Annette John-Hall: Back to Iraq for devoted teacher

Like any good soldier - especially in today's military - Antisha Meisner knows change can come anytime. Change is always in charge.

This time, though, it's a little harder to embrace, now that she has her kids.

Those would be her students at Rancocas Valley Regional High School in Mount Holly, where Meisner has taught English and coached freshman basketball for the last three years.

A couple of weeks ago, Meisner - make that Gunnery Sgt. Meisner of the Marine Corps Reserve - said goodbye to her kids and her teaching gig. No keeping Uncle Sam waiting.

On June 1, Meisner, 33, will report to a Marine Corps training center in Charlotte, N.C., before shipping out for seven months in Iraq.

It will be her second tour of duty there.

Not that the Atlantic City native is complaining. After all, she comes from a military family. Her father, her mother's twin sister, and two uncles all served.

Meisner always knew she'd enlist in the Marines, because "I figured if I was going to join the military, I was going to join the best."

Still: "My mom didn't speak to me for two weeks. But now that I'm the only staff NCO in my unit, now she's proud."

Five years ago, the last time she was activated, Meisner commanded a unit that installed telephone networks throughout Al Asad Air Base in Anbar province. The work wasn't dangerous, relatively speaking, because she seldom left the base. But more than once the troops encountered spider mines in the line of duty.

The military has been good to Meisner. It has paid for her college education and allowed her to meet her husband, Brian, 29, who also served in the reserve.

Though he opted not to reenlist, Meisner reupped. She has served 15 years; her goal is to reach 20 and become a sergeant major.

But this latest deployment came when Meisner's life was all good. She loves teaching, loves her students. She and her husband, an accountant, were talking about adding some kids of their own to their household, which so far consists of a dog and a cat.

She'd be lying if she said she didn't feel any underlying apprehension about serving in Iraq again.

"I don't want to say I'm afraid, because that's not the way to describe it," Meisner says. "I'm just like, 'Dang. Again?' "

Meisner is as open in person as she is curt online, signing her e-mails "Meisner," not Ms. Meisner or Sgt. Meisner. She sports nine tattoos (most in secure, undisclosed locations), including a USMC logo on her shoulder.

But when her cell phone chimes, she pulls out a flower-embossed, girly-girl device that seems totally out of character for the self-described tomboy.

Her no-nonsense compassion is one of many things her her students love about her.

"She makes herself available for your personal problems," says Miguel Williams, a Rancocas Valley senior who took Meisner's class last year. "If I can't go to a parent or a friend, I'd feel totally confident going to Ms. Meisner."

True, says Meisner, who also doesn't mind doling out tough love on occasion.

"I tell my students, 'If you want to punk me, trust me, you won't,' " she says.

She doesn't know where she'll be going this time. But there will be one huge difference: Her husband won't be with her. Last time, the couple went over together and served at the same base.

"It's definitely going to be a little difficult," her husband says. "But it's not as bad for me as it is for someone who's never gone over. If I don't get a phone call from her for a week, I know that there's nothing wrong. That's just the way it is."

Despite everything that can go wrong, Antisha - Sgt. Meisner - knows in her heart that everything will be OK.

"I will be right back at R.V. with my kids next year, watch," she says.

Just as though nothing's changed.