Guyanese-born woman on the frontlines in Iraq
Stabroek News
April 7, 2003
Guyanese-born Shellon Jonas, 25, is one of the thousands of American soldiers who form part of the coalition forces currently in Baghdad where the war against Iraq is raging.
The young sergeant, born to parents Haydock also known as `Mix-up' and Barbara Jonas, hails from the mining town of Linden where she attended the Christianburg Primary and McKenzie Multilateral schools. She is the third of her parents' 11 children, of whom only one is a boy.
She departed Guyana 15 years ago and Jonas now lives in Brooklyn, New York. She has been in the United States Army - attached to the 101 Airborne Division - for the past four years, one of which was spent serving in Kosovo following the NATO-led war against Serbia.
According to Jonas' father, the young woman who is unmarried and has no children, formerly attended the Brooklyn College and when at home in the USA, pursues studies in Business and Accounts.
Jonas went to Iraq in the third week in March and was in the camp in Kuwait where an American soldier used a grenade against his colleagues, killing two of them.
"Her army training was tough, but she was determined to make it.
She did not get any army scholarships to attend college," Jonas stated.
