Lt. Sara Wulff, who spent the last five years living in Dorchester while attending UMass Boston, is part of a team of Massachusetts National Guard troops assigned to protect US diplomats and other Americans living and working in Baghdad, Iraq. She and her fellow soldiers are attached to the National Guard’s 182nd Infantry regiment’s transportation unit, which musters from the Victory Road Armory in Dorchester.

They are tasked with helping to knock down missiles that are fired at the US embassy and other assets. While the US mission there has been out of the news lately, the danger is real. A barrage of rockets targeting a US consulate in northern Iraq were fired last Sunday. No injuries were reported.

And while Wulff, 25, can’t discuss specifics, she has definitely seen her share of action while stationed overseas. “We’ve been prepared for every single one of them,” she said in a phone call from Baghdad last week. “Our teams have such extensive training; it’s like muscle memory.”

Gregory LoGerfo, the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, said: "The U.S. Embassy has an outstanding partnership with the Army National Guard to help protect our facilities. I’m grateful to Lieutenant Wulff and the rest of her team for their courageous service in Iraq during their deployment with us.”

Her current deployment to the region has also included a stint in Afghanistan, where she and other National Guard troops gave support to the US withdrawal from that country last year. She was among those who risked their lives at the Kabul airport to help evacuate people, including many Afghanis. She herself flew out on a C-17 “with a lot of people packed in like sardines.”

Baghdad’s international zone— where she and other Massachusetts National Guard troops are based— is “like a college campus” compared to that experience, she said.

“We can’t leave the deck, but what’s provided for us here in terms of amenities is great: nice pools, gyms, restaurants. There are haji shops that sell local merchandise. We play sand volleyball. It’s just a good time.”

For all the niceties, Baghdad can also be a very hazardous place to work.

“We are currently at a moderate threat level. We were previously a big threat level at the end of December, early January,” she said. “There were specific holidays and memorials that Iraqi locals were taking note of.”

Her situation is a long way from some of her favorite Boston destinations, which include Castle Island and the Harborwalk on Columbia Point where she used to live. A New York native who grew up in Andover, Wulff is a 2020 graduate of UMass Boston, where she took a degree in business management. She worked for two years in the Student Affairs Department as the coordinator for the Student Veterans Center.
“It was hands down the best part of my time at UMB,” she said.

She went through the ROTC program at Boston University, where she earned her commission as a US Army officer. Before her deployment, she was a regular at CrossFit 617, a gym on Hill Top Street in Dorchester. “I absolutely loved it there,” she said.”

When she returns home from her deployment,. Wulff is looking forward to getting a hot dog at Sully’s at Castle Island and dinner at her dad’s favorite neighborhood spot, Savin Bar + Kitchen.