Making the Case: Leigh Ann Hester

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Olde Delaware

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Making the Case: Leigh Ann Hester
January 30th 2018
By Olde Delaware

What is a hero?

I've been saying those words a lot lately. Is it a guy who can hit home runs and win the big game? Maybe. Is it the girl who breaks her leg but still pulls off a perfect score to win gold? Also a maybe. When we think of heroes, often times its accompanied by those two examples I've put there. Sports heroes are always in supply, role models or everyday heroes such as Dr. Martin Luther King or Bella Abzug are generational. Each helping to make the world a better place in their own special way, both a hero to those who to this day are still motivated and touched by their works.

In the military, you never know who is going to be a hero until one is needed most. The average soldier doesn't wake up in the morning knowing that that day is the day where they may have to choose between life itself or the lives of their comrades in arms. With American troops fighting two wars over the last 17 years, we have come to know many tales of heroism. Stories like Clinton Romesha and his heroism at the Battle of Kamdesh or Paul Ray Smith's gallantry in Iraq have helped breed the new era of American Soldier. But if these two men's stories of heroism and gallantry in the face of the enemy have helped bring in new male recruits, what drives a woman to want to enlist?

The promise of the G.I. Bill are definitely worthwhile, some point to the lavish enlistment bonuses which at one time were nearly $100,000. Others say the guarantee that most women will never see combat is also a selling point, which until 2013 was largely true. Women, unlike their male counterparts are also exempt from registering for the National Draft when they turn 18. Those who command our troops say that Women are a distraction, that they shouldn't be allowed to serve because they will cause issues between the men in their command and the newly assigned women.

But still, women enlist in our nation's armed forces and they do so proudly.

Before all combat roles were opened to women in 2013, they could only serve in what were deemed non-combat roles such as Logistics which handles supplies, Signals which dealt with communication and Military Police. In both wars, Military Police handled convoy security, protecting supply convoys and ensuring their safety against insurgents. In Iraq, the Military Police's mission was more of the same, enforcing military law and protecting Iraqi highways from enemy action and protecting and ensuring the safety of American supply convoys.

On March 20th 2005, the men and women of the 617th Military Police Company, a Kentucky Army National Guard unit out of Richmond, Kentucky were tasked with protecting a 20 mile stretch of highway between Salman Pak and Baghdad clear of enemy activity. That day, that task belonged to Staff Sergeant Timothy Nein's squad of 8 men and 2 women aboard 3 up-armored Humvees. That morning saw Nein's squad shadowing a supply convoy toward Baghdad when all hell broke loose.

'The fire shifted from the convoy to us almost immediately'

The convoy that Nein's squad was tasked with escorting and shadowing as it moved down the highway came under intense fire that included RPGs or Rocket Propelled Grenades and machine gun fire. Staff Sergeant Nein ordered his team into the firefight. Staff Sergeant Nein said later "The fire shifted from the convoy to us almost immediately." As many as 50 insurgents had taken up well concealed positions inside of an apple orchard and dry canal system adjacent to the highway and were laying down withering machine gun and small arms fire on the American position.

Well hidden by berms, trees and irrigation systems, the enemy had all the advantages and were bound and determined to use them. But months of intense drilling and surveillance of potential ambush sites such as this by Nein's squad was about to pay off. Previous reconnaissance of the area led to the discovery of a road which allowed the 617th to better deploy assets to counter and outflank the insurgents. Turning down the road exposed the squad to intense fire from both sides but they continued to press forward to deploy. The squad's 3 mounted .50 caliber machine guns laying down fire suppressing fire.

They moved until they could not move any further.

Nein dismounted his disabled humvee and discovered that two soldiers in his command were wounded and their positions were about to be overrun by the attacking insurgents. Nein raced to a berm and with a grenade, destroyed a firing position with a grenade single handedly. Squad Medic Jason Mike, wielding a M240 Machine Gun laid down suppressing fire, covering his Squad Leader and fighting back oncoming enemy fighters as he administered first aid to the wounded. It was here where Staff Sergent Nein ordered Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester and Sergeant Dustin Morris to take the fight to the enemy.

Morris, Hester and Nein entered the canal system, covered by the squad's 3 .50 Caliber Machine Guns and engaged the enemy in close quarters combat. Close Quarters Combat is some of the fiercest fighting that can be done in war time. Sometimes it means hand to hand, as in fighting your enemy with your fists or perhaps a knife. Other times it is a grenade or quick shooting. Hester engaging the fighters from the kneeling position with Nein and Morris firing from the standing position with enemy rounds all around them, whipping past them and sometimes impacting the ground close to their feet. Sergeants Hester, Morris and Staff Sergent Nein cleared the canal and trench of enemy fire methodically and overcame the large enemy threat which had it been successful would have almost assuredly ended with the kidnapping and murder of U.S. Servicemen and Women.

The Aftermath

By the end of the attack, 27 insurgents lay dead, 6 were wounded and 1 was captured. The seized material looked like a small armory, captured armaments included multiple RPG rounds, RPK and PKD machine guns and countless small arms. For his extraordinary heroism and gallantry under fire, Staff Sergeant Nein received the Distinguished Service Cross. For their role, Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester and Specialist Jason Mike received the Silver Star for Heroism. I do not discount the award of the DSC for Staff Sergeant Nein, who was proclaimed an American Hero and even had an action figure made for him. But three people went into that canal and faced withering enemy fire.

Sgt Hester's Silver Star citation says that she maneuvered her team down the canal system, engaging with not only her rifle but multiple grenade and M-203 or rifle mounted grenades; eliminating 3 insurgents single handedly at close quarters. My research shows that the other person who went into the trench with Nein and Hester, Sergeant Dustin Morris received a lesser award of the Army Commendation Medal with Valor Clasp. But why? If all three of these soldiers went into the same trench and performed the same gallantry under fire, why three different awards?

In Hester's case, it was because women were not supposed to be in Combat. Military Police was a specialty where women at the time were allowed to serve because it was considered to be a Rear Echelon posting. The rear being where the chances of seeing combat are extremely slim. As Hester was not a combat soldier or trained to be in combat, the award of the Silver Star was considered to be honor enough. Such an argument was made again 3 years later when Specialist Monica Lin Brown became the second woman awarded the Silver Star for using her body to shield a wounded comrade from mortar fire.

My Argument

The narrative or the report that accompanies any recommendation for a medal such as the Silver Star was made public in Sergeant Hester's case and reads as if it belongs in an action movie rather than real life:

"The squad continued to come under heavy machine gun fire and rocket propelled grenade fire when Sergeant Hester stopped her vehicle, the middle vehicle, at a flanking position enfilading the trench line and the orchard field where over a dozen insurgents were engaging the squad and convoy. She then directed her gunner to focus fires in the trench line and the orchard field. Sergeant Hester dismounted and moved to what was thought to be the non-contact side of the vehicle. She ordered her gunner to continue to fire on the orchard field as she and her driver engaged insurgents in the orchard field with small arms. Sergeant Hester began engaging the insurgents with her M203 in order to suppress the heavy AIF fire. Sergeant Hester followed Staff Sergeant Nein to the right side berm and threw two well placed fragmentation grenades into the trench eliminating the AIF threat. Sergeant Hester and Staff Sergeant Nein went over the berm into the trench and began clearing the trench with their M4s. Sergeant Hester engaged and eliminated three AIF to her front with her M4. They then made their way to the front trench and cleared that as well. After clearing the front trench cease fire was called and she began securing the ambush site. The final result of the ambush was 27 AIF KIA (killed in action), 6 AIF WIA (wounded in action), and one AIF captured."

I believe wholeheartedly that Staff Sergeant Nein deserves his award of the Distinguished Service Cross. Truly, in that moment his calm relaying of orders to those under his command and confidence under pressure saves countless American lives. His steadfast dedication to protecting the wounded and overcoming the greater numbers should be celebrated.

But because of of Sgt. Hester's sex, because of restrictions in place her gallantry and dedication to duty have been overlooked. Granted, the Silver Star is an important award, it is nothing to sneeze at. But had she been a male soldier there is a greater chance that she too may have been awarded the DSC or perhaps the Medal of Honor. She led her squad to countering the enemy, she withstood withering fire to follow her squadmate and squad leader into that trench and into perhaps certain death. She personally killed three insurgents in close quarters combat and captured one. She was not proclaimed an American hero, she was immediately re-assigned. She didn't have an action figure made about her or documentary.

She was immediately forgotten.

With Defense Secretary Leon Panetta opening all combat roles to women, its time we go back and remember the gallantry of Sergeant Hester on Palm Sunday, 2005. It's time we re-examine the role that she played in stopping 50 insurgents from killing or capturing her squadmates and destroying a vital convoy. While it is too late for the Department of Defense to re-open the investigation and files into the Salman Pak ambush, Congress could act and in their name award Sgt. Hester the Medal of Honor. But I would wager that neither Rand Paul or Mitch McConnell remember the gallantry of Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester who still serves today as a Sergeant First Class in the Kentucky Army National Guard.

But think of the generation of girls who aspire to join the U.S. military and the impact that they may have in the years to come if we begin to honor women like Sergeant Hester. By doing so we can potentially bring in the next generation of Sgt. Hester's, women who serve on the front lines with honor and distinction.

Women who shatter the image of the boys club U.S. Armed Forces forever, who lead their soldiers into combat and who fight and perhaps die alongside the men they serve with because the cause of freedom is one worth fighting for.
 
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