Rachel Ann Brune (b. 1978), of Point Pleasant, New Jersey, served as a journalist and an officer in the Military Police in the United States Army from 2001-2014 and in the Army Reserves from 2015. Rachel Ann Brune was born 19 March 1978 in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, and grew up in Sussex County, New Jersey, near the Appalachian Mountains. She graduated from high school in 1996, and then attended St. Olaf College in Minnesota for a year, before applying and being accepted to New York University Tisch School of the Arts. After graduating in May 2000, Brune began work as a receptionist on Park Avenue in New York City, and witnessed the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers. In October 2001, Brune enlisted in a United States Army Reserve unit based in Fort Totten, Queens, New York. She attended basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and then Advanced Individual Training, or AIT, in Fort Meade, Maryland. She studied basic journalism, including writing, editing, layout, and design. Brune also learned to be a public affairs specialist, and graduated as the Distinguished Honor Graduate. Brune returned to Fort Totten in late 2002. In February 2003, she deployed with the 800th Military Police Brigade to Camp Arifjan in Kuwait as part of Operation Iraq Freedom, serving as the brigade photojournalist. As such, Brune would accompany convoys, conducting interviews, taking notes, and writing stories. Her job also included marketing those stories to military affiliated websites, as well as the hometown newspapers of the soldiers. From July 2003 to March 2004, Brune was stationed with the 800th Military Police Brigade at Camp Victory in Baghdad, Iraq. She then returned to Fort Totten and began work with the public affairs unit. In March 2005, Brune made the decision to transfer to active duty, and was sent to Fort Campbell, Kentucky to learn sustainment brigade-logistics. She deployed in August 2005 to Forward Operating Base Qayuarah Airfield West in northern Iraq, where she accompanied combat logistics patrols, collecting stories highlighting the accomplishments of the units. In late 2006, while still in Iraq, Brune was contacted by the Mohawk Battalion of Reserve Officer Training Corps out of Loudonville, New York. They selected her for the Green to Gold Active Duty Program, which enabled her to complete a master's of communication at the State University of N.Y. Albany, while also participating in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC). After receiving her master's degree, Brune was commissioned as an MP, or military police officer. From July 2008 to October 2008, Brune attended Military Police Officer Basic Course at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. She was then sent to Fort Hood, Texas, and eventually had the opportunity to serve as platoon leader. Her duties included working alongside her troops, conducting patrols, making arrests, and directing traffic. In late 2010, Brune attended antiterrorism school at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in preparation for deployment to Camp Victory, Iraq, for a tasker in the Army's Worldwide Individual Augmentation System. She worked alongside the Gulf Region Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, helping to rebuild the country, and also became involved in psychological operations, or PSYOPs. Brune returned to Fort Hood in December 2010, and began work with supply and logistics in the S-4 shop. From July 2011 to December 2011, she attended Military Police Captains Career Course at Fort Leonard Wood, and then completed airborne school and survival, evasion resistance, escape, or SERE, training. In May 2012, Brune began PSYOP training and was sent to language school to learn Russian, but soon realized she did not like the program and submitted a voluntary withdrawal packet. She was placed with a replacement company, and in November 2012 she was sent to Camp Airfjan, Kuwait, 595th Transportation Brigade, to work as a force protection officer. Brune returned to Fort Bragg, NC in November 2013, where she worked as a brigade training officer. In 2014, Brune submitted a Release From Active Duty, or REFRAD, packet. She soon became pregnant, but decided to stay a part of the reserves because she still had another year of obligation to her contract. In 2015, Brune received command of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, where her focus was supply and inventory.
