97th Air Mobility Wing
Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma
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Assignment: Photographer 31st Fighter Wing public affairs office at Aviano Air Base, Italy
Personal: Originally from New York City, she grew up in a tight-knit family with her Cuban mother, African American father and three sisters.
As a photographer, Staff Sgt. MercedesKimble Crossland is used to seeing life through a lens.
Still, a voluntary deployment to Iraq in 2007 gave the 38-year-old New York native a perspective like none she had ever had.
Crossland spent a year as a member of a weapons intelligence team, taking pictures of unexploded roadside bombs, or improvised explosive devices.
Her images, taken on 120 missions, were used to create a database of IEDs and led to the prosecution of nine suspected terrorists.
Read her full
story.
