[media-credit name=’DEREK MONTGOMERY/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]University of Wisconsin senior and U.S. National Guard Sgt. Laura Naylor spoke to students Thursday about her experiences as a young female soldier serving in the war in Iraq.

Naylor gave the audience a personal “student perspective” of the joys and terrors American soldiers face in Iraq and the courage it took to keep fighting.

During her presentation, Naylor sought to disprove a misconception that many young soldiers, especially females, don’t see real military action while in service.

“I want to get the word out and let you guys know what soldiers go through over there,” Naylor said.

After joining the National Guard in March 2001, Naylor was placed on active duty and deployed to Baghdad by July that year. Naylor said she enlisted on her way home from class after being uncertain of how to spend her summer.

“There were always rocket and mortar shells going over [us] every night,” Naylor said. “One night I went to the port-a-potty and five minutes later it was gone.”

In a Powerpoint presentation, Naylor exhibited pictures portraying times she shared with her comrades while in Iraq. In some scenes Naylor and her fellow soldiers appeared pleasant, celebrating birthdays, Christmas and swimming parties.

One picture showed Naylor seated smiling upon an elaborate gold throne in the Iraqi presidential palace in front of a portrait of large ballistic missiles shooting into the night sky.

Other images in the presentation depicted destruction and uncertain-looking troops.

A set of before-and-after pictures showed how an Iraqi police station where Naylor worked was turned to rubble after a car bomb targeting the building detonated nearby.

Reading from a letter she sent to her mother, Naylor said, “Now I’m just a pile of skin and bones that does what I’m told … we are tortured souls.”

Naylor served three years as a Humvee driver before returning to her hometown of Waupaca, Wis., July 2004.

“That by far was the best day of my life,” Naylor said.

Since returning to the United States, Naylor has worked to finish a kinesiology degree at UW before going back to Iraq.

Naylor said she anticipates a return to Iraq and will rely on her fellow soldiers’ camaraderie to make it through again.

“It makes me what I am — it’s my past and it’s my future,” Naylor said.

Amanda Fredrick, a UW graduate and Naylor’s former roommate, described her as a caring individual and said she has volunteered time to work with autistic youth and senior citizens.

“She’s a great person. She is probably one of the nicest people I [have] met in my entire life,” Fredrick said. “She’s selfless.”

Naylor said when she returns from her second tour of Iraq, she plans to “move on with my life, travel as long as possible and get a job teaching.”