Dacia Sachtjen

Dacia Sachtjen doesn’t know if she should register for spring classes. The National Guard told her to continue life as normal because sometimes things come up.
Sachtjen will be deployed to Iraq in March for a year-long tour working as a paralegal.
“My boyfriend at the time had just left 15 minutes before to go back to North Carolina, so I was already upset at that point, and then I find out I’m getting ready to get deployed, so that didn’t make me feel any better. So I called him and I said, ‘I have really bad news or good news, however you’re going to take it.’”
She said she still doesn’t know if this is good or bad news.
“I’m kind of both ways right now. I’m excited and nervous, and I think its going to be a good experience, but I’m very family and friend oriented, and I don’t want to leave my family or friends behind.”
She’ll miss Little 500. It will delay her graduation by one year. She’ll miss spring break and have to celebrate her 22nd birthday, on Sept. 11, in Iraq.
“I’ll probably just not mention its my birthday and just let it blow over. Maybe say it was yesterday or the next day.”
Either way, she won’t be back in Bloomington to celebrate.
“My friends will be like ‘Oh, what are you doing this summer? We should go here and do this,’ and I’ll be like ‘I’ll be gone. I’ll be in Iraq.’”