FReeper Canteen ~ Hall of Heroes: Lori Piestewa ~ November 29, 2010

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[Kathy in Alaska]

 

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~ Hall of Heroes ~

Lori Piestewa

Info from here.

           

SPC Lori Ann Piestewa (December 14, 1979 – March 23, 2003) was a U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps soldier killed during the same Iraqi Army attack in which fellow soldiers Shoshana Johnson and Jessica Lynch sustained injuries. A member of the Hopi tribe, Piestewa was the first woman in the U.S. armed forces killed in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and is the first Native American woman to die in combat while serving with the U.S. military in world history.

Piestewa was born in Tuba City, Arizona, to Terry Piestewa and Priscilla "Percy" Baca. Her father is a full-blooded Hopi Native American, and her mother is a Mexican-American.  The couple first met in 1964, and married in November 1968.

The Piestewa family had a long military tradition; her paternal grandfather served in the U.S. Army in the European Theatre of World War II, and her father Terry Piestewa was drafted in the U.S. Army in September 1965, and served one tour of duty in the Vietnam War before he returned home in March 1967.

The Piestewa family resided in a trailer park in Tuba City, a town located on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Coconino County.[9] As a child, she was given the Hopi name Köcha-Hon-Mana (also spelled Qotsa-hon-mana, meaning White Bear Girl).  Her surname, Piestewa, is derived from a Hopi language root meaning "water pooled on the desert by a hard rain"; thus, Piestewa translates loosely as "the people who live by the water."

Piestewa was a member of the army's 507th Army Maintenance Company, a support unit of clerks, cooks, and repair personnel. Her company was traveling in a convoy through the desert and was meant to bypass Nasiriyah, in southern Iraq, during the opening days of the war; but the convoy became lost and ran into an ambush in Nasiriyah on March 23, 2003.

As Piestewa came under what an Army investigation described as "a torrent of fire," she drove at a high speed, successfully evading the enemy fire until an RPG hit the front-left wheel-well of her Humvee. The force of the explosion sent her vehicle into the rear of a disabled tractor-trailer. Three other soldiers in the Humvee died in the crash. Lynch attempted to fire her M16, but it jammed. Piestewa, Johnson and Lynch all survived but were wounded. They were taken prisoner along with four others, with Piestewa dying soon after of her wounds. A video of some of the American prisoners of war, including Piestewa (filmed shortly before she died in an Iraqi hospital), was later shown around the world on Al Jazeera television. According to Jessica Lynch's book—I'm a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story—Piestewa was wounded in the head, and it was impossible to perform delicate neurosurgery in an Iraqi civilian hospital in wartime conditions (such as intermittent electric power). In a U.S. military hospital with reliable power and neurosurgeons available around the clock, she might have survived.

The families of soldiers in the 507th heard almost right away of the ambush and fatalities in the unit. The Piestewa family saw people in Lori's unit being interviewed by Iraqi TV, and for more than a week families of the two women waited for news. All around Tuba City signs were hung out telling people: "Put your porch light on, show Lori the way home." They used white stone to spell her name on a 200-ft mesa just outside the town

 

Piestewa was awarded the Purple Heart and Prisoner of War Medal. The army posthumously promoted her from Private First Class to Specialist.

Jessica Lynch has repeatedly said that Piestewa is the true hero of the ambush and named her daughter Dakota Ann in honor of her fallen comrade. In addition, many entities have honored her memory with memorials. Arizona's state government renamed Squaw Peak in the Phoenix Mountains near Phoenix as Piestewa Peak and this was codified by the US Board on Geographic Names on April 10, 2008; the freeway that passes near this mountain was also re-named in her honor. In addition, Senator Tom Daschle honored her, as did Indian Nations across America. Since her death, the Grand Canyon Games organizers have held an annual Lori Piestewa National Native American Games, which brings participants from across the country. A plaque bearing her name is also located at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and Fort Bliss, Texas. She has also been memorialized with a plaque and ceremony at Mount Soledad Veterans Memorial in La Jolla, California.

Her death led to a rare joint prayer gathering between members of the Hopi and Navajo tribes, which have had a centuries-old rivalry.

In May 2005, Lori's parents and children had a brand-new home built by Ty Pennington and his crew on ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition accompanied by Jessica Lynch. They also built a new veterans' center on the Navajo reservation.

Thanks, Beachn4Fun, for the reminder about this hero!

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! 

[MEG33]

Wonderful!
I had everyone here but Navy grandson and his wife..We ate at my DIL’s sister large home for dinner..My daughter prepared the evening meal here.

I loved all the chatter!

[luvie]

EEEEK!!! Noooooooo.....~~~~running away~~~~~

We had a good Thanksgiving, though we didn’t get to spend it
with family. Hope yours was wonderful! (((hugs)))

[blackie]

Thanks Kathy!

{{HUGS}}

[luvie]

Good to see you, too, Conor! (((hugs)))

Hope you are doing well after the holiday weekend of gorging! LOL!

How is your knee? Read that you might have some surgery coming up?

[E.G.C.]

Had a great Thanksgiving. Ate some turkey for supper.

Just got back from the dentist. Everything went OK. Next visit in May 2011.

((HUGS))Good morning, LUV W. How's it going?

[luvie]

Hey! Good to see you. Glad you had a good visit at the dentist....
if there is such a thing. LOL!

I’m good...the weekend was great, even though I had to work
on Black Friday. It wasn’t too crazy and I survived. LOL!

[SandRat]

Pick up Mrs.SR’s Rx, go to the funeral home and sign some papers and pay the bill for the cremation, check on the job offer, and get more of Dad's things from his senior assisted living apartment.

[SandRat]

((HUGS)) Kathy, it’s now Good morning.

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

pay the bill for the cremation,

Cremation? :( Who died?

check on the job offer

I hope you get the job Sandy! :)

[ConorMacNessa]

Am waiting for a call from the Dr's. office to schedule the surgery.

Lamh Foistenach Abu!

[luvie]

Hope it all goes well!

[tiapam]

Thank you so much for posting Lori Piestewa tribute! On my way back from Lake Powell, I went to Tuba City. I wanted to see where Lori had lived. A park(mountain) in Phoenix had been named after her! I wish I could have known her.

[SandRat]

My Dad on the Tues before Thanksgiving.

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

I'm sorry to hear that...

((hugs))

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good afternoon, E...((HUGS))...did Bo get any leftovers from Thanksgiving?

[Kathy in Alaska]

Bivouac of the Dead

Thank you, Stonewall....

[ConorMacNessa]

Surgery scheduled for Monday December 13 at 8:00 am

Lamh Foistenach Abu!

[E.G.C.]

((LOL))Well, yeah I’ve been giving him some leftovers. He sure likes to eat some things.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Ha! I can just imagine. Lucky Bo.

So, if you have to pick one Oklahoma team, do you have a favorite?

[Arrowhead1952]

That shift from 73 morning temps to the 40s by noon was amazing!

No kidding. That was the only morning I didn't take the dog for a walk.