So the Orem native re-enlisted Monday in the Guard, accepting a one-year assignment as a recruiting officer. And because Guard support underpinned her drive to the silver in women's bobsled at the Turin Winter Games, she believes its continued assistance is necessary to realize a new medal goal - "hopefully, I'll upgrade it one place to gold," she said.

Rohbock, who also played professional soccer after starring in that sport at Brigham Young University, joined the Army's World Class Athlete Program to hone her bobsled-driving skills on the Utah Olympic Park track while serving as a secretary with the Utah National Guard's 115th Engineers.

"This unit was amazing letting me do what I do [drive a bobsled] while doing what I do for them," she said in a news conference at National Guard headquarters. "They've been great giving me free rein so I can end up with one of these."

She was referring to an Olympic silver medal hanging around her neck, a treasure supplemented by a new pair of dog tags given to her by Sgt. Maj. Jess Adamson, the National Guard officer overseeing recruitment. "Another silver medal over your head and over your heart," he said, draping the dog tags over Rohbock's standard khaki uniform.

Added National Guard spokesman Maj. Hank McIntyre: "Shauna's a great role model for young people who might be considering joining the Guard. She epitomizes the Army values we espouse. She has represented her country well on the [Olympic] playing field and potentially on the battlefield, as well."

An alternate pusher on the U.S. Olympic bobsled team in Salt Lake, Rohbock switched to driving after the 2002 Games. She improved incredibly fast, but her chances of teaming up with Valerie Fleming and competing in Turin seemed slim two years ago when her unit was deployed to Iraq.

Rohbock had her bags packed and was ready to go when she flunked her physical - a torn rotator cuff suffered while playing pro soccer in San Diego was classified as a "non-deployable injury." But it didn't hurt her effort to fine tune her driving skills. And on Feb. 21, despite Fleming's injured back, the U.S. bobsledders raced to second place behind Germans Sandra Prokoff-Kiriasis and Anja Schneiderheinze.

After her medal-winning performance and again on Monday, Rohbock said words cannot express the pride and satisfaction she feels representing the United States as an athlete and a soldier. "There's nothing better than serving your country," said Rohbock, 28.

"For me to be able to win [the silver] and hold up the American flag after we crossed the finish line was truly a dream come true," she added, crediting her Guard duty with "giving me avenues and opening doors not a lot of athletes have access to. Now I can go out and change other kids' lives."

She said her life hasn't changed much since Turin.

She never made it to late-night television stardom with Letterman or Leno, but has been perpetually on the move with appearances for the Army, the U.S. Olympic team and bobsled federation sponsors, such as Speedo, Home Depot and Verizon. Next month, Rohbock will join other U.S. Olympians in a trip to the White House.

Rohbock also will team this summer with Mike Kohn, a pusher on Brian Shimer's four-man bobsled that captured a bronze medal at the Salt Lake Olympics, in the National Guard Great Race, a three-week odyssey from Philadelphia to San Rafael, Calif. in vintage pre-1960s cars.

When that's done, she and Fleming will hit the weight room in preparation for the 2006-07 World Cup season, the first step toward an Olympic encore in Vancouver in 2010. As soon as Rohbock decided to continue her bobsledding career, she knew her National Guard duty was not done.

"The best thing I could do was to re-enlist," she said.

mikeg@sltrib.com