Temple Beth Ami Connection
Recently, my good friend Phyllis Grekin informed me of a female Iraq War veteran she noticed at Rabbi Mark Blazer’s Temple service and suggested that I reach out to Rabbi Blazer for her name and phone number.
Soon, I contacted Brianna and we met in Valencia for her veterans interview. She arrived with her two young sons and husband in tow, and what a treat it was meeting them all.
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Saugus High School
Brianna R. Ranger was born May 10, 1985 in Panorama City, where she lived with her family until age three when they moved to Valencia, and then to Saugus in 1999.
Brianna graduated from Saugus High School June 20, 2003, where she played softball for one semester and performed with her choir all four years.
During her senior year, Brianna worked part-time at Santa Clarita’s Mountasia Fun Center, but during that time frame, she joined a friend in visiting our local Marine Corps recruiter’s office.
This was the first that Brianna considered joining the military, so she proceeded to also visit our Air Force and Army recruiters.
She learned that she could gain financial support towards furthering her education, so in August 2002, she joined the U.S. Army via their delayed entry program.
Brianna entered Basic Training on July 24, 2003 just one day before her mother’s birthday, which proved quite an emotional family experience as the Iraq War was in full bloom at that time.
Surreal Experience
Brianna took 10 weeks of Basic Training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and then she was off to Fort Huachuca, Arizona for Advanced Individual Training (AIT) as an intelligence analyst for five months.
Afterward, she received a seven-day leave of absence and was assigned to Fort Campbell, Kentucky from April 2004 through March 2007.
With limited entertainment options, Brianna and her pals routinely played the card game “spades,” and during one game, a mutual friend introduced Brianna to her future husband, Steve Ranger.
While at Fort Campbell, they deployed to Kuwait for two weeks before venturing to Forward Operating Base (FOB) Speicher near Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, Iraq, for one year.
Brianna said, “Entering Kuwait and then going to Iraq seemed so strange and surreal – it was such a different and unreal experience to me.”
At FOB Speicher, her unit barracked in old Iraqi army facilities with wide open bays until a group of soldiers, including Steve Ranger, quickly constructed sparse individual rooms.
During off hours, Brianna loved playing cards and she excelled playing poker, leading her to her moniker, “The 1st Lady of Screaming Eagle Poker.”
Medical Discharge
Brianna and Steve often paired up serving together on security guard towers, where they constantly chattered away, becoming close friends, though Brianna’s primary responsibility was monitoring radio transmissions of their troop movements in the field and providing status reports to her superiors.
Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were a major problem for troops on patrol and delivering supplies via convoys.
Roughly once a month, local radical Islamic terrorists blasted mortars into her base camp that tragically took the lives of several of Brianna’s friends.
Her tour of duty ended in September 2006, so she returned to Fort Campbell. However on August 2, 2006, while riding in a 2 ½ ton convoy truck that her squad leader was reportedly driving recklessly, their vehicle hit a major roadway dip, lurching Brianna forward, smashing her head and damaging her spine.
Brianna said, “My buck sergeant was a total foul-mouth dirtbag, and afterward when he was kicked out of our unit, many rejoiced.”
After recovering from her injuries, or so she thought, Brianna re-enlisted for four more years and was sent to Fort Irwin near Barstow, California.
However, her physical issues returned, preventing her from continuing her service. After one year, Brianna was medically discharged March 1, 2008.
Magical Moment
After Brianna’s discharge, she moved to Las Vegas, rented an apartment and landed a job at the Venetian Hotel and Casino as a poker dealer of all forms of poker, where she was promoted to floor supervisor and poker tournament coordinator.
Before departing Las Vegas April 22, 2011, Brianna also dabbled in poker tournaments, winning several large cash prizes, including $37,000 and $42,000.
No one doubted Brianna’s spunkiness. Her old Army pal Steve Ranger visited Las Vegas two times, connecting with Brianna, and on his second trip and while stopping on the Venetian bridge one evening, they gazed upon the Las Vegas Strip’s amazing skyline.
She had never actually taken time to appreciate Vegas’ night time grandeur, and as they stood there, Brianna said, “It was a magical moment, especially as Steve embraced and gently kissed me for the first time.”
Fittingly, their very first date was attending the Beatles magnificent music fest “Love Cirque du Soleil” at the Mirage Hotel.
It’s a Beautiful Life!
In the summer of 2011, Steve had in the process a home escrow while working as a contractor overseas, but everything changed in a New York minute as the two fell head over heels at that Venetian bridge.
Brianna moved into her parent’s Saugus home that summer and Steve abruptly halted his escrow.
After arriving at Brianna’s on November 10, five days later while they watched the movie “Shrek,” he surprisingly proposed marriage — she emphatically said yes.
They were married December 16, 2012, at a charming winery in Temecula with a group of 80 family and friends in attendance.
For the next few years, they lived in a Valencia apartment, then their own home in Lake Elsinore, then in Las Vegas, and finally settled in their Palmdale home.
Meanwhile, Steve started working for Lockheed Martin Corporation and Brianna began working for the Veterans Administration’s radiology department as a medical support assistant.
In 2013, Brianna was selected as one of the Santa Clarita Valley’s “40 Under 40” honorees.
Their two handsome boys, Shane and Dean, were born respectively March 24, 2016 and August 28, 2018.
I congratulate Brianna and her husband Steve for their patriotic service to our great country.
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