Author Bio
Heidi Squier Kraft was born into a Navy family in San Francisco, CA. Her father was a career Navy submarine officer and her mother a registered nurse. She always knew she would end up in the medical field, although the specialty of choice changed as she grew. Despite her father's urging to attend the US Naval Academy as he did, Heidi attended college at the University of California in San Diego. She subsequently received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine in 1996, and completed clinical/medical psychology internship at Duke University Medical Center. During internship, her love of flight and desire to serve her country led her to join the US Navy as an aviation clinical psychologist. She attended Naval Flight Surgeon School in Pensacola, and then was stationed at the Naval Safety Center in Virginia, as a human factors consultant to the aviation fleet. While in Virginia, she met Mike "Cheez" Kraft, a Marine Corps Harrier pilot, and they were married in 1999. Her second tour took her to the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego, serving as the Deputy Program Manager for the Department of Defense HIV/AIDS Prevention Program, a humanitarian mission with African militaries.
As a flight psychologist, Heidi had the opportunity to log over one hundred hours and six carrier landings in the F/A-18 Hornet, all with Marine Corps squadrons. During this time, she provided clinical care for aviators and aviation maintenance personnel, including the treatment of operational trauma and grief. In February 2002, when she learned she was pregnant with twins, her time in high-performance jets came to an end. She delivered Brian and Megan in September 2002 at the Naval Medical Center San Diego. In January 2003, the Kraft family was relocated to Naval Hospital Jacksonville, Florida, where Heidi took a billet as a staff clinical psychologist.
In February 2004, she deployed to Iraq for seven months with Alpha Surgical Company, First Medical Battalion, First Marine Logistics Group, First Marine Expeditionary Force. She served as the Officer in Charge of the surgical company's Combat Stress Platoon, where she and her three teammates were responsible for the mental health care of thousands of Marines and Sailors in western Iraq. She returned home in September 2004 and left active duty in March 2005 after nine years in the Navy. She currently serves as the Deputy Manager for the Navy's Combat/Operational Stress Control Program, and sees active duty PTSD patients at Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton, as a Navy contractor, through SAIC (Science Applications International Corporation). She lives in San Diego, California, with Mike and Brian and Megan — who are now almost four — and have no memory of their mother's time in Iraq.