BANK IN A BACKPACK

“I saw a whole different side to the war and after got to help in the rebuilding efforts,” Furman said Sunday from her parents' home in Quaker Hill.

Furman, a member of the finance corps, is accustomed to the policies and procedures related to cashing soldiers' checks and processing other pertinent financial information, but her role in Baghdad was much different.

For roughly five months she regularly toted $150,000 to $200,000 in cash inside a run-of-the-mill backpack through the streets of Baghdad. Her job was to find and meet with venders the Army was doing business with to purchase anything from ice to air conditioning units to an entire rock quarry that soldiers used to build makeshift helicopter pads.

The 38-year-old communicated often with Iraqi businessmen and shop owners, looking for goods to purchase, and worked with the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance to ensure that payments were made to Iraqi ministries so that employees, such as teachers, doctors and police, were paid.

Her most significant transaction came when she had to carry $2.5 million in cash in a footlocker from her office inside one of the Baath party's former houses to the Central Bank of Baghdad.

Furman was escorted on her outings by armed guards — she also carried an M-16 for protection — but she never carried the cash in a locked unit or safe.

“I didn't want to announce that I was carrying up to $200,000 in my backpack. It was safer,” she said.