March 10, 2008

(*Update & Correction)First Female Since WWII To Receive Silver Star Is 19yr. Old Army Spc. Monica Lin Brown of Texas

The State

CAMP SALERNO, Afghanistan

A 19-year-old medic from Texas will become the first woman in Afghanistan and only the second female soldier since World War II to receive the Silver Star, the nation’s third-highest medal for valor.

Army Spc. Monica Lin Brown saved the lives of fellow soldiers after a roadside bomb tore through a convoy of Humvees in the eastern Paktia province in April 2007, the military said.

After the explosion, which wounded five soldiers in her unit, Brown ran through insurgent gunfire and used her body to shield wounded comrades, as mortars fell less than 100 yards away, the military said.

“I did not really think about anything except for getting the guys to a safer location and getting them taken care of and getting them out of there,” Brown told The Associated Press at a U.S. base in the eastern province of Khost.

Brown, from Lake Jackson, Texas, is scheduled to receive the Silver Star later in March. She was part of a four-vehicle convoy patrolling near Jani Kheil in Paktia on April 25, 2007, when a bomb hit one of the Humvees.

We stopped the convoy. I opened up my door and grabbed my aid bag,” Brown said.

Brown, of the 4th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, said ammunition going off inside the burning Humvee was sending shrapnel in all directions. She said they were sitting in a dangerous spot.

She started running toward the burning vehicle as insurgents opened fire. All five wounded soldiers had scrambled out

“So we dragged them for 100 or 200 meters, got them away from the Humvee a little bit,” she said. “I was in a kind of a robot mode, did not think about much but getting the guys taken care of.”

For Brown, who knew all five wounded soldiers, it became a race to get them to a safer location. Eventually, they moved the wounded about 500 yards away and treated them on-site before putting them on a helicopter for evacuation.

Congratulations Army Spc Monica Lin Brown on your award and bravery! I would also like to thank all our finest and bravest serving in the US Miltary. You guys rock!

Thank you Dan Alan for picture!

Thanks to Jawa reader Chuck Simmons I was able to correct the "first" women. Sadly, heroic news like this isn't streaming in the MSM.

* Army Spc Monica Lin Brown is the first female in AFGHANISTAN to receive the Silver Star. She is the second female to receive it since WWII.

Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester was the first female in Iraq to receive the Silver Star since WWII.Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester fought her way through an enemy ambush south of Baghdad, killing three insurgents with her M-4 rifle to save fellow soldiers' lives -- and yesterday became the first woman since World War II to win the Silver Star medal for valor in combat.

The 23-year-old retail store manager from Bowling Green, Ky., won the award for skillfully leading her team of military police soldiers in a counterattack after about 50 insurgents ambushed a supply convoy they were guarding near Salman Pak on March 20.

After insurgents hit the convoy with a barrage of fire from machine guns, AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, Hester "maneuvered her team through the kill zone into a flanking position where she assaulted a trench line with grenades and M203 rounds," according to the Army citation accompanying the Silver Star.

"She then cleared two trenches with her squad leader where she engaged and eliminated three AIF [anti-Iraqi forces] with her M4 rifle. Her actions saved the lives of numerous convoy members," the citation stated.

Awesome heroic's for these two women. I salute you ladies!