=====

Female Army Sergeant Repels Ambush, Kills 3, Becomes First Woman to Earn Silver Star Since WWII
by Louise Bevan

Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester, of Nashville, Tennessee, went from shoe salesperson to national hero, and today, she has the award to prove it.

Hester first enlisted in the United States Army just before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and was assigned to the National Guard’s Kentucky-based 617th Military Police Company in Baghdad in 2004. She was not afraid of the potential for combat.

“It was that one job where you can get out there and get dirty and be in an infantry-type environment,” she explained of her enlistment, speaking to The Tennesseean. “I guess it was one of the more exciting jobs in the military for women when I enlisted, and it still is now.”

Hester, then 23, was assigned to oversee a supply convoy moving east out of Baghdad. In order to do so, the sergeant needed to clear the route of any improvised explosive devices; she took the job in stride. Notably, as per Military Times, the Pentagon would not (officially) allow women to engage in tasks such as these as an occupational specialty until 2013.

But protocol is one thing, and reality is another; Hester, since joining the military, had already grown used to combat.

“I can’t tell you how many times our squad got blown up,” she said, speaking to NPR. “I mean, it was nothing for us to get shot at every other day or more.”

Continues - site has paywall w/ some free articles each month:

https://www.theepochtimes.com/female-army-sergeant-repels-ambush-kills-3-becomes-first-woman-to-earn-silver-star-since-wwii_3164385.html

*************************************************************