• Age: 22.

• Residence: Billings.

• Service: U.S. Army Reserves, including one year in Iraq.

• Rank: E-4 Specialist.

Vanna Ludlow polished off her teenage years in spectacular fashion.

At age 17, she joined the U.S. Army Reserves. She was so young, she needed her mother's signature to get in.

By the time she was 18, she was serving in Iraq.

She had her 20th birthday in Germany, during a three-week Army Reserve training.

Now 22, she still is in the reserves, serving one weekend a month and two weeks each year.

After her active service, she'll have another two years of inactive service, during which she doesn't train but could be called up.

Ludlow received her GED at the Montana National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program "bootcamp" in Dillon.

She joined the reserves in May 2005. Her mother was reluctant to allow Ludlow to join, but now she now is proud of her daughter, Ludlow said.

Ludlow joined the reserves because she didn't know what she wanted to do with her life, military service would qualify her for education benefits and she had had an uncle who served in the National Guard.

"I thought it was cool what he did," she said.

After basic training and specialized training in computers, she went to Fort Riley, Kan., to prepare to go overseas.

Not only had she never been out of the country before, she didn't know anyone with whom she was going to Iraq.

"I was terrified," she said.

She didn't need to have worried. She made friends quickly and soon became close to the six female and 37 male soldiers.

"They were awesome," she said. "If you had a problem, you always had somebody to talk to."

While at Tallil Air Base in southeastern Iraq, she ran an ammunition supply post, keeping track by computer of ammunition coming into the base and that being taken out by soldiers on patrol.

Although important, the work was monotonous, tedious and frustrating at times because it was easy to make mistakes.

She was fortunate because she worked in an air-conditioned office most of the time, in an area where temperatures went well beyond 100 degrees in the summer.

Even though she worked in relative comfort, it was still a war zone.

While she was at the base, several enemy mortars landed near ammunition storage buildings, but never hit them and no one was hurt by them.

After completing a semester of college in Casper, Wyo., she moved back to Billings.

She now works in a Billings casino as a bartender and bookkeeper, while she decides what to do next in her life.

She also is a member of the American Legion Post 4 in Billings.

Before returning to school, she would like to decide on an academic major and a career path.

Her military service has instilled in her confidence and "a sense of country, family and God," she said. "It made me grow up more."

Because of that, she thinks that every American young man and woman should serve a mandatory military duty as is required in some countries.

Her parents are Billie and Dennis Rodell of Billings.