Jessie McCormick is pictured in Iraq with her cousin David Webb, a fellow marine. She has been deployed to Iraq twice to provide security for the Explosive Ordinance Disposal Team. (Photo provided)

At age 18, Amory MS native Jessi McCormick joined the U.S. Marines to pursue a career in law enforcement as a military police. She was excited but didn't know what to expect.

Corporal McCormick's biggest challenge came when she was sent to Iraq for eight months in August 2004 to provide security for the Explosive Ordinance Disposal Team (EOD).

McCormick is one of a handful of female Marines whose job was to clear bombs.

McCormick was in town attending the Garden Point Cemetery Memorial Service where she presented the laying of the wreath in remembrance of veterans. She is the granddaughter of Betty Wilmoth Webb and the great niece of Sally McMechen and Bob Wilmoth.

"Twenty rockets a day and buildings blowing up became common sights," she said. "Even the cafeteria wasn't spared. The most horrifying experience was when my group found a daisy chain of fake IED's near Mosque in Kabala in the Al-Anbar province."

The Al-Anbar province, according to Dahr Jamail and Ali Al-Fadhity, was responsible for one fourth of American troops killed in combat in July 2007. When they realized the IED's weren't real, the crowd began screaming in Arabic with the only English word "America" intentionally spoken to strike into the troops.

"I was scared, because it sounded like a retaliation was about to start," McCormick recalls. Soon after, a real chain of IED's exploded. McCormick unknowingly kept herself and several troops out of harm's way when she stopped the truck she was driving. Her truck shielded the trucks behind her from the explosion.

Fake daisy chains were very common because they were used to distract troops from a real chain of nearby IED's.

During Operation Phantom Fury, the taking of Fallujah, McCormick witnessed the worse daisy chains where they cleared 74 IED's in a six mile stretch. The longest daisy chain was 8 IED's long, which would have taken out between 10-12 military trucks. Fallujah has been known for its resistance when on August 28, a suicide bomber killed 10 worshippers, including the imam in a mosque, just a month before another bomber killed two policemen and wounded 11.

McCormick returned to Iraq the next August for another eight months. This time, a group of children in Hobanea showed their gratitude to the American troops by helping McCormick. Whenever she went there, these children would run in excitement towards her screaming "Jessi! Jessi!"

She would then distribute Jolly Rancher candy to them in return for their help in locating bombs.

"These children knew we were there to help them," she said. "In return they helped us. Most of the people in Iraq liked us being there, but were afraid to voice their opinions in fear of what might happen to them".

McCormick wears on her wrist a metal bracelet that bears the name of noncommissioned officer, Master Sergeant Brett E. Angus.

On November 26, 2005, near Taqaddum, Angus, 40, had managed to use a robot to dispose of three roadside IED's. He was bending over a fourth when it detonated by remote control.

"Someone was watching," said McCormick. Command wires are used and it forces the bomber to be relatively close, which increases the chances of the bomber being caught, wounded or killed by the device.

On December 1, 2005, a group of Marines was decimated by a bunch of artillery shells strung together and buried in an abandoned flour factory that the Marines had taken over as a patrol base outside Fallujah. Ten Marines were killed and 11 were wounded by the blast, which was set off when one of the Marines stepped on a buried pressure plate. It is the size of a thumbnail.

Soldiers say their biggest challenge is taking on an enemy that is rarely seen, and rarely engages in traditional combat.

"It's a constant battle," said McCormick, who said the deaths of her commanding officers made her and the rest of her unit more determined to fight. "We have to be adaptable."

According to figures complied by Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, a nonprofit research group that analyzes information supplied by the Pentagon, IED's killed 407 US forces last year, more than twice as many as the 197 killed in 2004. In 2006 the U.S. military replaced vulnerable, unarmored Humvees with armor-plated vehicles, and insurgents began building bigger, more powerful bombs. The bombs are buried under dirt roads, hidden in trash bag or in the bodies of dead animals on the side of the road. Most are set off by a command wire or transmitter such as a cell phone or hand-held radio.

It's a dangerous job, but McCormick said she was proud to serve her country and protect her fellow soldiers.

McCormick is now beginning her college career at Northwest Mississippi Community College.