Voices of Valor
An American Hero: Army Woman Earns Silver Star and Makes History

When a 19 year old from Bowling Green, KY, enlisted in the Army National Guard in 2001, she probably never dreamed she’d become an American hero or that she’d make it into the history books—but that’s exactly what SGT Leigh Ann Hester did in 2005. Her actions during an enemy ambush on a US supply convoy made her an American hero. Being awarded the Silver Star—the nation’s third highest award for valor—for her actions that day, gave her a permanent place in American history.

	SGT Leigh Ann Hester, KY ARNG, 2005. DoD Photo.

The Enemy Ambush
On a mission to search convoy routes for Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and to provide additional security to sustainment convoys, then-23-year-old Hester and her team of military police from the Kentucky National Guard’s 617th Military Police squad, Raven 42, were shadowing a convoy of 30 semi-tractor trailers when insurgents attacked. From irrigation ditches in an orchard near the road, 50 enemy fighters launched their complex attack on the convoy with heavy machine-gun fire and Rocket Propelled Grenades, as well as using parked cars along the route to prohibit movement of US troops. She led her team through the “kill zone” and into a flanking position. SGT Hester assaulted a trench line with grenades and M203 grenade-launcher rounds. Then she and squad leader SGT Timothy Nein cleared two trenches and Hester killed three insurgents. When the firefight ended, only three US soldiers were injured, while 27 Iraqis were dead, six wounded and one captured.

	SGT Leigh Ann Hester in formation at Camp Liberty, Iraq, when she was awarded the Silver Star in June 2005. DoD Photo.

SGT Hester told the American Forces Press Service that she didn’t have time to be scared when the fight began. “Your training kicks in and the soldier kicks in,” Hester says. “It’s your life or their's. … You’ve got a job to do—protecting yourself and your fellow comrades.”

The Silver Star
Being an American hero isn’t something this soldier thinks too much about. She says she was surprised and honored when she found out she was being considered for the Silver Star. She and two others from her unit were awarded the Silver Star at Camp Liberty, Iraq, in June 2005. Every member of her squad was honored for heroism in combat, which included the award of three Bronze Stars with the Valor device, three Army Commendations with the Valor device and four Purple Hearts.

Although the Nashville resident is modest about her distinction as a hero, she does recognize the historical significance of being the first woman soldier to be decorated with the Silver Star since WWII. Hester, who was recently discharged from the Army, is one of only 14 women in US military history to receive the Silver Star and the first as a result of direct combat. In addition to six Army nurses in World War I, seven Army nurses were decorated for valor for their actions at the 56th Evacuation Hospital and 33rd Field Hospital in Anzio, Italy, during World War II.

	SGT Leigh Ann Hester reads the information panels accompanying the life-size model of herself and other members of Raven 42 at the opening of the Global War on Terrorism Exhibit at the Army Women's Museum, Ft. Lee, VA, Feb. 3, 2007. USA Photo by SSG Jon Sousy.

Army Women's Museum
Honors the Raven 42 Heroes
Hester’s Silver Star is such an important milestone for America’s servicewomen that this soldier has been given a permanent place in the history books—and at two institutions that honor America’s military women. In early 2007, the Army Women’s Museum, Ft. Lee, VA, unveiled its Global War on Terrorism exhibit, in which Hester and other members of her team are depicted in a life-size, three-dimensional model. Hester and other Raven 42 members were on hand for the exhibit’s unveiling which also features photos of each soldier involved in the now-famous battle. At the exhibit opening, Hester, who often downplays her role in the counterattack, was quick to emphasize that she and her squad were just doing their jobs that day—doing what any soldier would do.

“There are a lot of soldiers [who] are doing this job right now,” she says. “Right this minute, right now, they’re doing now what we were doing then, and they’re not getting the credit they deserve. Look at the big picture. We did great one day, but there are people doing that every day. Don’t lose sight of that.”

	(From left) Army LTG Ann Dunwoody, Acting Secretary of VA Gordon Mansfield and Defense Secretary Robert Gates unveil the glass tablet bearing a quote by SGT Hester during the 10th Anniversary celebration at the Women's Memorial on Nov. 3, 2007. Women's Memorial Foundation Photo.

A Place of Honor at
Women's Memorial
Hester has also been given a permanent place of honor at the Women’s Memorial—the nation’s only memorial to honor America’s servicewomen from the Revolutionary War to the present. During the 10th Anniversary of the Memorial’s dedication, celebrated Nov. 3, 2007, a new glass tablet on the Memorial’s Upper Terrace was unveiled and it bears a quote by Hester.

“This is the first time in history that a woman has been decorated for direct actions against an enemy force,” says retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Wilma L. Vaught, President of the Women’s Memorial Foundation. “This is so significant to military women’s history—to American history—that including SGT Hester’s quote is vital to the preservation of the collective story of our nation’s military women and it is a fitting tribute to a young soldier who epitomizes what it means to be a woman in today’s Armed Forces.”

Thirteen tablets etched with quotations by or about military women form the skylights in the Memorial’s main gallery, and the quotations can be seen reflecting below on the Gallery wall on sunny days. Hester’s, and another newly-etched glass tablet with a quote by President Bill Clinton, are the first to be added since the Memorial opened in 1997. Hester’s quotation sums up how this American hero feels about having been decorated for valor—she was a soldier doing her job:

This award doesn’t have anything to do with being a female. It’s about the duties I performed that day as a soldier. — Leigh Ann Hester, Sergeant, Kentucky Army National Guard, Silver Star, Operation Iraqi Freedom

	SGT Hester's glass tablet, Upper Terrace, Women's Memorial. Women's Memorial Foundaiton Photo.

 

(March 2008)

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