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In this special series we celebrate Women's History Month and
honor the service of women veterans and their contributions to
American military history. In this episode, we honor the "Angels
of Anzio," four courageous nurses of World War II who received
the Silver Star for their gallantry in combat. The stories of Mary
Roberts, Elaine Roe, Virginia Rourke, and Ellen Ainsworth is one
of exceptional courage and resilience as they saved countless
lives during the chaos of a relentless battle. We also recognize the
contributions of other women who emerged as trailblazers as a
new century of warfare brought new roles for women SPANISH
-AMERICAN WAR Esther Hasson Anita Newcomb McGee
Jane Delano WORLD WAR I The "Hello Girls" Opha May
Johnson Helen Purviance Loretta Perfectus Walsh WORLD
WAR II Elaine Harmon Jacqueline Cochran Nancy Harkness
Love Cornelia Fort Ruth Streeter Lt. Col. Charity Adams Earley
SHOW NOTES https://tangoalphalima.fireside.fm/mww2
For Gallantry in Action
By Taylor Baldwin Kiland

Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester didn’t see it coming. First, she heard gunshots and explosions in the distance.
Then a rocket-propelled grenade hit the vehicle directly in front of hers, wounding three members of
Hester’s squad.

It was March 2005, at the height of the war in Iraq. At the time, Pentagon policy forbade women
from serving in units whose primary mission was to engage in direct combat; Hester was assigned to
the National Guard’s 617th Military Police Company, tasked with protecting supply routes in and out
of Baghdad. “It was nothing for us to get shot at every other day or more,” she told NPR.

On a Sunday morning, about three miles east of the city, Hester and her team were surrounded and
fired on by dozens of insurgents. Exposed, she and her squad leader, Staff Sgt. Timothy Nein, jumped
out of their truck and ran toward the insurgents, dropping behind a trench line. For 45 minutes, they
exchanged fire at close range; together, Hester and her fellow soldiers killed 27 insurgents, wounded
six more and took one captive. Every member of her unit survived.

For their actions, she and Nein were awarded the Silver Star – and as the first woman to receive the
medal since World War II and the only one to directly engage the enemy in combat, Hester became
an overnight hero.

The Silver Star is the third-highest award for valor, behind the Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Service Cross (the Army equivalent
of the Navy Cross, the Air Force Cross and the Coast Guard Cross). Originally called the Citation Star, it was first established by Congress
in 1918 to recognize “gallantry in action against an enemy of the United States.”
For God and Country!
Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester