Tammy Spicer loves her laptop computer.

It’s the one item she’s been carrying around for nearly seven months, and it’s that one item that she doesn’t want to be without.

For Spicer, it’s everything. Her computer enables her to stay connected with her family and especially her two children who are still too young to understand why mom isn’t coming home anytime soon.

“My son is so young,” Spicer said. “He won’t even remember me when this is over.”

Spicer, a Missouri Southern graduate in 1998 and former executive editor of The Chart, is currently deployed in Iraq with the Missouri Army National Guard. She’s been there since June 2003.

Spicer has always been involved in the military. She joined the Army right out of high school and was in Desert Storm with the 1st Calvary. After active duty, she joined the Missouri Army National Guard 10 years ago.

As involved as Spicer was with the military, it wasn’t a surprise that she may be heading to the Middle East.

“I watched the situation develop with the rest of the nation,” Spicer said, who corresponded through e-mail. “My family and I have always known I might have to deploy.”

The 33-year-old mother of two had a hard time saying goodbye. It was tough with her husband, Brad, but it was especially difficult with her children.

“It was very hard to leave my family,” she said.

As Spicer described it, every day is something new.

As an executive officer of her company, she spends time at base camp helping assist the company commander and manages the company staff. Most days she’s able to sleep in a heated tent and is served three hot meals. On the road, however, warm tents and hot meals are a luxury.

“If I’m on the road for a transportation mission, I sleep outside on a cot,” she said. “I put the cot under the trailer if we expect rain.”

The Iraqi environment has been, for the most part, everything Spicer had imagined. Children are consistently on the roadside waving or begging for food and water. It’s also the rainy season.

“The weather now is wet and rather cool,” she said. “The rain creates a lot of mud in our region of Iraq and that is really difficult with our trucks.”

Sue Spicer, Tammy’s mother-in-law, has been at the Spicer home helping out whenever she can.

Whether it’s babysitting or fixing a meal, she’s willing to do anything to help the family.

“I enjoy the children very much,” Sue said.

Sue said she was happy to help out around the house. Since her daughter-in-law is in Iraq, she knows it’s the least she can do.

“I’m very proud of her,” Sue said. “I know it’s difficult for her to be away from her children.”

Although the capture of Saddam Hussein hasn’t affected Spicer’s company in any great capacity, everyone around her was excited.

“I’m very impressed with our military’s intelligence capabilities and the group that actually went in and found him,” she said. “It’s amazing that this man who had dozens of palaces across the country was found hiding in a hole.”

There have been a handful of frightening moments. Her convoy has found itself lost.

“It’s very frightening to be driving down a small downtown Baghdad street with 20 tractor trailers and hundreds of Iraqis staring at you,” Spicer said.

As challenging as her journey in Iraq has been, Spicer said she’s proud of her accomplishments and what she’s doing overseas.

“The deployment has given me a deep appreciation for my country and my family,” she said. “Seeing how another country has to struggle for the basic necessities while we have such abundance in the United States is an eye-opening experience.”

Spicer hopes to come home to Missouri by June. It’s not guaranteed, but for now, that’s what she’s being told.

And when that time comes, she’s looking forward to a hot shower and seeing her family.

“The first thing I am going to do when I get home is hug my husband and children,” she said. “After that, I am up for anything they want to do.”