U. S. Air Force Captain Stasha Duck, a Samford graduate, is deployed to Afghanistan.  A few days ago, she wrote to her home newspaper in Jasper, Alabama, regarding her early experiences with her new assignment.  On her second day in Afghanistan, the troops were called together for a brief ceremony for a fallen comrade.  "Everyone starts to walk off," she writes, "and that's when I made the mistake . . . I looked back and saw the flag-draped casket I had blindly saluted in the vehicle that was driving away.  I shouldn't have looked.  It was a cold reminder, on an otherwise perfect day, that this is not home.  I tried not to think about it, but it was no use.  I quickly made my way to the bathroom and wept.  Not for the fallen really, but more for his family.  I thought of his mom and I felt guilty--what if I put my mom through the same thing as his is going through right now?  Those thoughts raced through my mind.  I hope she would forgive me."

 

The world is better because of Captain Stasha Duck.     

 

 
Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 5,791 students from 49 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks 6th nationally for its Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.