Face of Defense: Father Promotes Daughter in Iraq

By Army Cpl. Daniel Eddy

1st Armored Division

BAGHDAD, Sept. 27, 2010 – An Army father promoted his Army daughter during a Sept. 19 ceremony held at Camp Liberty here.

Army Warrant Officer Romeo Garin, a maintenance technician, promoted his daughter, Army 2nd Lt. Aiana Janica Garin, a communications officer with Company B of the 1st Armored Division’s special troops battalion, to first lieutenant in front of a group of fellow soldiers.

“This is a great family affair,” said Lt. Col. Lane Turner, the newly promoted lieutenant’s battalion commander.

This is now-1st Lt. Garin’s first deployment to Iraq; her father had deployed with the 1st Armored Division in 2003 during Operation Iraqi Freedom. When she’d got word that her father would return to Iraq this July, she knew that she wanted him to promote her.

“It’s a huge deal,” Garin said of having her father promote her. “It means a lot to me to be serving under the same division as my dad. This is my first promotion and it was an honor.”

The father said he was very proud to have the chance to promote his daughter and that Army values helped him to raise her.

“I can apply it to my kids on how to be successful in life and how to discipline yourself,” he said.

Even though father and daughter serve in the same division in Iraq, they are not in the same location. Garin is stationed at Camp Liberty while her father is stationed farther west at Camp Ramadi.

Garin’s father was at Camp Liberty for a maintenance course and he was fortunate to have the dates coincide with his daughter’s promotion.

Next year, Garin’s daughter will return the favor by promoting him to Chief Warrant Officer 2.