CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- It took more than a diagnosis of suspected cancer to keep Sgt. Frankie Hibberd from deploying to Iraq with her West Virginia Army National Guard unit.

Hibberd of Charleston serves with the 150th Armored Reconnaissance Squadron, headquartered in Bluefield, with armories in Eleanor, Oak Hill, Welch and Williamson. The squadron is the sole West Virginia unit in the 4,000-soldier 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team, made up mainly of North Carolina Army National Guard units.

It's in Iraq on a yearlong deployment.

Hibberd enthusiastically volunteered for the tour of duty.

"I was sending e-mails and jumping up and down on sergeants majors' and colonels' desks, saying 'Pick me! Pick me!'" she said.

They did pick Hibberd, and promptly assigned her to three months of pre-deployment training. But during a medical screening at Camp Shelby, Miss., at the end of the training, medical personnel detected pre-cancerous cervical cells, and recommended a biopsy. The biopsy turned up a quantity of abnormal cells too large to ignore, and Hibberd was told to forget about the deployment and undergo surgery immediately.

"I told them, 'You are telling me the friendships and bonds that I've made, all the things I learned from the training, now mean nothing and I'm just going home?' No, sir! I can't accept that," Hibberd recalled.

"I begged, pleaded, even cried to a full bird colonel to let me please stay and deploy," Hibberd said in an e-mail interview from Iraq. "He said there was no possible way for me to make it another year without having this issue taken care of. My doctor didn't want me to wait a year, a month, not even another week."

Hibberd flew back to West Virginia to have the questionable cells removed. The operation proved to be a success, and the sergeant was given a letter saying there was no need for follow-ups for another 12 months.

"I'm so thankful and lucky that it was not cancer," Hibberd wrote. "I'm nowhere near ready to slow down anytime soon."

Once she received a letter giving her a clean bill of health, she began making calls to get her deployment plans back on track.

"I called everybody," Hibberd recalled. "So many people were in my corner from headquarters. They hand-delivered my records and the letter to the state surgeon general's office."

Within 48 hours, Hibberd was on her way back to Camp Shelby, where she cleared the pre-deployment process in about one month, then rejoined her brigade at Fort Bragg, N.C., in time to ship out.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- It took more than a diagnosis of suspected cancer to keep Sgt. Frankie Hibberd from deploying to Iraq with her West Virginia Army National Guard unit.

Hibberd of Charleston serves with the 150th Armored Reconnaissance Squadron, headquartered in Bluefield, with armories in Eleanor, Oak Hill, Welch and Williamson. The squadron is the sole West Virginia unit in the 4,000-soldier 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team, made up mainly of North Carolina Army National Guard units.

It's in Iraq on a yearlong deployment.

Hibberd enthusiastically volunteered for the tour of duty.

"I was sending e-mails and jumping up and down on sergeants majors' and colonels' desks, saying 'Pick me! Pick me!'" she said.

They did pick Hibberd, and promptly assigned her to three months of pre-deployment training. But during a medical screening at Camp Shelby, Miss., at the end of the training, medical personnel detected pre-cancerous cervical cells, and recommended a biopsy. The biopsy turned up a quantity of abnormal cells too large to ignore, and Hibberd was told to forget about the deployment and undergo surgery immediately.

"I told them, 'You are telling me the friendships and bonds that I've made, all the things I learned from the training, now mean nothing and I'm just going home?' No, sir! I can't accept that," Hibberd recalled.

"I begged, pleaded, even cried to a full bird colonel to let me please stay and deploy," Hibberd said in an e-mail interview from Iraq. "He said there was no possible way for me to make it another year without having this issue taken care of. My doctor didn't want me to wait a year, a month, not even another week."

Hibberd flew back to West Virginia to have the questionable cells removed. The operation proved to be a success, and the sergeant was given a letter saying there was no need for follow-ups for another 12 months.

"I'm so thankful and lucky that it was not cancer," Hibberd wrote. "I'm nowhere near ready to slow down anytime soon."

Once she received a letter giving her a clean bill of health, she began making calls to get her deployment plans back on track.

"I called everybody," Hibberd recalled. "So many people were in my corner from headquarters. They hand-delivered my records and the letter to the state surgeon general's office."

Within 48 hours, Hibberd was on her way back to Camp Shelby, where she cleared the pre-deployment process in about one month, then rejoined her brigade at Fort Bragg, N.C., in time to ship out.

Her main job in Iraq is serving as her company's signals specialist, making sure all communications gear is up and running, and that all vehicle-mounted improvised explosive device jammers are functioning properly.

"I just make sure everyone can talk to each other and is protected," she said. "That's a very rewarding job in itself."

"She is very serious about her work and goes above and beyond, motivating me and others to do physical training and eat healthier," said Sgt. 1st Class Melissa Strouse of Glen Daniel, Hibberd's roommate. "We call her 'Ray of Sunshine.'"

The brigade's operating area includes joint security stations with Iraqi forces in southwestern Baghdad and a 2,000-square-mile area southwest of the city.

Before shipping out for Iraq, Hibberd, who had worked in the physical fitness field for 10 years, was working at the West Virginia National Guard headquarters, developing a new statewide fitness program.

"Unfortunately, that had to get put on pause for this," she said. "But everything does happen for a reason."

In Iraq, she has led classes on nutrition and is in the process of starting a clinic on running.

Before joining the Guard in 2007, Hibberd had served in the Marines.

"I was in Norway for two and a half months with the Marine Corps, and I also worked for Dyncorp in Doha, Qatar, in 2006. But it was nothing quite like this. I love it!"

She has competed in bodybuilding figure competitions, and plans to return to the sport when her deployment ends.

"It will end right at the beginning of the figure competition season," she said. "My goal is to step on a national stage this next year."

Hibberd also plans to continue pursuing her degree in sports and recreation, and eventually earn a commission as an officer.

"I'm so grateful to everyone who played a part in getting me here and keeping me here," Hibberd said. "I have some amazing leaders and fantastic soldiers that I get the pleasure and honor to work with every day. I truly love the Army and love my job."

Reach Rick Steelhammer at rsteelham...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5169.