Dawn M. Reid was born November 7th, 1959 in Portsmouth Naval Hospital to Wanda and Ancil Reid. Raised
as a "Navy brat", she travelled the country and, to some extent, the world as a child. By the time she finished 6th
grade, she had been through 14 different schools in 3 countries and 7 states.
Being (apparently) a little bit of a slow learner, she decided at age 19 to join the Navy as well.
Following the untraditional path, she went in to become a nuclear welder as the (then named)
"Hull Tech".. Little did she know then (as she came to learn) the phrase "the needs of the Navy". That phrase
changed her life forever.
She was promised many things by the Navy recruiters, and only one of them came true: she did travel the
world. Beyond that, her dreams of seeing many sights and experiencing true camaraderie aboard a ship were short lived
indeed.
She ended up becoming a nuclear specialist of a different sort. One who learned all about chemical
weapons, their effects on humans and how they can defend against them. This earned her the distict "honor" to serve
in the Persian Gulf for several years, starting in 1980 with Sadaam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait and ending in 1992.
She discovered one thing about the weapons of mass destruction that were there and encourages everyone to
remember that there is a lot of desert in Iraq and many things can be hidden under those deep, deep sands.
Now permanently and totally disabled as a result of her service to her country, she is retired living a
peaceful life with her family. Happily married with 3 children, a new purpose has come to her life. She now focuses
entirely on making sure her children never go through the trials to which she has borne witness.
As with many of our brave soldiers and sailors, she has witnessed death and destruction in many forms.
It has impacted her life so strongly she rarely discusses her past today. Rather she likes to focus on the future....
her children.
Her most fervent prayer is that everyone she meets learns to live by her golden rule:
"Do what you know is right and you'll never go wrong."
