Baghdad, Iraq —- Mitchell Chambers longed to see his daughter Natasha.

His heart ached for the little girl who used to dance on his feet. He taught her to work on cars and took her to Disney World. He cheered her on at softball games and made her the athlete she is today. He parlayed her zest for life.

But the last time the two were together was a year ago, on March 18, when the family threw a going-away party for them in their hometown of Dahlonega. Both were headed to war.

So when Natasha, now 20, told her father she was coming to see him last week at a base in southeast Baghdad, he was excited. But he still said: No. Don't come.

"I didn't want her to do it. I was trying to get her mom to tell her not to do this. It's too much of a risk. But, no, she won't listen to me," he says.

Natasha pipes up: "I'm rebellious."

Mitchell feared for Natasha because father and daughter are stationed at two different places with their respective Army units. In Georgia, the drive from one base to another would be nothing. In Iraq, it's a long journey fraught with peril.

But Pfc. Natasha Chambers was determined to see her dad. "Daddy's little girl" was talking about her father to her fellow soldiers a few days ago when her supervisors told her to go find him.

"My dad's my everything," she says. "He's my life support. Just in case anything happened, I'd regret not having come to see him."

Emotions fly at reunion

It's not often that you see father-daughter teams deployed in a war zone at the same time.

Mitchell is a communications specialist with Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, based at Forward Operating Base Falcon. He's with infantrymen who have been living rough since they arrived in Iraq last summer.

Natasha is a heavy equipment operator and arrived in Iraq last October. She is based at al-Taqqadam Airbase, 60 miles west in Anbar province.

The soldiers in Alpha Company have heard about Mitchell's daughter. He refers to her as "the girl," as in: "The girl got into theater today. The girl's coming to see me."

Though Mitchell, 43, is surrounded by hardened soldiers who often hide their emotions, he choked up when he saw Natasha. Just like when she was a rebellious 18-year-old and told her mom and dad she was leaving home. He cried then, too.

"Knowing what can happen here, knowing that she's in [this] country adds to my stress," he says. "I worry every day. I've seen the mortars. I've seen the aftereffects of an IED," an improvised explosive device.

Mitchell says his wife, Yong, a seamstress in Dahlonega, worries even more than he does. She's at home with Natasha's younger brother Johnathan. But he's a 19-year-old senior at Lumpkin County High School and is more interested in his girlfriend than trying to keep mom calm, Mitchell says.

Natasha says her mom's hair falls out when she is stressed. "She'll be needing a wig in a month or two," she jokes.

Army brat from jump

Natasha grew up with an Army dad and had the military instilled in her at an early age. She listened to her father tell stories of Black Hawk helicopters skimming the Grand Canyon and the eerie howl of coyotes in the desert. Mitchell took his children to visit Santa Claus sitting inside a Black Hawk.

Natasha wanted to be the first woman in the infantry. "That was all I wanted to do," she says.

She joined the Army 17 months ago, enlisting at Fort Gillem on the same day her father re-enlisted after being laid off as a radio maintenance specialist at Delta Air Lines.

Her goal is to join an aviation brigade, learn to fly and end her career as a brigadier general working in the Pentagon. But mostly she wants her dad to salute her one day, she says laughing.

In Iraq, the two try to e-mail each other two or three times a week but have only spoken by phone three times since Natasha arrived here, partly because dad is usually away from FOB Falcon, living at a rustic patrol base with very few amenities.

So, having three whole days to spend together is precious for father and daughter, even if the time has to be spent here.

They eat together —- both get plates of chicken nuggets and french fries. They pass an afternoon fixing a radio antenna. They don't always agree on things. He doesn't like flying and doesn't understand why his daughter wants to go to jump school.

But he sticks by her. Even this tour of Iraq —- as much as he hated to see her deploy —- will "get her where she wants to go."

They walk down the road to the motor pool: A sergeant and a private with M-16 rifles slung over their shoulders. In the same camouflage uniform, wearing the same striped combat patch of the Fort Stewart-based 3rd Infantry Division.

Mitchell tells his daughter to hold his rifle as he walks back to his tent to get something he needs.

"All right, Dad," she says.

Not too many soldiers get to say that in Iraq.