[Vision2020] Texas Soldier Gets Silver Star

[Tom Hansen]

For those of you who still believe that women should not serve in combat, 
there are several soldiers and families that are thankful that Spec. 
Monica Lin Brown of the 82nd Airborne Division doesn't feel that way.

>From today's (March 10, 2008) Spokesman Review -

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Texas woman gets Silver Star 
Medic is second female since WWII to receive honor
Fisnik Abrashi 
Associated Press
March 10, 2008

http://tinyurl.com/2hvkju
Spc. Monica Lin Brown, from Lake Jackson, Texas, of 82 Airborne stands 
guard March 9, 2008 at a forwarded operating base in Khost, Afghanistan. 

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 on April 25, 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 said Saturday at a U.S. base in the eastern province of 
Khost.

Brown, of Lake Jackson, Texas, is scheduled to receive the Silver Star 
later this month. She was part of a four-vehicle convoy patrolling near 
Jani Kheil when a bomb struck one of the Humvees.

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

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

"I assessed the patients to see how bad they were. We tried to move them 
to a safer location because we were still receiving incoming fire," Brown 
said.

Pentagon policy prohibits women from serving in front-line combat roles – 
in the infantry, armor or artillery, for example. But the nature of the 
wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, with no real front lines, has seen women 
soldiers take part in close-quarters combat more than during previous 
conflicts.

Four Army nurses in World War II were the first women to receive the 
Silver Star, though three nurses serving in World War I were awarded the 
medal posthumously last year, according to the Army's Web site.

Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester, of Nashville, Tenn., received the Silver Star in 
2005 for gallantry during an insurgent ambush on a convoy in Iraq. Two men 
from her unit, the 617th Military Police Company of Richmond, Ky., also 
received the Silver Star for their roles in the same action.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"People who ridicule others while hiding behind anonymous monikers in chat-
room forums are neither brave nor clever." 

- Latah County Sheriff Wayne Rausch (August 21,
2007)

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