped, she lost her scholarship, and became pregnant with her first child. Although she tried to go to school, work part-time, and take care of their child at the same time, it was incredibly tough and she decided to enlist in the Army in 1987. She went to basic training at Fort McClellan, Alabama and Fort Gordon, Georgia for electronics school. After training, she was an automatic test and equipment operator/maintainer for Apache helicopters, tanks, and field artillery. This mainly required running computerized diagnostics to find and replace faulty equipment. Her first station after training was at Fort Campbell, Kentucky working in a direct support in general support (DSGS) unit. Although her mother didn’t talk to her for three months after she enlisted, they reconciled somewhat and she took care of Santiago-Cook’s child while she was in the early stages of her training, although she was still upset every time she reenlisted. As soon as she could, she got her son from Puerto Rico and coordinated childcare while she was working and her husband was serving in Germany. They had two more children together and were initially both posted to the Gulf in 1990 in Desert Shield/Desert Storm, although her husband applied for and received a medical discharge so she was the only one of them to go overseas. While there, she drove trucks for her company since she was the only one with the required license. She was overseas for nine months and returned home to their three children and a husband struggling to adjust to civilian life. He worked as a pizza delivery person while she was still in the Army and became increasingly controlling and violent. Although their families encouraged her to stay, she divorced him due to his abuse. She then received orders to Korea in 1992 and left her three children with her mother in Puerto Rico while there. This was the first station where she worked with other women in her unit, and she could easily tell that she and the other women were given different assignments and overlooked for promotions more often than the men in their unit. After a year in Korea, she changed her MOS to become an information systems analyst and spent four months training at Fort Bragg. She left the service in 1998 so she could spend more time with her children and because she realized she could get paid more as a civilian working in the same field. As of the interview, she was working towards a bachelors degree in business administration using GI benefits. When she left the service Santiago-Cook had reached the rank of staff sergeant, and for her service she was awarded an Army Commendation Medal with an oak leaf cluster, Army Good Conduct Medal with 2 clasps, National Defense Service Medal, Southwest Asia Service Medal with 2 bronze stars, Humanitarian Service Medal, NCO Professional Development Ribbon with numeral 2, and an Army Service Ribbon. No transcript of this interview is currently available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Binker, Mary Jo

date:

2001-10-08

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

821.01; 2001.821

source:

10/01 Science and Tech Web Project | CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

565940

coverage:

Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm—1990-1991 | 1980s | 1990s | 1987-1998

rights:

Unrestricted