Lt. Col. Deveon Sudduth, currently a signal officer at the 412th Theater Engineer Command headquarters, has done a little of everything during her 33 years of service in the Army.
She started her career as an enlisted Soldier, and has served in a variety of capacities to include military police, personnel and signal.
As a young private in 1980, Sudduth mobilized to Fort Chaffee, Ark., as an MP during the Cuban Refugee reconstruction to help establish order among approximately 25,000 Cuban refugees.
In 2006 she volunteered for the first of two tours of duty in Iraq.
"I was working at the Mob station and kept seeing people go over that were so young. I had more years in the military than they had in life," said Sudduth. "I couldn't stand watching them go, and me sitting there drawing big bucks. So I went."
Sudduth returned to Iraq in 2009 where she worked with the Iraqi Signal School managing the communications training curriculum.
She is often away from her home where she lives with her husband Jimmie in North Mississippi.
"He is very supportive," said Sudduth. "I thought about getting out after my last tour in Iraq, and he told me I really needed to think about the decision because he knew I loved it."
Sudduth and her husband plan on using their 100-acre horse farm near Columbus, Miss., to help veterans.
"I hope one day to be able to use the farm and horses as therapy for Wounded Warriors," said Sudduth. "
For now, she has no plans of retiring.
"Every time I think about getting out I find something else I want to accomplish," said Sudduth. "I'm not sure I could breathe if I wasn't in the Army."
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