As a child growing up southwest of Baghdad, Army Spc. Zainab Olivo dreamed of becoming a police officer or a soldier. Years later, during the war against the Islamic State, she got a taste of that life while working on the front lines as an interpreter and translator.
Brian Hill
Fort Leonard Wood
The seat inside the cab of the excavator needs a lot of adjusting so the 4-foot, 11-inch Spc. Zainab Olivo can comfortably operate the equipment. She manipulates a few switches and levers, the diesel engine roars and rumbles, and the boom comes to life. It’s quite a juxtaposition, seeing such a small person operate such a large piece of equipment.
She turns the excavator off and removes her oversized, tinted eye protection. She has a youthful face, and with her small stature, it’s difficult to imagine what she’s experienced.
As a horizontal construction engineer trainee assigned to Company D, 554th Engineer Battalion, 32-year-old Olivo from Karbala, Iraq currently spends many of her days at Training Area 244 on Fort Leonard Wood. The large, tracked, earthmoving vehicle she’s learning about this week is just one of several pieces of heavy equipment she has progressed through over the past couple of months.