Photo Gallery

(Click on a photo to see an enlargement)

Near Jalulah, Iraq—Making final changes to the disarmament agreement between the U.S. and the Mujahedin-el-Khalq (MEK), outside of the MEK’s headquarters, with Lt. Col. Flora Darpino, the 4th Infantry Division Staff Judge Advocate. Samarra, Iraq—I am pointing at the spot where Zaidoun was pushed into the river on the evening he drowned. The dam can be seen to the right, directly beneath a foot bridge that runs overhead. Samarra, Iraq—Gathering near the spot where Zaidoun Hassoun was pushed into the Tigris River by 1-8 soldiers in January 2004. Zaidoun’s father (orange cloak) stands apart, refusing to approach the edge of the platform. The family’s lawyer, dressed in a grey suit, is at the center of the photo. Samarra, Iraq—I am standing on the dam bridge with CID Agent Irene Cintron, near where 1-8’s Bradley Fighting Vehicles would have been parked when Zaidoun and Marwan were pushed into the river. Fort Carson, Colorado—My homecoming at the Ft. Carson field house gymnasium. My family reunion has just been interrupted by two officers (dressed in green) from the JAG office. I mistakenly believed they had come to welcome me home.
Specialist Benjamin Blake Carter and Captain Noel Pace sort through a trunk full of Iraqi Dinars. Soldiers confiscated the trunk during a raid and, not knowing what else to do with it, dropped it off at the JAG workspace. Waiting to get into the South Gate at Logistical Support Area Anaconda always meant our Humvee would be bombarded by locals peddling goods. Captain Sandra Chavez and I sit inside 3rd Brigade’s tactical operations center (TOC). The car bomb that exploded in the parking lot outside the building in Samarra where Sergeant Jonathan Philibert was preparing to pay civilian claims. Philibert is among the soldiers who can be seen aiding a civilian injured in the bombing. Local Iraqis thank Captain Thomas Roughneen for opening the first girls’ school in Yathrib, Iraq.
Sergeant Jay Arthurs and I try to get the portable DVD player working in the Civil Affairs tent one cold night in Iraq. Military Police conduct a convoy safety briefing before we hit the road. Sergeant Michael Kolb and I pose in front of one of several de-faced Saddam portraits throughout Iraq. The JAG Team—Sgt. Philibert, Spec. Carter, Staff Sgt. Kolb, Spec. Mendoza, and myself. Tehran, Iran—The Gembaras pose for a family photograph in Tehran, circa 1976. From left to right: my father, Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Gembara; me; my mother, Vui; my sister, Deborah; a friend of my mother’s from Vietnam; and my great aunt Tach.
Fort Bragg, North Carolina, circa 1980—My father, Andrew Gembara, enjoys a beer after a field training exercise at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. Norfolk, Virginia, 2005—I congratulate my brother Albert after his commissioning as a Naval officer. Notre Dame, Indiana—I had just been sworn in as a cadet in Notre Dame’s Reserve Officer Training Corps during the university’s Freshmen Orientation weekend, August 1993. Washington, DC—My husband, Mike, and I leave Church of the Annunciation after our marriage ceremony in September 2004. Irbil, Iraq, 2008—My father at the Kurdish Police training Academy