Been away for a bit. I figured this would be a good one to start back up with. Not that anyone really reads this shit. She’s only the second woman since WW2 that has been awarded the Silver Star Medal. Way to go! Nicely done SPC Brown.
Lake Jackson teen awarded Silver Star for gallantry in Afghanistan
Proud grandmother says she ‘just did what she was trained to do’
By RENÉE C. LEE
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Dodging insurgent gunfire, a 19-year-old Lake Jackson soldier used her body to shield five injured comrades after a roadside bomb struck her convoy in Afghanistan last spring. That act of bravery has earned her the Silver Star.
Army Spc. Monica Lin Brown is only the second woman since World War II to receive the medal, one of the nation’s highest military awards given for gallantry in combat.
”She just did what she was trained to do,” her 74-year-old grandmother, Katy Brown, said from her Lake Jackson home on Sunday.
Monica Brown, a medic, was part of a four-vehicle convoy patrolling near Jani Kheil in the eastern province of Paktia when a bomb struck one of the Humvees on April 25, military officials said.
After the explosion, she braved insurgent gunfire and mortars to reach five wounded soldiers. She shielded them as she administered aid and helped drag them to safety, 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,” Monica Brown told The Associated Press on Saturday from a U.S. base in the province of Khowst.
Katy Brown said her granddaughter graduated from Brazos River Charter School in Morgan at 15. She joined the Army with her brother, Justin Brown, in November 2006 to get a college education, Katy Brown said.
She said she is not surprised by her granddaughter’s heroics.
”She’s just a strong, strong young woman, and she’s very caring,” Katy Brown said.
Monica Brown told her grandmother she didn’t have time to be scared.
She just jumped into action and ”made medics out of those infantry men,” Katy Brown said.
Monica Brown, of the 4th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, said ammunition going off inside the burning Humvee was sending shrapnel in all directions. She said they were sitting in a dangerous spot.
“So, we dragged them for 100 or 200 meters, got them away from the Humvee a little bit,” she said. “I was in a kind of a robot-mode, did not think about much but getting the guys taken care of.”
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