By NICOLE MARSHALL World Staff Writer
Published: 8/3/2009
A Tulsa woman has returned home after spending nine months in Iraq teaching the first members of the country's national police force to conduct DNA testing.
After working at the Tulsa Police Department's lab for more than 11 years, Dr. Valerie Fuller resigned in October and left for Iraq just weeks later. She faced a lot of uncertainties, but Fuller said she was excited to be a positive part of Iraq's history.
"Saddam (Hussein) tore everything down, and then ...we had to tear a lot of things down just to get him out of there," she said.
"This is one thing where we are building something, and it was a positive thing, and I just think it will have far-reaching ramifications for a very good, positive future for their country. I feel honored to be a part of it."
At the Tulsa lab, Fuller worked by herself for several years as DNA caseloads mounted.
"I was a one-person lab for five years. That almost killed me," Fuller said. "It finally reached crisis proportions, and they hired two more people, and now they have three."
Fuller's husband, Tulsa Police Cpl. Dan Fuller, is a lieutenant colonel in the Oklahoma Army National Guard and was assigned to Iraq from January to October. It was through him that she made the contact for her new job.
Maj. Gen. Jassim Tahir Chilab, dean of Iraq's High Institute for Training, selected the students who attended the Baghdad Police College Criminal Evidence Lab program. They were unemployed chemists and biochemists before they became police officers.
The 18 officers made up the first training class for disciplines such as toxicology and DNA testing, but the Iraqi police had already been doing fingerprint and firearms examinations, Fuller said.
She didn't know what to expect as a woman teaching a group of Iraqi men, but she encountered no cultural problems, she said.
"These guys were so polite, and immediately they told me they would treat me like a sister — protect me with their lives — and they meant it," Fuller said.
"Now a lot of things...like the camaraderie we had inside the lab probably would not have been acceptable on the streets, but I could be myself inside the lab."
Her students called her "Doctora Fuller," and she got to know them as friends and colleagues.
The Baghdad Police College is in what is classified as the "red zone" because it is guarded entirely by Iraqis. Nonetheless, Fuller said she felt completely safe.
During her time there, she heard a couple of car bombs and then saw smoke and coalition helicopters overhead, but she never saw any violence firsthand, she said.
"I had to wear armor to walk into the red zone, but when we would get there, I would change into my business suit," Fuller said. "I trusted their security, and I am a scientist."
The students took risks to have the opportunity to be police officers, Fuller said. One of the chemists who lived in Sadr City would wear a mask and have his family smuggle him daily into his job as an officer.
"He was not sure that if his neighbors knew he was working with Americans what they would do to him, so these guys took great personal risks to come to this class every day," Fuller said. "All of these guys were more than happy to work for the police, because the police were part of the coalition. It is a very patriotic job to have," she said.
Fuller estimated that 70 percent of the students' fathers had been killed in the Iran-Iraq War or "because of political reasons, they just disappeared one day."
She taught the students how DNA testing could be used to solve decades-old cases, including the hundreds of missing-persons cases in the country.
Previously, "they were aware of DNA, but they thought it was something only in the movies ... that they would never have access to it," Fuller said.
Fuller said her job allowed her to see history being made. In February, the first class of about 1,000 female Iraqi police officers graduated.
"It was great," Fuller said. "They knew that they were doing something really historic, and we were there supporting them."
In addition to the 18 DNA students, six students studied blood-spatter evidence at the college, and 11 studied chemistry.
The Ministry of Interior celebrated the graduation of all 35 Iraqi police officers from the Criminal Evidence Lab course on July 2. Now they are working to set up their work sites at the three main national labs.
"Any of them would be qualified to do DNA in the states. I would hire any of them," Fuller said.
Two days before Fuller left Iraq, the school's dean asked her for a favor.
"He was so concerned and said he hopes that it was a positive experience for me," she said. "He asked me, 'Could you just go back and tell the Americans how grateful we are for all their help? We are so thankful, and you have to get this positive story out there.' "
Fuller is now working to set up a lab in the Caribbean island of St. Lucia.
Nicole Marshall 581-8459
nicole.marshall@tulsaworld.com
Copyright Tulsa World 2009. Format differs from original publication.
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