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Current Job News: Ex-cheerleader is small, blonde, deadly with gun
Contributed by 7mmwsm on Monday, April 18 @ 19:57:13 EDT
Topic:
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Female sharpshooter headed back to Iraq with Air Force
Sunday, April 10, 2005
By KEITH CLINES
Times Staff Writer, kclines@htimes.com
The people at the military sharpshooting school weren't expecting their new student to be a blonde, 5-foot-4, 105-pound former high school cheerleader.
But Air Force Airman First Class Ashley-Ann Fedusenko Cady earned the respect of her classmates and became one of the first female sharpshooters - the military doesn't officially call them snipers - in the U.S. military.
"I was never a hunter," said Cady, 21, who was a three-year varsity cheerleader and a 2002 graduate of Huntsville High School.
Cady's best on the practice range is a head shot at 1,100 meters - or more than two-thirds of a mile.
Cady is assigned to the 824th Security Forces Squadron of the 820th Contingency Response Group stationed at Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta, Ga. Her unit establishes security and defends U.S. air bases and airfields in foreign countries.
Cady has done two stints in Iraq and will soon be there again. She has been in Huntsville and Tennessee for about a week visiting family and friends. She is the daughter of Robert and Cindy Fedusenko and Dr. Mike and Harriett Bradley.
She has to be back at Moody on Monday and will be sent to somewhere in Iraq about two weeks later.
Cady considered going to Clemson University to study criminal justice after finishing high school. She had designs on getting a job with the FBI or the CIA.
"It was a last-minute decision to join the military because they will pay 100 percent of your tuition, although it takes a little longer" to get a degree, Cady said.
She decided to join the Air Force because her mother, who had been a nurse at Pope Air Force Base and Fort Bragg in North Carolina, thought that the Air Force "treated their people better" than the other military branches.
Cady was guaranteed some type of policing job when she signed up for a six-year tour and went to basic training at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, in December 2002.
Basic training "wasn't that bad," Cady said. "It's all mental, as long as you don't let the yelling get to you."
But basic training gave Cady no hint she would wind up as a sniper. She said she was "awful" on the firing range. "I think I barely passed," she said.
Cady stayed at Lackland after basic training for three months in the Security Forces Academy to learn the fundamental job skills in law enforcement and security. It was at the academy that Cady honed sharpshooting skills she attributes to more one-on-one training.
"I learned the fundamentals and the proper way to shoot," she said.
Cady was assigned to her group at Moody after finishing the academy and in August 2003 was deployed to Tallil Airbase outside Nasiriyah, Iraq. Cady was a military police officer at the base, which was the home for 9,000 troops.
She was at Tallil in November 2003 when a suicide bomber outside the Italian paramilitary police headquarters in Nasiriyah detonated a bomb that killed 26 people and injured more than 60 people.
During her stint at Tallil, Cady received an achievement medal for helping save a young Iraqi girl's life. The girl, who appeared to be about 4 years old, had been bitten by a venomous snake. Cady found a hospital with anti-venom serum and escorted the girl to the hospital.
Cady returned to Moody in December 2003, but soon after returning gained a slot in the Air Force Close Precision Engagement Course at Camp Robinson near Little Rock, Ark.
"They expected some butch girl but instead this little girl came in," Cady said.
Between 60 percent and 70 percent of the soldiers fail the course, but Cady was motivated by her male counterparts and they, in turn, were motivated by her, she said.
"I didn't take it seriously to begin with," Cady said. "Most of the guys said I wasn't going to make it."
Cady was the first woman to graduate from the course. The Air Force is the only military service branch that allows women in sharpshooting units.
Cady married Ryan Cady of Illinois in May 2004. She and Ryan were in the same graduating class at the Security Forces Academy at Lackland. Ryan Cady is also an airman first class with the 824th Security Forces Squadron.
A month after their wedding, the two were in Baghdad. Ashley-Ann's unit provided security for Baghdad International Airport before returning to Moody in October.
"Our main threat is not really the people," she said "It's rocket attacks. You'd be sleeping in your tent and you hear them whistle overhead."
Many days she was on duty 12 to 14 hours guarding the front gate, searching vehicles or on the airport's perimeter wall.
She said 99 percent of her time is spent gathering intelligence from listening or observation posts. "It's not glamorous like you see in the movies," she said. "You have to be able to be by yourself for days just watching."
But, she said, if she has a specific target, "that's a totally different mission."
For sniper or sharpshooting missions, Cady is armed with a M-24 bolt action rifle that holds one bullet in the chamber and five bullets in the magazine.
Cady politely said she did not want to talk about it when asked if she had killed anyone in Iraq.
Her time in Iraq makes her think that Americans need to learn more about other people in the world and their cultures.
Cady intends to make a career in the Air Force, but if not, she still has interest in working for the FBI or CIA. She wants to earn a degree in criminal justice and an officer's commission.
For an article with pics you can read following go to:
http://www.arguard.org/mtc/OnTarget/CPEC_Feusenko.htm
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| Article Rating | Average Score: 4.87
Votes: 8
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Re: Ex-cheerleader is small, blonde, deadly with gun (Score: 1)
by 7mmwsm on Tuesday, April 19 @ 11:14:10 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) | | 1,100 meter headshot! Holy Samolies. My smallest group is .75" at 100 yds. (22ppc on a bench). It just doesn't pay to shoot at Airman Cady when she's packing an M-24. |
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Comment 19 2033 (Score: 1)
by canejackie |
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