FReeper Canteen ~ Hall of Heroes: Leigh Ann Hester ~ 31 July 2017

Serving The Best Troops and Veterans In The Whole World !! | Star CMC and The Canteen Crew

[Kathy in Alaska]

 

Our Troops Rock!  Thank you for all you do!

For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday...
Thank the Veterans who served
in The United States Armed Forces.

Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States
Armed Forces Today!

---

~ Hall of Heroes ~

Leigh Ann Hester
Info from here.

(Thank you to mountainlion for bringing this hero to our attention!)

           

Leigh Ann Hester (born January 12, 1982) is a United States Army soldier. While assigned to the 617th Military Police Company, a Kentucky Army National Guard unit out of Richmond, Kentucky, Hester received the Silver Star for her actions on March 20, 2005 during an enemy ambush on a supply convoy near the town of Salman Pak, Iraq. Hester enlisted in the U.S. Army in April 2001 and is the first female U.S. Army soldier to receive the award for exceptional valor since World War II and the first ever to be cited for valor in close quarters combat.

Hester's squad of two women and eight men in three Humvees was shadowing a 30-truck supply convoy when approximately 50 insurgent fighters ambushed the convoy with AK-47 assault rifle, RPK machine gun fire and rocket propelled grenades (RPG). The squad moved to the side of the road, flanking the insurgents and cutting off their escape route. Hester maneuvered her team through the kill zone and into a flanking position, where she and her squad leader, Staff Sergeant Timothy F. Nein, assaulted a trench line with hand grenades and M203 grenade launcher rounds. Hester and Nein assaulted and cleared two trenches. During the 25-minute firefight, Hester killed at least three enemy combatants with her M4 carbine.

When the battle was over, 27 insurgents were dead, six were wounded, and one captured. Sergeants Hester and Nein were both awarded the Silver Star. Nein's was later upgraded to the Distinguished Service Cross.

Also awarded the Silver Star in this ambush was platoon combat medic Specialist Jason Mike, who took up and simultaneously fired an M4 carbine and M249 SAW light machine gun in defense of his comrades.

Hester took a brief break from the U.S. Army in 2009, and worked as a civilian law enforcement officer in a Nashville, Tennessee suburb. However, she returned to the military a short while later, in late 2010.

Leigh Ann Hester's Silver Star Citation

Citation:

The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star Medal to Leigh Ann Hester, Sergeant, U.S. Army, for exceptionally valorous achievement during combat operations in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, on 20 March 2005, in Iraq. Sergeant Hester's heroic actions in Iraq contributed to the overwhelming success of the Multi-National Corps-Iraq mission. While serving as the Team Leader for RAVEN 42B in the 617th Military Police Company, 503d Military Police Battalion (Airborne), 18th Military Police Brigade, Sergeant Hester led her soldiers on a counterattack of anti-Iraqi Forces (AIF) who were ambushing a convoy with heavy AK-47 assault rifle fire, PRK machine gun fire, and rocket propelled grenades. Sergeant Hester maneuvered her team through the kill zone into a flanking position where she assaulted a trench line with grenades and M-203 rounds. She then cleared two trenches with her Squad Leader where she engaged and eliminated 3 AIF with her M-4 rifle. Her actions saved the lives of numerous convoy members. Sergeant Hester's bravery is in keeping with the finest traditions of military heroism and reflects distinct credit upon herself, the 503d Military Police Battalion (Airborne), the 18th Military Police Brigade, and the United States Army.

NARRATIVE TO ACCOMPANY AWARD:

Sergeant Leigh A. Hester is cited for conspicuous gallantry in action against an armed enemy of the United States while engaged in military operations involving conflict with anti Iraq forces (AIF) as a team leader for Raven 42B, 617th Military Police Company, 503rd Military Police Battalion (Airborne) stationed at Camp Liberty, Iraq on 20 March 2005, in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. The team's mission was to assist Raven 42 in searching the Eastern Convoy Route for improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and provide additional security to sustainment convoys traveling through their area of responsibility. While patrolling Alternate Supply Route (ASR) Detroit, Raven 42B was shadowing a sustainment convoy consisting of 30 third country national (TCN) semi-tractor trailers with a three vehicle squad size escort, call sign Stallion 33, traveling from LSA (logistics support area) Anaconda to CSC (convoy support center) Scania. The weather for this ASR patrol was 75 degrees and sunny with a 10 knot breeze from the southwest. While traveling on ASR Detroit approximately 50 AIF ambushed the convoy with heavy AK47 fire, RPK heavy machine gun fire, and rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) from the southwest side of the road at 1140 hours. The AIF were utilizing irrigation ditches and an orchard for the well planned complex attack. The AIF had cars combat parked along a road perpendicular to the ASR with all doors and trunks open. The AIF intent was to destroy the convoy, to inflict numerous casualties, and to kidnap several TCN drivers or U.S. Soldiers. The initial ambush disabled and set on fire the lead TCN vehicle, which effectively blocked the southbound lanes of ASR Detroit, stopping the convoy in the kill zone. The squad leader, Staff Sergeant Timothy Nein, directed the squad to move forward, traveling on the right shoulder and passing through the engagement area between the enemy and the convoy. Sergeant Hester directed her gunner to provide heavy volumes of MK 19 and M240B fires into the field where an overwhelming number of insurgents were executing a well coordinated ambush on the convoy. Raven 42 elements were outnumbered five to one. Staff Sergeant Nein ordered the squad to flank the insurgents on their right side. 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.

Please remember the Canteen is here to honor, support and entertain our troops and their families.  This is a politics-free zone!  Thanks for helping us in our mission! 

[The Mayor]

Freep mail me to be on or off the Daily Bread ping list

A “New Man”

July 31, 2017

Continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. Colossians 1:23

As a group of teenagers visited a home for the elderly in Montego Bay, Jamaica, one young woman noticed a lonely looking man at the end of the room. He appeared to have little left in this world but a bed to sleep on—a bed from which he could not move because of his disability.

The teen began right away to share the story of God’s love for us and read some Bible passages to him. “As I shared with him,” she would say later, “I started to feel his eagerness to hear more.” Responding to his interest, she explained the wonder of Jesus’s sacrificial death for us. “It was hard for this man, who had no hope and no family,” she recalled, “to understand that Someone he’s never met would love him enough to die on the cross for his sins.”

Lord, thank You for the new life we have in Jesus Christ.

She told him more about Jesus—and then about the promise of heaven (including a new body) for all who believe. He asked her, “Will you dance with me up there?” She saw him begin to imagine himself free of his worn-out body and crippling limitations.

When he said he wanted to trust Jesus as his Savior, she helped him pray a prayer of forgiveness and faith. When she asked him if she could get a picture with him, he replied, “If you help me sit up. I’m a new man.”

Praise God for the life-changing, hope-giving, available-to-all gospel of Jesus Christ! It offers new life for all who trust Him (Col. 1:5, 23).

Lord, thank You for the new life we have in Jesus Christ. Help us to share the hope of that new life with others so they can be made new as well.

INSIGHT:

Colossae, the destination of the letter to the Colossian church, was a city in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). It was a city of some significance commercially in the first century because of its location on a main trade route east from Ephesus. We are not told in the New Testament how this church was founded, but in this letter Paul writes to encourage and instruct the believers there as if it were one of the churches he himself had founded. Bill Crowder 

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, radu...Mom’s been up all day, but not too bad. She wants to know how to lower the bed rail. I don’t think so. I really don’t think she could do it even if she knew how. I’m watering outside now, and when done I should have all the weekend chores finished.

Any rain for you? We are hoping for later in the week.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, lightman....is the drought over? Water table up?

Glad you had a beautiful day.

[radu]

Sounds like your week was hard to beat with a big stick! :-)

[ConorMacNessa]

Indeed it was. How are things going with you?

"I am an American fighting man. I serve in the forces guarding our country and our way of life.
I am prepared to give my life in their defense."

[radu]

Good to hear your mom’s having a somewhat better day. Things were pretty rough there for a few days.
Nope, doesn’t need to know how to lower the bed rail! Let’s hope she doesn’t figure it out on her own.

We had a couple of inches of rain Fri. and don’t expect more until Wed. It’s been comfortable the past two days but will heat back up tomorrow. Hubby’s mowing tonight while it’s nice and cool.

[Kathy in Alaska]

WOW! Did you have a great day!

Good evening, ML...((HUGS))...fun with Penny and extra fun with Blue....and a BBQ and a gig. Not bad!!

[left that other site]

And to top it all off, FR is running GREAT! (((Thanks, Jim and John!)))

[radu]

Heck yes! All that work getting done and you didn’t have to do it .....
Doesn’t get much better than that. :-)

Things are good here. After a couple of HOT weeks, we finally got to enjoy some nice weather over the weekend.
With FR being messed up, a few once-in-a-while housecleaning chores got done - washing windows, scrubbing a few walls.

Real exciting. LOL

[left that other site]

I’m really tired now...but in a good way.

Hitting the sheets!

Good Night! ;-)

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, Luv...the grands have all your timed planned out? Grammie do this. Grammie do that. Fun times for all. d:o)

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good night and sleep tight, ML.

[ExTexasRedhead]

USS Gerald R. Ford

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xo5qy_dfGM

[luvie]

You are right on both accounts! Everywhere you look there are mountains. I try to visualize how this has to look with 3 feet of snow covering it.

The kids love it here!

[luvie]

Took the girls to the petting zoo
at the local fair today...fun times!

[MoochPooch]

Evening, Kathy! What a nice bio — and a lady for a change!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, Janey...((HUGS))...enjoy your home time.

FReepmail shortly...

[radu]

Cool video!
Watching jets land and take off from aircraft carriers always gives me goosebumps. LOL! So much power and so little space.

[radu]

Looks like the girls had a blast feeding the goats.

And what gorgeous scenery in the background. Mountains everywhere.

[luvie]

EVERYwhere! So cool to see for a gal who lives in the flatlands/no trees of West Texas!

Oh...and there WAS a sandstorm in west Texas today. Ugh!
Glad I missed that!