SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Badly wounded and woozy from medication in a chopper speeding over Baghdad, Iraq, Staff Sgt. Sophia Mitchell softly sang the “I Love You” song she and her daughter had made up.

“They must have thought I was high on the morphine,” Mitchell said.

In those fragile hours, clinging to life after a mortar attack, she kept thinking of her 5-year-old girl, Jurnee. Mitchell is one of 599 women wounded in the Middle East and part of the first wave of female combat amputees in U.S. history.

Most people see patriotism and the sacrifices of war as masculine values. A vast majority of the nearly 2.6 million Americans killed or wounded in major conflicts since the Revolutionary War have been men.

But in today’s war, women play a larger role and even are at risk “inside the wire” of a secured base. Of the 4,650 U.S. troops whose deaths the Defense Department counts relating to the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, 110 were women, and 61 of them were killed in combat.

Jorge Torres, clinical nurse specialist at Fort Sam Houston’s Center for the Intrepid, said he’s seen some of the problems faced by women wounded in war, the challenges with body image and the guilt some feel, unable to play the role of mother as they rehabilitate.

Torres, who works in behavioral health, said he supports a bill in Congress to launch a study of physical and mental health issues among female veterans as a means to improve treatment and conditions for women in the battlefield.

“It may be the wave of the future,” Torres said. “There is a difference between female and male casualties. Can I give you all the specifics? No. If we could better delineate the differences, we could better help these women and their families.”

Staff Sgt. Ireshekia Hilliard was standing next to one of those 61 women killed in action. She has the scars to prove it.

Hilliard was right by Staff Sgt. Lillian Clamens, going into the chow hall in the Camp Victory complex, when they were attacked Oct. 10. Mitchell was about 10 feet away, on her way out, as 107 mm rockets hammered the heavily fortified Baghdad base.

Mitchell and Hilliard survived the assault, which wounded about 40 coalition troops, mostly Americans. Clamens, an administrative clerk set to return home to Florida the next day, was one of two soldiers killed.

After what she’s been through, just seeing a U.S. flag waving in the breeze sometimes forces Hilliard to take a deep breath. Hearing the national anthem gives her a lump in her throat.

Hilliard lost her lower left leg in the mortar attack, and has a special prosthesis on order from England. It’s brown to match her skin and shaped like a woman’s leg.

Male amputees typically prefer a titanium leg. But she wants to look pretty in skirts, dresses and panty hose.

‘One of the guys’

Females constitute 11 percent of the force in Iraq and Afghanistan. Women are legally barred from front-line service, but often are exposed to danger as gunners, military police, helicopter pilots, explosives handlers and security personnel assigned to search Iraqi women at checkpoints.

Women have excelled when they have found themselves in battle, often with bullets whizzing past. A Texan, Spc. Monica Brown of Lake Jackson, recently became the second woman awarded the Silver Star since World War II, for helping save two badly wounded troops during an ambush in Afghanistan. Under heavy gunfire and mortars, she directed action and helped carry the men to safety.

Women also have faced indignities not directly related to war, as in the case of a Texas soldier killed by an out-of-control ex-boyfriend.

The death last Aug. 16 of Spc. Kamisha Block of Vidor initially was reported as a “non-combat-related incident” in Iraq. Her family was told she’d been hit by “friendly fire.”

The Beaumont Enterprise reported June 19 that Block had been fatally shot on a military base by another soldier, who then committed suicide. Army reports indicated Staff Sgt. Paul Brandon Norris had assaulted Block at Fort Hood, and was disciplined and sent to counseling before they deployed.

Staff Sgt. Audrey Ramos, a San Antonian now on a third tour in Iraq, said she’ll never be a “lamb amongst the wolves.”

“Yes, this is a male-dominated profession ... yes, the men are the stronger sex. But I’ll never show weakness. I’ll never be that helpless little lamb,” Ramos wrote in an e-mail.

That’s the resolve it takes for women to serve in a male-dominated war, and to adjust afterward. Sgt. Lilina Benning grew up more than 7,000 miles from the U.S. mainland, and worked in Army human resources. But she bears the wounds of a war that has no clear battle lines.

On Sept. 11, 2007, two rockets hit the SUV she was driving on base in Iraq. She lost most of her left foot, and can’t bend her left arm, which is held together with two blade implants and about 20 screws.

Benning, one of 12 children in a family growing up on the Pacific islands of Micronesia, spoke Kosraean until she began learning English in first grade. The thought of a girl joining the military wasn’t accepted.

“Females were supposed to stay in the house,” said Benning, 37.

Now, she’s trying to stay on active duty. When Benning arrived at Brooke Army Medical Center, she was the only female amputee. Hilliard, Mitchell and Mary Dague, a sergeant from Superior, Mont., who lost both arms trying to deactivate a bomb in Iraq, soon joined her. The four have bonded at BAMC and the Intrepid Center.

Of 803 U.S. troops who’ve had major amputations — not fingers or toes — 20 have been women. Seven female amputees have been treated at BAMC.

Dague, 23, is witty and buoyant, coming from the male-dominant field of ordnance disposal. She fits in as “one of the guys,” Hilliard said. Benning has a small frame but a big smile, and athletic drive that inspires others.

Hilliard’s friendship with Mitchell has been more intimate. They were wounded together, have similar injuries and both are mothers. They shared tears, reliving the Oct. 10 attack when a female medic who had treated them visited BAMC. The medic “actually told me she didn’t think I would make it,” Hilliard said.

When she needs inspiration to keep going, images of her three kids flash through her mind. But Hilliard, 32, hasn’t forgotten about Clamens, who died in the blast.

She and Clamens, who spent most of her yearlong tour in southern Iraq, worked in human resources. They sparked a friendship over the phone. They stayed together for about a week when Hilliard went to Tallil on business.

“We knew all about each other’s children,” she said.

They met again when Clamens got to Baghdad. She had called her husband to tell him she was in the Green Zone and would be home soon. He and their three children had planned a Halloween-themed party for her homecoming.

A few weeks after the attack, Hilliard was at BAMC, recovering from her amputation. She learned in a phone call from Clamens’ first sergeant that her friend had died.

Her children, all in their early teens, have accepted that soldiers, even the ones who are moms, get hurt in the war.

“They know it was just part of my job,” Hilliard said.

Younger veterans

For Ramos, the most satisfying moments in Iraq were during her second tour in 2006, as a flight medic helping save U.S. troops, Iraqis and prisoners — a job not classified as front-line duty. At times, she had to carry patients on her back to her Black Hawk when bullets were flying.

“Times have changed since the olden days of war,” Ramos, who’s 25, wrote from Iraq. “Women are sitting in those turrets, manning those 50 cals (.50-caliber machine guns) or Mark 19s (grenade launchers). Yes, this is a male-dominated profession, but there are many memorials out here of the women who have given their lives to this war.”

Her mother, Sylvia Arzola said she worries more about Ramos losing a limb than the possibility she could die.

“I know that’s crazy,” Arzola said. “It’s just that she’s always been so active.”

Connie Holle uses prayer and secured Internet chat rooms for military families to relieve tension. Her only daughter, Marine Sgt. Sarah Turner, 24, is a convoy commander over about 20 men in Anbar province.

Having a daughter in the war zone means worrying about more than bombs and bullets, said Holle of Austin.

“They have a lot to overcome, like being called a lesbian or a whore,” she said. “They’re having to prove themselves. I’m proud of them for doing that. They’re trailblazers.”

Turner used to play soccer against boys, but showed her girly side when she wore flashy dresses and heels. After her tour, she plans to marry.

“I’ve sent her bridal magazines,” Holle said. “She wants a fairytale wedding, and an old-fashioned dress with sequins.”

The segment of U.S. veterans who are women has risen from 3 percent to 5 percent since 1986, and is expected to double in the next two years, according to the Veterans Affairs Department. That’s forcing the VA to do more work in contraception, Pap smears and preventive medicine for women in their 20s and 30s.

“These are younger veterans than what we’ve had before. It’s changing the focus a little bit,” said Roxanne Ahrman, women’s veterans program manager with the South Texas Veterans Health Care System.

A recent VA review found disparities in outpatient care for women at one-third of its facilities. Ahrman said facilities in South Texas meet or exceed VA standards.

Some who work with female veterans have heard reports of sexual trauma in the war zone, from verbal abuse to physical assaults. The VA responds to every report, “and it doesn’t have to be proven” to qualify for counseling or medical care, Ahrman said.

Sylvia Sanchez, who was an Army nurse in the Persian Gulf War, was shocked to see a female soldier with both legs amputated recently at BAMC.

“It just really freaked me out. But it’s something that’s happening,” she said.

Sanchez recently served as the first female commander of the San Antonio-area District 20 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. She’s worried that women in today’s war, especially those serving in multiple tours, are suffering from traumatic brain injury, sexual trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder, but aren’t getting the help they need. Some still are trying to prove they’re as tough as the men, Sanchez said.

Doing a major part

Mitchell, who lost her lower left leg, also feels bits of shrapnel in her back and behind her left eye. A mortar fragment, hardly bigger than a grain of sand, fractured her right foot. Another shattered a finger.

“It’s amazing how small those pieces are, and how much damage they can do,” she said.

But she’s happy to be alive, at 26, looking forward to life with her husband and daughter.

Mitchell, who is from Beaufort, S.C., was the youngest of seven kids and the only girl in her family. She was at Fort Irwin, Calif., when the East Coast was attacked Sept. 11, 2001.

“I was devastated. It scared me and it hurt me, to see all those people get hurt,” she said.

Now, after a week of therapy and rehab at Fort Sam, she spends weekends with her family in Killeen. She said she’s proud to see women in uniform, working under adverse conditions alongside the men, so others can live in peace.

“Even though women aren’t on the front lines, we do a major part,” she said. “If you want to serve your country, it doesn’t matter. Mortars and bullet rounds don’t pick by gender.”

She’s unsure whether she’ll stay in the Army. But she loves being a mother.

“Mom, I’m not a baby. I’m a big girl,” Jurnee often tells her.

“No, you’re still my baby,” Mitchell replies. “You’ll always be my baby.”

Montana soldier: ‘There is nothing I can’t handle’

SUPERIOR (AP) — U.S. Army Sgt. Mary Dague, a 2003 graduate of Superior High School, lost both arms defusing a bomb while serving with the 707th Explosive Ordnance Disposal in Iraq last November.

“This is nothing I can’t handle,” Dague said while visiting Superior for a ceremony in her honor in March. “I have the support of people I have never met.”

Last Nov. 4 in Iraq, Dague picked up a partially defused homemade bomb to be transported to a secure area and detonated. It slipped from her arms and exploded. A protective vest she wore saved her life and that of the team leader behind her.

Besides losing both arms, Dague suffered burns and bruises to her face, a fractured occipital bone, abrasions to a cornea, pinhole punctures in both eardrums, and sand blasted into her ears that was not fully flushed out until surgery at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. She is undergoing rehabilitation at Fort Sam Houston’s Center for the Intrepid in San Antonio.