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FReeper Canteen ~ Hall of Heroes: Lori Piestewa ~ November 29, 2010
Serving The Best Troops and Veterans In The Whole World !! | StarCMC

Posted on 11/28/2010 5:13:56 PM PST by 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 ~

Lori Piestewa

Info from here.

ArmyPatch small   NavySeal small   Air Force Seal   Marines Seal small   Coast Guard Seal small (better)

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! 



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Free Republic
KEYWORDS: canteen; military; troopsupport
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To: beachn4fun
Hi, beachy..((HUGS)).

Next MOnday I will "see" you from work. UGH!


201 posted on 11/29/2010 1:00:29 PM PST by Kathy in Alaska (~ RIP Brian...heaven's gain...the Coast Guard lost a good one.~)
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To: Kathy in Alaska
Well, my brother from Texas is an OSU Grad. My sister from the city is an OU grad so I really don't have any favorite.

But, I do know one thing. I'm rooting for OU to beat Nebraska this Saturday.

202 posted on 11/29/2010 1:02:51 PM PST by E.G.C.
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To: Arrowhead1952

Good afternoon, Arrowhead...((HUGS))...hope you had a delicious turkey day.


203 posted on 11/29/2010 1:06:15 PM PST by Kathy in Alaska (~ RIP Brian...heaven's gain...the Coast Guard lost a good one.~)
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To: Kathy in Alaska

Yes, we had a feast at our house. (((HUGS))) to you to.

I did most of the cooking again, and everyone was impressed.


204 posted on 11/29/2010 1:16:32 PM PST by Arrowhead1952 (De fund the TSA.)
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To: Kathy in Alaska; tomkow6; All

Hey Kathy did you hear i think of Capt Phil Harris son might be Pill head

http://www.tmz.com/2010/11/29/deadliest-catch-drug-investigation-cornelia-marie-police-raid-captain/


205 posted on 11/29/2010 1:38:57 PM PST by SevenofNine ("We are Freepers, all your media belong to us ,resistance is futile")
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To: DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis

Thank you.


206 posted on 11/29/2010 2:07:26 PM PST by SandRat (Duty, Honor, Country! What else needs said?)
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To: E.G.C.

Wise man....OU it is on Saturday.


207 posted on 11/29/2010 2:45:31 PM PST by Kathy in Alaska (~ RIP Brian...heaven's gain...the Coast Guard lost a good one.~)
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To: Arrowhead1952

Congratulations on your cooking skills. Deserved impressions!


208 posted on 11/29/2010 2:51:57 PM PST by Kathy in Alaska (~ RIP Brian...heaven's gain...the Coast Guard lost a good one.~)
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To: All

WOW Hardline Atollayh of Iran has cancer
via Winileaks report

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/8168672/WikiLeaks-Ayatollah-Khameni-has-terminal-cancer.html


209 posted on 11/29/2010 2:52:58 PM PST by SevenofNine ("We are Freepers, all your media belong to us ,resistance is futile")
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To: Arrowhead1952

Thanks, unique, for the woohoo!!

Arrowhead.....#200!!


210 posted on 11/29/2010 2:57:23 PM PST by Kathy in Alaska (~ RIP Brian...heaven's gain...the Coast Guard lost a good one.~)
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To: ConorMacNessa; Kathy in Alaska
Some modern "revisionist" historians have tried to say that this poem was written in memory of Narciso Lopez's expedition to liberate Cuba, but there are a number of key points that make this highly unlikely.

First is this section:
Not long, our stout old Chieftain knew,
Such odds his strength could bide.
Twas in that hour his stern command
Called to a martyr’s grave
The flower of his beloved land,

General Zachary Taylor, who was raised in Louisville, Kentucky, was the American commander at Buena Vista. During the battle, he was forced to order the 2nd Kentucky Infantry Regiment to make a spoiling attack against a vastly superior Mexican force in order to buy himself enough time to rally the remainder of his forces. The Kentuckians succeeded in their attack but suffered heavily for it.

The second point is here:
Sons of the Dark and Bloody Ground

The word Kentucky is Native American for Dark and Bloody Ground, because of the numerous battles fought here between Northern Indians from the Midwest and Great Lakes area and Southern Indians from the Cumberland and Tennessee River Valley areas.

But the key point is that the poem was first published in a Frankfort newspaper in 1850 but Lopez didn't invade Cuba until August 1851.

211 posted on 11/29/2010 5:07:02 PM PST by Stonewall Jackson (Democrats: "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.")
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To: Kathy in Alaska
Congratulations on your cooking skills.

Thanks. I learned a lot from my mom & dad when I was a kid.

212 posted on 11/30/2010 4:58:25 AM PST by Arrowhead1952 (De fund the TSA.)
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To: SevenofNine

That kid better get his act together or he’s gonna be sitting in a jail cell for a bit.


213 posted on 11/30/2010 5:25:23 PM PST by Kathy in Alaska (~ RIP Brian...heaven's gain...the Coast Guard lost a good one.~)
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To: Stonewall Jackson

Thanks....you win with proof.


214 posted on 11/30/2010 5:35:09 PM PST by Kathy in Alaska (~ RIP Brian...heaven's gain...the Coast Guard lost a good one.~)
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To: Kathy in Alaska
Click the pic for ….

Road Trip: Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas



NOTE: CANTEEN MUSIC
Posted daily and on the Music Thread
for the enjoyment of our troops and visitors.

215 posted on 11/30/2010 5:43:31 PM PST by Kathy in Alaska (~ RIP Brian...heaven's gain...the Coast Guard lost a good one.~)
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To: Kathy in Alaska; tomkow6; All

Yeah I know

I been watching Deadliest Catch for last few years did Jake Harris try steal his father RX pills season before Capt Phil Harris pass on

I THINK SO


216 posted on 11/30/2010 6:01:43 PM PST by SevenofNine ("We are Freepers, all your media belong to us ,resistance is futile")
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