U.S. Common Sense

What were you doing when you were turning 18 years old? I was still in High School and preparing to go to college, and I’m sure many of you were doing the same. Pfc. Monica Brown was doing something a little different. When she wasn’t treating her fellow soldiers’ injuries, she was covering them with her body to protect them from enemy fire. That’s correct. An 18-year-old young woman was saving the lives of injured soldiers in the middle of a firefight.

Following in her brother’s footsteps, Pfc. Monica Brown enlisted in the Army with the blessing of her grandmother (after much pleading on her part) since she was only 17. Showing a lot of academic potential by graduating a year early from High School, she entered the Army to be a medic and was later tapped to join the troops in Afghanistan. Being stationed in the remote U.S. base, she tended to the small number of troops stationed there who experienced sporadic fire from small groups of insurgents.

On April 25th, 2007, her convoy came under attack following one of the Humvee’s hitting a landmine. Pfc. Brown and Staff Sgt. Jose Santos ran from their vehicle to the wounded troops in the damaged Humvee, while insurgents began to open fire. Four of the five soldiers in the burning Humvee were thrown or crawled to safety away from the vehicle, while one remained inside. The survivors, Brown and Santos pulled the injured into a nearby ditch for safety and protected them with her body while doing her best to patch them up on the scene. After 15 minutes, they were able to flee in a vehicle to safety, where Brown was able to stabilize the critically injured before returning to base.

For her actions, she received the Silver Star - the first woman in the Afghan war and only the second woman since WWII to receive it. Would you have been able to keep your head and tend to the injuries of those while under fire? Could you have done that at age 18? I’m not sure if I would, and as such, to me she is definitely a HERO.

For some additional reading, check out these sites:
Waco Tribune-Herald - “Medal-winning Texas woman removed from combat zones”
The Washington Post - “Woman Gains Silver Star — And Removal From Comabt”
Feminist Majority Foundation - “Silver Star Winner Removed from Combat”
The Wall Street Journal - “How Gender Outweighs Bravery”
The Washington Post - “Readers Defend Women Bearing Arms”

For some additional reading across the web, check out these blogs:
Jake Today - “Spc. Monica Brown”
Corpsman - “SPC Monica Brown earns Silver Star, Then removed from her Soldiers in Combat”
The End Zone - “Pfc. Monica Brown earns Silver Star”
ADVANCE Blog for PAs - “Army Medic and Silver Star Recipient Removed for Combat Situations”
The Peeled Apple - “Hey, There Is A War Going On In Afghanistan … But”