Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire This sergeant became the first woman in the US Army to earn a Silver Star for combat valor

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On the morning of March 20, 2005, then-Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester was tasked with assisting a supply convoy moving east of Baghdad, a job that meant scanning and clearing the route of any improvised explosive devices.

She’d done this job countless times before, getting shot at on almost a daily basis and seeing vehicles blown up more times than anyone would like to remember.

Executing daily patrols as a member of the National Guard’s Kentucky-based 617th Military Police Company meant guaranteed exposure to combat, something the Pentagon, until an order was signed in 2013, was not even allowing women to officially engage in as a occupational specialty.

“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 in 2015.

“I guess it was one of the more exciting jobs in the military for women when I enlisted and it still is now.”

As such, Hester’s resolve in the environment was battle-tested, and it showed when the supply convoy her team was assisting was ambushed by waves of AK-47 fire, RPK machine gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades.

It didn’t take long for the lead supply vehicle to bear the brunt of the onslaught, quickly catching fire and trapping the rest of the convoy in the kill zone.

Unshaken, Hester directed her team away from the enemy’s concentrated fire and into a flanking position that exposed multiple irrigation ditches and an orchard the enemy was using to stage the attack.
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With enemy fire peppering the convoy, the 23-year-old sergeant directed her gunner to send MK19 rounds downrange into a ditch containing more than a dozen heavily armed insurgents.

Hester then dismounted her vehicle, lobbing rounds from her M203 grenade launcher and tossing two fragmentation grenades into the trench line before storming the area on foot.

Joined by her squad leader, Sgt. Hester quickly cut through two additional trenches, personally killing three enemies to her front in close-quarters combat with her M4.

With the irrigation ditches cleared, a cease fire was called. Forty-five minutes of sheer pandemonium had transpired.

Twenty-seven insurgents lay dead, six wounded and one captured.

Every member of Hester’s unit survived.
Then-Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester stands at attention before receiving her Silver Star. (Spc. Jeremy D. Crisp/Army)
Then-Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester stands at attention before receiving her Silver Star. (Spc. Jeremy D. Crisp/Army)

For her actions, Hester was awarded the Silver Star, making her the first woman in the Army to receive the award since World War II and the very first to ever earn it for combat valor.

Once she returned from Iraq, Hester became a police officer, a job she wanted since childhood. But military service was still calling, and before long, she rejoined the National Guard.

“I’m glad that I took a break. I really am," Hester told NPR in 2011.

"It made me realize that I really enjoyed being a soldier, and it’s something that I missed and it’s something that I’m good at. And I look forward to getting deployed again.”

And deploy she would.

In 2014, Hester spent 18 months in Afghanistan, where she earned a promotion to sergeant first class. And in 2017, she was sent to the Virgin Islands as part of the international humanitarian effort in the wake of Hurricane Maria.

Throughout it all, Hester’s selfless devotion to service took precedence over the notoriety deservedly afforded to a true pioneer — like having her own Leigh Ann Hester action figure developed.

“You’d never know of her accomplishments when you meet her, but you soon realize that she is the type of soldier you want next to you in combat,” then-Sgt. 1st Class Jason Bucklew, who worked with Hester from 2012 to 2014, told the Tennessean.

“I’d trust her with my life.”

A number of soldiers trusted Hester with their lives that day in 2005 and are alive to talk about it because of her actions, something she still casually downplays.

“You know, it’s just something that happened one day, and I was trained to do what I did, and I did it," she told NPR.

“We all lived through that battle.”

Read more about Leigh Ann Hester by checking out her full Silver Star citation.
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A sad commentary that she was even put in harms way. It's been a long time since humanity was stupid enough to offer their generative capacity up to the gods of war.

Congratulations to her. Sounds like it was well earned and deserved.

God Bless the Warrior.

+100

Have mixed emotions about women in combat. But it seems she’s a lot better than some snow flakes I’ve seen. Hasbeen

She has stones, so to speak.

Congratulations to her, she is a deserving hero!

Their are women who dont play games and have guts.
But as far as the long term physical demands of combat arms jobs.
Women have endurance strenght demands and health concerns that really cant be overcome.
She did what had ta be done in a violent manner when needed.
Kudo,s to her.



Nuff said.

America!

I remember the news when this first happened. She was remarkable humble, stating that she just followed her squad leader. Her squad leader put her in for the Silver Star because when he led the counter assault he was temporarily halted while engaging the enemy. The young Sergeant Hester sprinted past him and eventually rolled up the enemies flank nearly single-handedly. After the battle and acclaim, the young sergeant said she was just doing her job.

Outstanding.Heroic.

Atta girl!

Good for her.

Outstanding! Someone had trained this lady right! Jessica Lynch was trained to drive a truck, look what happened to her! My own daughter was sent to Afghanistan for 30 days. Her Utah Air Natl Guard were the only full time "spooks" at that time ( 2004) they flew around listening in/locating bad guys all over SouthCom. My daughter was a Spanish Linguist but a Sgt in the ground crew, so she had to go. I was "miffed" when I found out the reason...the regular AF couldn't find the bad guys in Pakistan mnts. Before she deployed, I took her to the range to go over and "refresh" her small arms handling. Turns out that as an AF trainee in SanAntone, she had "zero" work with any handgun and fired "20 rds" of M16! She knew nothing about clearing stoppages, etc. I spent three hours with her and off she went. I prayed a lot. Thankfully, she stayed behind the wire while a Pashtu linguist went with the air crew. They found then often and the 10th Mountain went in and lit them up. Rumsfeld wanted to keep them indefinitely, but I assured her the AF General wouldn't stand for the Air "Guard" to beat his lazy guys, so he built a fire under them, and they started doing their job. She got rocketed, mortared and had "so called friendly" Afghans walk into their quarters all the time. Luckily, she had an M16 with her the whole time. Admittedly, I'm Old School, don't like women in combat, but if they are going to be there, my God, give them some training!!

Outstanding!

That whole 507th fiasco was the result of the convoy commander reading a map staight up and down( basically 180° bassakwards)
Instead of having it orientated in direction of travel at all times.
What his bone head thought was a left turn per his fugged up map reading skills was in reality a right turn in the wrong direction.
Plus he also didnt know how to operate his plugger( gps) worth a fugg either and didnt want to ask to learn how to use it properly.
Simply putting that thing on continous and putting in way points in prior to the mission would have advoided his fugged up lack of land navigation skills in broad daylight.
That and poor weapons maintenance, wpns duck taped up in plastic
Behind seats and locked and frozen up from not having a daily 10 mins of dusting em off and lubing em for weeks on end.
A few of soldiers who did wpns maintenance on their own initiative
where able to fight back somewhat.
All jessica was able to do was hand her magizines to others whose weapons worked in the front seat.
At least 3/4ths of that convoys firepower was out of action to begin with.
All this led to them getting hammered hard.
The after action reveiw of that whole incident was pretty scathing on
the leadership officer and nco wise, whose failures to instill even the most basic standards amongst themselves and their soldiers led to a bad situation that got 10 times worse fast.

And how many civilian women die in a war? Not to mention rape and slavery. Give 'em a gun, and training...

A true warrior!

Thank you for the post. Outstanding.

Good on her, but damn the idiots in our military and government that send girls into combat.

Absolutely.

And thank for raising a kick-ass NCO.