We're in the Army Now. With Mom.

Landover Reservist Transfers to Her Daughters' Outfit as They Prepare for Iraq Deployment

What soldier wants to go to war with mom?

It's not tough, or particularly cool. And it doesn't exactly fulfill the Spartan vision of the warrior ethos, especially if mom starts ordering you to finish your green beans or clean up your barracks, or suddenly whips out some embarrassing childhood photos.

No wonder Chandra and LaShawn Miller, specialists with the D.C. Army National Guard, balked when their mother announced that she was transferring to their unit, the 547th Transportation Company, and deploying to Iraq with them.

The news was worse than having her chaperone a first date.

"I told her to stay home and bake cookies," Chandra Miller said. Even more worrisome was the prospect of losing their mother, Sgt. Marcia Reid, in combat, which would be like "losing my whole world," Chandra Miller said.

Reid had considered staying home and spending the year doting on her grandchildren and working her safe IT job. But Reid is a soldier -- and a mother. And two of her four daughters were headed for Iraq. "If they were to get hurt I would much rather be with them," she said.

Chandra, 21, and LaShawn, 20, are fully capable of taking care of themselves. But Reid had raised them almost single-handedly and couldn't help but think of them as her babies still. She almost couldn't bear it when the girls went to Florida for a couple weeks one summer when they were 11 and 10.

Now they'd be Over There, among the bombs and the bullets, 6,000 miles and several time zones away. So Reid, a former Marine with a penchant for action, decided to join them. In February, the 48-year-old from Landover was reassigned to the 547th, where she is now known in the ranks as "Mama Reid."

Her daughters, who live together in Temple Hills, pleaded with her to stay home. "If your mom is going, you have to worry about her all the time," Chandra Miller said.

But mom rules. Especially when she outranks you.

So when the 547th recently shipped out to Camp Shelby, Miss., for several weeks of pre-deployment training, Mama Reid was with them. Today, Mother's Day, they'll celebrate by donning their flak jackets and preparing for war. There isn't much time, they said, to do much celebrating. They could be headed for Iraq sometime next month.

Reid and her daughters are not the only ones in the unit who share more than just the bonds that come with combat. It's a phenomenon that officials say could only happen in the reserves, whose units are typically comprised of soldiers from the same area.