Alumni Spotlight: Wendy Kosek BA ’04, JD ’07
Air Force JAG Corps
For most lawyers, a day-in-the-life doesn’t involve gunfire, bullet-proof vests, or armored vehicles. Wendy Kosek isn’t most lawyers. She’s an Air Force JAG. She’s a Purple Heart recipient recovering from shrapnel injuries suffered in Baghdad, Iraq. She’s a survivor of war.
Kosek, who earned both her bachelor’s and J.D. degrees from Notre Dame, was deployed to Baghdad on June 8, 2009, to prosecute Iraqi detainees. Fewer than three months into her six-month tour, an explosive device detonated outside the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle carrying Kosek and several other officers. Shrapnel tore into her leg just below the knee shattering a portion of her tibia and settled millimeters away from a major artery and nerves.
“Shock kicked in,” says Kosek. “I was not screaming and I did not feel pain. I was calm, assessing the rest of the MRAP.” Ultimately, she made it to Camp Victory, a United States base in Baghdad for initial treatment. “Over a five-day period I was transported by a helicopter, a Blackhawk, two C-17s, one C-130, and one KC-135 from Baghdad to San Antonio. I had two surgeries before reaching San Antonio and I was treated in five different military hospitals.” Kosek is stable now and improving every day with physical therapy.
“I will actually get to keep the shrapnel that the doctors removed from my leg,” says Kosek. “I plan on showing it to defense counsels to send a message: “Don’t mess with me. I took a lickin’ and kept on tickin’!”
Kosek says she doesn’t ask why this happened to her, but rather feels gratitude that she survived the attack. “It is a long road to recovery, but I will get back to where I was before,” which to Kosek means kickboxing classes and hour-long cardio sessions.
Kosek also hopes to travel back to Notre Dame this spring to attend her brother Joe’s graduation from the Executive MBA Program. Joe is an Army captain and an assistant professor of Army Science for Notre Dame’s ROTC Program.
