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Tall Orders

In a shell on the Charles River, 5'3" Claudia Peña Crossland first learned to command a team of very large men

U.S. Army Captain Claudia Peña Crossland is a combat engineer who earned two Bronze Stars, in Afghanistan and Iraq. Photo by Kalman Zabarsky

In 2005, when U.S. Army Lieutenant Claudia Peña Crossland first met with tribal elders in a dusty corner of Afghanistan to discuss the road her thirty-three-member platoon of the 864th Engineer Combat Battalion was building, a curious thing happened. Whenever she asked a question, the response would be aimed at her tallest male soldier. “I have my helmet on and my weapon with me, and the elders look at me like: ‘She looks and sounds female. Is that a woman?’” Crossland recalls with a smile. “Eventually, they realized it was faster to go to me. It was always fun to see how that worked.” At five-foot-three, Crossland (CAS’97) is no middle linebacker, but she doesn’t fluster easily, and she is at home commanding strapping young men, a skill she honed in the middle of the Charles River.

“Being a coxswain for varsity crew, I sat in front of eight men who were a foot taller than me and twice my weight,” Crossland says. “So when I arrived at places like Basic Training or Airborne School, the chaotic yelling, brutal honesty, and physical challenges weren’t as stressful. Coxing was big in learning to take command no matter your size or sex.”

Crossland left BU with a bachelor’s degree in international relations and a passion for military intelligence, but the Army filed her under combat engineer, a challenge she rose to meet. She became only the seventh woman to complete the Sapper Leader Course since it opened to women in 1998. The rigorous, monthlong training program subjects engineers to battle drills, seventy-two-hour field exercises, demolitions work, and jumping into lakes from helicopters. It’s not unusual for half the class — male and female — to drop out. Before long, Crossland was in Afghanistan, building bases, clearing mines, laying roads across recently held Taliban territory, and earning the first of two Bronze Stars for her work “outside of the wire,” meaning away from the safety of her military base.

When Crossland wrote with admiration about her platoon’s work for ArNews, the Army News Service, and for the American Forces Press Service, her articles drew notice. After returning to the United States, she was tapped to write speeches for Lieutenant General James Dubik, the commander at Fort Lewis in Washington state. “I was only a lieutenant, yet I was trusted to write the words spoken by a three-star general,” she says. “It was a very intimidating and humbling job.”

In May 2007, when Dubik deployed to Iraq as the commanding general of the Multi-National Security Transition Command–Iraq, he brought Crossland, now a captain, as his protocol officer. The command is charged with training the Iraqi security forces and mentoring their most senior political leaders – in short, laying the groundwork for the exit plan. Crossland became Dubik’s public face at Iraqi ministries and chaperoned visiting U.S. congressmen on tours of Iraqi bases.

Crossland is once again stateside, waiting for her next deployment and enjoying the time and space that allows her to reflect on her career. “Women do have to work harder to demonstrate knowledge, verify technical abilities, and earn the trust of their subordinates and leaders,” she says, twisting the memorial bracelet on her wrist inscribed with the names of three fallen comrades. “But I’ve never felt like being a woman has prevented me from getting a job I want in the Army. I’m paid as much as a male captain. I can’t say the same would be true if I were in the corporate world.”

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