KENT, Wash. (AP) - Capt. Davinia French was looking at mortar fire and palm trees while talking with a reporter on her cell phone from Baghdad.

"I'm standing outside my quarters -this little trailer. There are sandbags all around it. I can see mortar fire - and I can see palm trees and the Presidential Palace. It's surreal," French told the King County Journal newspaper in Washington state.

It is the second tour of duty in the Middle East for French, a North Dakota National Guard captain.

The Auburn, Wash., native went to the region during the Persian Gulf War in 1990 as a member of the Washington state National Guard.

Now, French is assigned to the Coalition Provisional Authority, the United Nations-designated organization assigned to govern Iraq until it is judged stable enough to govern itself.

French has an office in the Presidential Palace and another in downtown Baghdad. She manages the delivery of $1.6 billion of electrical equipment - "a little over 9,200 truckloads" - coming into Iraq from more than 20 countries to help rebuild its power system.

"It's been 16-hour days," said French, who assumed the post of logistics manager for the project in August.

After graduating from Auburn (Wash.) High School in 1981, she went to Green River Community College and into law enforcement, working security for the Port of Tacoma. She was 26 when she joined the Washington National Guard.

"I finished basic training and right away went to OCS (Officer Candidate School)," said French, who turned 40 last May.

"Lo and behold, Desert Storm happened," she said.

Her interest in logistics, led her to take a leave of absence from her job with the Port Authority in 1995, and go to North Dakota for six months of active duty with the National Guard.

French, whose parents live in Pacific, fell in love with the Midwest and traded in her job with the Port for a position with the National Guard.

Last April, French arrived in Iraq as commander of the 957th Multi-Role Bridge Co., based in Bismarck, N.D.

"I had 177 soldiers over here," she said. "We came to build bridges."

The bridges didn't need rebuilding, so the company was converted into a "quasi-transportation" unit. In August, French was asked to take her current job and began helping rebuild the Iraqi power system.

"We wanted to get reliable power to the Iraqis. Our goal was to get them to prewar standards by Oct. 1," she said. "We did it by Oct. 7."

Not that the current power service in Iraq meets what would be expected in this country, French said.

"There are a lot of places where power is on three hours, off three hours," she said. "Very few people have reliable power 24 hours a day. By our standards, it's terrible."

Still, she said, those working on the project hope that by summer most people will have at least 12 hours of reliable service a day.

Don't think the 5-foot-5-inch French is just a desk jockey.

"I just brought in a generator that weighed 300 tons. It's two stories tall - and huge," she said.

The 20-vehicle convoy delivering it drove through the Sunni Triangle at a speed of less than 9 mph, she said.

"I had hired some local Iraqis to drive a dump truck and a grader in case we needed road work," she said.

"They were in back of the convoy. We were going through Baghdad, traveling at 2 miles an hour. Army helicopters were overhead. Tanks were by the side.

"It's midnight - and like a wild movie."

French needed the road grader to go ahead of the convoy to fix the road. When the grader driver hesitated, wary of moving to the front, French climbed aboard with him.

"I've got a gun on my arm and one on my hip," she said. "I'm going away from the security of that convoy knowing it's my job to protect this Iraqi."

She said part of the reward of being in Iraq has been the opportunity to get to know the Iraqis on a personal level.

"They have some things I really admire," she said. "Family values. They really take care of the family. They believe in loyalty. I interact with them on a daily basis. I absolutely love that. I get to see their good side, their compassionate side."

Other times have not been so easy.

The worst days came when three members of the 957th were killed in two separate incidents.

Spc. Jon Fettig, 30, of Dickinson, died in July when a rocket hit a vehicle he was driving.

The second attack, last month, killed Staff Sgt. Kenneth Hendrickson, 41, of Bismarck, and Sgt. Keith Smette, 25, of Makoti.

Her National Guard unit is scheduled to leave Iraq in mid-March, and she expects to be in the rear detachment. She said that while she loves the challenge of her role with the Coalition Provisional Authority, she misses her unit.

"I'm very proud of this young generation of soldiers. They've done a fantastic job."