Meaghen Couvillon’s friends and co-workers tease her by calling her an Iraqi princess, but she doesn’t let that bother her.
Meaghen, an anthropology freshman, is American – a lifelong resident of Brusly, just across the river from Baton Rouge.
Her friends joke with her about being royalty because of her father’s appointment in Iraq. He is the U.S. military governor of the southeastern
province of Wassit.
From Al Cut, Wassit’s capital, her father oversees everything from schools to sewerage in Wassit, Meaghen said.
The teasing doesn’t bother her, though, because she has faith in her
father’s abilities and because she knows the man behind the exalted
position – David Couvillon. She said he might be a lieutenant colonel and
commander of the Third Battalion, 23rd Regiment for the U.S. Marines, but he is still her dad.
Like most other University students, Meaghen is mentally getting herself back into shape for another semester by thinking about professors and buying books.
But unlike many University students, Meaghen’s thoughts often drift
to a scorching desert on the other side of the world. Her mind and emotions are split, just as her family is physically.
“It’s a surreal sort of thing – I’m here, and my dad is gone,” she
said. “But I am proud of what he is doing.”
Meaghen excitedly and anxiously waits for her father to return, which he told her via e-mail will be by the end of September, after stops in Kuwait and California.
Though David obviously must remain focused on his duties as military governor, he still has the same concerns any father would have for his daughter. He expressed these concerns in an e-mail from Iraq.
“[I wonder] whether she’ll make the right decisions in her life as they arrive,” David said. “I’ve always told her to question things. I have to trust she’s learned, but it’s still hard not to worry.”
David misses his family, but he is convinced they are able to carry on without him for the time being.
“They don’t need me,” he said. “Still I find time to worry in my ‘down time.’ I say a little prayer for them every night.”
David said in an online response to a previous Reveille story that service men and women share in the anxiety their family members must cope with during separation.
Meaghen said there was no doubt that her dad felt a certain level of worry by not being able to be with her, her mother, Sharon, and brother, Garett.
“If something happens here, he can’t do anything about it,” Meaghen said. “There’s a sense of helplessness.”
James Hardy, a chemical engineering junior and Meaghen’s close
friend, said he knows she is proud of her father.
“Her father is the person she is closest to in her family,” Hardy
said. “It’s kind of like your best friend is gone when you need him.”
David also is respected at his “day job,” as Meaghen categorized his civilian job in Baton Rouge at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Arkansas.
David is the manager of the health insurance company’s claims division.
Ann Fendick, Human Resources Administration manager for the company, said she and other employees miss David’s presence. He manages about 70 employees, though Fendick said David probably never thought he would supervise as many people as he does as governor.
According to a recent New Orleans Times-Picayune story, David governs more than 1 million Iraqis and has about 1,000 marines to oversee.
“He had no idea what he was getting into,” Fendick said. “But he is definitely a military man, and he has made us all proud.”
Fendick said she and other Blue Cross and Blue Shield employees joke about the way David is reacting to his position as governor.
“We were all laughing about [his position] this morning,” she said. “I said we should widen the door to his office so his head could fit through.”
Meaghen also views her father’s experience as humorous because she said he never would have signed up for a position such as the one he is in.
As she waits for his safe return, Meaghen pays attention to news from Iraq, but she accepts what she sees and hears with a “grain of salt.”
“Media plays on sensation,” Meaghen said. “I’m not saying whether it’s conservative or liberal, but there is always a slant on the news.”
Meaghen feels she has an informative advantage over other University students by having her father in such a high-ranking position.
“This offers me a unique perspective because everyone hears stuff from the news,” she said. “While I’m not over there, I know what’s going
on.”
Her father’s location interests Meaghen for another reason – anthropology.
Though she did not have much interest in Iraq before, she now appreciates the country’s rich history and literature.
“One of the first messages we got from my dad when he got there was to make sure my mother let me know he got to visit Babylon, just because he knew I’d be jealous,” Meaghen said.
But even with the occasional enjoyable whim about her father’s trek
to the Middle East, a more immediate reality hits her.
Meaghen wishes the situation in Iraq would not have led to war, but she sees war in this case as a necessary evil. It is necessary, she said, because the United States needed to oust Saddam Hussein and that took military action.
“It could have been handled better – more diplomatically,” Meaghen said. “But we needed to get [to the place the U.S. military is now].”
Meaghen said when there are reports of civilian deaths she is concerned not only for her father but everyone involved in the conflict.
She said the situation is not nearly as bleak as the evening news makes it seem, though.
“The death toll in New Orleans is higher than in Wassit,” she said. “It’s a tragedy when one person is killed, but how many people are murdered in New Orleans?”
Though she has a globe-trotting, powerful father, Meaghen still sees him as any other proud daughter would view a dad.
Meaghen said her father’s current title is his Excellency, Gov. Lt.
Col. David Couvillon. But she’s still daddy’s little girl.
“He may not know it,” she said, “but [that title is] stopping as
soon as he gets off the plane.”