
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — After seeing her boyfriend killed in an Anchorage parking-lot fight, she moved to Tennessee.
Five years later, with a crumbled marriage and two young boys, her job in a sweltering small-town factory could barely keep the lights on.
On her lunch break two years ago, she looked up and saw a highway sign: The Army.
Ring was a single parent and the country was at war, but she needed to start again. She enlisted and went to boot camp. Late last year, she shipped out from Fort Benning, Ga., to Baghdad.
Her family said she’d finally found her place in the world. The Army brought structure and...