Top of page

Veterans History Project Service Summary:

  • War or Conflict: Persian Gulf War, 1991; Iraq War, 2003-2011
  • Branch of Service: Air Force
  • Unit of Service: 752nd ASES; 944th Aeromedical Staging Squadron (ASTS)
  • Location of Service: Kuwait; Iraq; March Air Force Base, California; Carswell Air Force Base, Texas; Luke Air Force Base, Arizona; Kuwait
  • Highest Rank: Major; Lieutenant Colonel

View full service history

"Most of the kids I saw over there, most of the kids I worked with, were younger than my kids. And they had their body parts blown off and that bothered me." (Video Interview, 7:10)

Three months after Cookie Avvampato, a professional nurse with two late-teen children, joined the Air Force Reserves, she was called into active duty to serve in Desert Storm as a backfill medical specialist in Kuwait. Having grown up a self-described military brat, with her father an Air Force enlisted man she had little trouble adapting to life in the military. Some fourteen years later, she volunteered to go to Iraq to serve in that conflict. Daily life in the two wars was a study in contrasts; her medical facility in Kuwait had many amenities, with little sense of danger, while conditions as her base in Balad, Iraq, were very confining and dominated by the Big Voice, a public address announcer who warned of incoming mortar attacks usually after they had started.

About this Item

Title

  • Cookie Avvampato Collection

Names

  • Mathew Couch
  • Avvampato, Cookie
  • VA Healthcare System, Southern Arizona (SAVAHCS)
  • Eaton, Michael
  • Morgan Stimmel

State of Birth

  • WA

Home State

  • AZ

Headings

  • -  Avvampato, Cookie
  • -  Persian Gulf War, 1991 -- Personal Narratives
  • -  United States. Air Force.
  • -  Iraq War, 2003-2011 -- Personal Narratives
  • -  United States. Air Force.

Repository

  • Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Gender

  • Female

Status

  • Veteran

Service History

  • Persian Gulf War, 1991

    • Branch of Service: Air Force
    • Unit of Service: 752nd ASES; 944th Aeromedical Staging Squadron (ASTS)
    • Location of Service: March Air Force Base, California; Carswell Air Force Base, Texas; Luke Air Force Base, Arizona; Kuwait
    • Highest Rank: Major
    • Dates of Service: 1990-?
    • Entrance into Service: Enlisted
    • Military Status: Veteran

  • Iraq War, 2003-2011

    • Branch of Service: Air Force
    • Location of Service: Kuwait; Iraq
    • Highest Rank: Lieutenant Colonel
    • Entrance into Service: Enlisted
    • Military Status: Veteran

Materials

  • Video: MiniDV [1 item] -- Oral history interview (collected 03/23/2005)
  • Video: Digital Betacam [1 item] -- Digitized Copy (collected 03/23/2005)

Collection Number

  • AFC/2001/001/33416

Cite as

  • Cookie Avvampato Collection (AFC/2001/001/33416), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Online Format

  • image
  • video

Additional Metadata Formats

Rights & Access

Using VHP Material in Publication or Exhibition

The Veterans History Project (VHP) at the Library of Congress collects, preserves and makes accessible the firsthand recollections of U.S. military veterans who served from World War I through more recent conflicts and peacekeeping missions, so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand what they saw, did and felt during their service. The Veterans History Project Collection includes oral histories along with documentary materials such as original letters, diaries, photographs, and memoirs.

Veterans and interviewers contribute these materials to the Library for scholarly and educational purposes, retaining any copyright they may hold. Therefore, permission must be obtained before using the interview or other materials in exhibition or publication. Researchers or others who would like to make further use of these materials should contact the Veterans History Project for assistance.

As a publicly supported institution, the Library generally does not own rights to material in its collections. Therefore, it does not charge permission fees for use of such material and cannot give or deny permission to publish or otherwise distribute material in its collections. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item from the Library’s collections and for securing any necessary permissions rests with persons desiring to use the item.

Please contact us with questions.

Obtaining Copies of VHP Materials

In order for VHP materials to be duplicated, we must receive written permission from the interviewee for you to obtain a copy of the recording unless the proposed use is limited to personal use, research, or other uses permissible by copyright law. If the interviewee is deceased, their next-of-kin may grant written permission.

Please contact VHP for assistance if you need to contact a veteran for permission to use their materials in exhibition or publication, or if you have received permission from the veteran and need access to high-resolution copies of VHP collection materials.

Citing VHP Materials

Please use the following formats when citing Veterans History Project materials (substituting the appropriate name and collection ID number).

Materials as a whole:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Manuscript material:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Memoirs (MS02), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Transcript (MS04), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Correspondence (MS01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Recording:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Audio recording (SR01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Video recording (MV01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Photograph:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Photographs (PH01), photographer unknown, Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Photographs (PH03-PH14), Ralph Williams photographer, Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Computer file:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Computer file (CF01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Artifact:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Artifact (AR01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Mathew Couch, Cookie Avvampato, Southern Arizona Va Healthcare System, Michael Eaton, and Morgan Stimmel. Cookie Avvampato Collection. 1990. Personal Narrative. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.33416/.

APA citation style:

Mathew Couch, Avvampato, C., Va Healthcare System, S. A., Eaton, M. & Morgan Stimmel. (1990) Cookie Avvampato Collection. [Personal Narrative] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.33416/.

MLA citation style:

Mathew Couch, et al. Cookie Avvampato Collection. 1990. Personal Narrative. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.33416/>.