Synopsis for Diary From the Desert Enter into the life of Mary E. McFarland as she leaves her family farm in Iowa and vividly recounts her experiences in the Army through her letters home. Diary From the Desert is not a military account of the weapons or maneuvers of war, but one womans personal view of survival in the Army. As you follow her through basic training, military intelligence school, and then deployment to the Gulf War, you will discover who she is and become a part of the strong family that shaped her values, beliefs, and longings. Her letters are filled with a breadth of emotions from falling in love and the agonizing separation of newlyweds, to having artillery rumble right over her head. She powerfully describes her fears of war and her feelings of isolation as she describes what it was like to be the only woman among 300 troops. Mary E. McFarland Stabe entered into the United States Army in 1989 at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. She was eventually stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, where she was married and deployed to Saudi Arabia during Desert Shield and Storm.
