Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester was a vehicle commander in 2005 in the 617th Military Police Company, a National Guard unit out of Richmond, Kentucky. It was a job that meant guaranteed combat, something the Pentagon was not allowing women to officially engage in as an occupational specialty until 2013. “It was that one job where you can get out there and get dirty and be in an infantry-type environment,” she told the Tennessean newspaper in 2015.
She and Staff Sgt. Timothy Nein, her squad leader, then cleared two trenches, at which time she killed three insurgents with her rifle. When the fight was over, 27 insurgents were dead, six were wounded, and one was captured.
She later said being awarded the medal “really doesn’t have anything to do with being a female. It’s about the duties I performed that day as a soldier.”
References include: National Archives | Military Awards Archive | Award Descriptions | Hall of Valor Award Database | Eisenhower Library WASPs Cochran | Virtual Wall Lane | Distinguished Flying Cross Bonham | Silver Star Hester | National Aviation Hall of Fame Cochran | Navy Cross Higbee
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