When their 12-hour workdays end, troops stationed in Afghanistan have a few hours to hit the gym, hang out with friends, play video games, relax.
Army Staff Sgt. Dysha Huggins-Hodge studied.
(COURTESY OF ANNE ARUNDEL COMMUNITY COLLEGE) - Staff Sgt. Dysha J. Huggins-Hodge, who earned a 4.0 GPA at Anne Arundel Community College while serving in the Army, gave the valedictorian speech at the college‘s graduation ceremony Thursday.
For nearly a year, she was a hazardous materials specialist by day, a student by night. She logged hour after hour in the computer lab, pulled all-nighters and became hooked on energy drinks.
She wanted straight A’s. She wanted to graduate within two years.
“Every minute of my free time was homework. Every second,” said Huggins-Hodge, 25, now stationed at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. “I would Skype with my family, but at the same time on a split screen I would have my homework up.”
After her deployment last spring, Huggins-Hodge was determined to keep up with her classes at Anne Arundel Community College and finish her associate’s degree on time. And she did. Huggins-Hodge graduated Thursday night and gave the valedictorian speech. She plans to enroll at a four-year college next year to study administration of justice and social work. She eventually wants to earn a PhD.
She said she struggled to find a theme that would resonate with the range of graduates, which included midlife career-changers and retirees. The college awarded nearly 2,000 degrees and certificates.
“We all have our different circumstances and our different paths that led us here,” she said.
Climbing the ranks
Huggins-Hodge enlisted in the Army in 2004 while in high school in Athens, Ga. She wanted to leave home but said she didn’t think college was an option.
The work was fulfilling, and she quickly climbed the ranks. When she was 19, she signed up for financial aid for college but then never enrolled in a class.
While stationed at Fort Hood in March 2007, she saw Clayton Hodge standing on the parade field. She was a sergeant, and he was a private. Normally, she never talked to guys with a lower rank than hers. But she hadn’t eaten breakfast or lunch, and he had SweeTarts.
“Funny how that worked out,” said Hodge, 25, now a sergeant stationed at Fort Meade. “I think we would have met anyway, because of our personalities. . . . I’m not your typical military guy, and she’s not your typical military girl.”
They were married a few months later.
In July 2008, they were deployed to Afghanistan. Within a few weeks of arriving, Huggins-Hodge discovered that she was pregnant and returned to Fort Hood.
First they learned that their baby would be a boy; then they learned he might not live.
Fluid had backed up into his abdomen, ballooning his tiny bladder and damaging his kidneys. His abdominal muscles were as thin as paper. The condition is called prune belly syndrome, because after the baby is born and the fluid drains, the stretched-out stomach looks like a wrinkled prune.
Huggins-Hodge transferred to Fort Meade, where she had easier access to medical care for her complicated pregnancy.
Micah Hodge was born in February 2009, and even as he underwent numerous painful surgeries, he appeared happy and outgoing, his parents said.
Micah’s determination to survive — and, later, sit up and walk with his limited core strength — inspired his parents and relatives. Huggins-Hodge realized that her son had made an impact on more people in a month than she had in 23 years.
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