postwar update
After coming home from the Persian Gulf War in 1991
- I returned to civilian life and attended the University of
South Carolina, Coastal Carolina Campus on a Cross Country 
and Track scholarship. I received
my Bachelors degree in History in 1995 and my Masters degree
at the University of
South Carolina in Columbia in December 1997. In addition
to teaching at two local colleges I am spending more of my time
with my three children and my husband, who is also a college
instructor of Political Science and Sociology. The rest of my
time is spent with our 5-year old son, Christian David, our two
year old daughter - Benjamin Elizabeth and our new baby who was
born in November '97 - my namesake, Drake Katherine Marie.
I'm now teaching American History and Western Civilization at Brunswick Community College and Critcal Thinking and English Composition at Southeastern Community College in NC. I also made an unsuccessful run for the County School Board in the '98 elections - it was a long shot, but having been very active in state and local politics after I left the Army, it seem like the right thing to do at the time. I received nearly 40% of the vote in the election and while not quite enough to win, my feet are pretty wet from the experience. I'll try again someday. Anyway I look at it, 1998 has been a very good year.
My post graduate school work includes ongoing research of the NOTITIA DIGNITATUM - a manuscript written during the 5th century A.D. about the ROMAN ARMY and MILITARY units, their disposition and 'order of battle' during the period of the late Roman empire. The original, as well as two subsequent copies from the 16th century and the mid 1800's respectively, have been in Latin. So not being 'up' on my Latin - this has been a very fun project so far. I presented my initial research at the University of South Carolina Second Annual Late Antiquity Symposium - held in Columbia, South Carolina in May 1998 and I plan to put a link on this page in the near future. [click here to review my draft paper in ADOBE PDF format]
My babies
are the love of my life! Christian loves trains
and tools and reading. Benjamin, who arrived with
Hurricane Bertha in July '96, is just like a storm, in her first
two months she was part of the Hurricane Bertha & Fran emergency
evacuations from the Carolina coastline - once to Fort Bragg-
the other to Fort Jackson, where I took Basic Training.
And finally, baby Drake Katherine arrived right before my final exams during my last semester at USC graduate school, but despite sitting in front of a computer with a one-week old in my lap and a 16-month old tugging on my arm, I graduated with my Masters Degree in December 1997. I'm glad it's over - for a while. Ph.D. work is next....
For a short time I should have the chance to go
to the beach with my children - enjoy the sun and sand, mow the
lawn, paint the fence, do laundry and last but not least - to
continue work on the book from the journal I kept during Desert
Storm along with the photos I took during the war.
