Leigh Ann Hester, a native of Nashville, Tennessee, was the first female Silver Star recipient since World War II and one of only nine to receive the award in history.

She is the first recipient recognized for engaging the enemy in combat. In her case, she was cited for valor in close-quarters combat for her actions in responding to an ambush on a convoy in Iraq. She was Team Leader for RAVEN 42B in the 617th Military Police Company, 503d Military Police Battalion (Airborne), 18th Military Police Brigade, stationed at Camp Liberty.

Hester, now 43, enlisted in the Army in April 2001 at age 19. She says: “I joined the military because it was a childhood dream. I always looked up to seeing anybody in uniform, especially a woman in uniform, because it was rare. Police officer or a female Soldier, I always wanted to be that person.”

In her civilian life, Hester managed a retail store, but four years after being assigned to her Kentucky Army National Guard MP company, she would find herself in a fight for her life and those of others. Deployed during Operation Iraqi Freedom, her MP squad consisted of eight men and two women who were shadowing a 30-truck convoy in their three Humvees near the town of Salman Pak, south of Baghdad. The trucks were mostly unarmored 18-wheelers driven by Iraqi and Turkish contractors.

As she described their security operation, “Basically, we would go out in our Humvees, and we would clear the route for [improvised explosive devices] or insurgents before the convoys would start coming through. … It was nothing for us to get shot at every other day or more.”

On March 20, 2005, the convoy the 617th MP Company was protecting was ambushed by more than 50 insurgent fighters using RPK machine guns, AK-47s, and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs). In the initial assault, the insurgents also hit and disabled one of the MP Humvees.

After the attack began, then-SGT Hester directed her fire team through intense enemy fire into a flanking position where she and her squad leader, SSG Timothy Nein, began what would be a deadly 30-minute firefight. They first assaulted and cleared two trench lines of insurgents with their M203 grenade launcher and hand grenades. They continued the defense of the convoy on foot, along with platoon medic Specialist Jason Mike, who used both an M4 carbine and an M249 SAW machine gun, and they successfully defeated the insurgents.

“It’s not like you see in the movies,” she said of engaging and killing enemy forces. “They don’t get shot and get blown back five feet. They just take a round, and they collapse.”

For their actions that day, defending the unarmed convoy against an overwhelming enemy force, Hester, Nein, and Mike would receive Silver Stars. Nein’s medal would later be upgraded to the Distinguished Service Cross, the Army’s second-highest award below the Medal of Honor.

According to Hester’s Silver Star citation:

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… 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. … 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. … 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.

Responding to the award, Hester said: “I’m honored to even be considered, much less awarded, the medal. … You know, it’s just something that happened one day, and I was trained to do what I did, and I did it. … Your training kicks in, and the soldier kicks in. It’s your life or theirs. … You’ve got a job to do — protecting yourself and your fellow comrades.”

As for being one of nine female recipients, she said, “It really doesn’t have anything to do with being a female. It’s about the duties I performed that day as a soldier.”

In the years that followed, Hester would serve additional deployments, including in 2014 a tour in Afghanistan for 18 months during Operation Enduring Freedom.

1SG Leigh Ann Hester, SSG Timothy Nein, and Specialist Jason Mike: Your examples of valor — humble American Patriots defending Liberty for all above and beyond the call of duty and in disregard for the peril to your own lives — is eternal.

Footnote: My friend, GEN B.B. Bell, with whom I serve as co-chair of the National Medal of Honor Sustaining Fund, has a personal connection to 1SG Hester. As he notes, “When her unit redeployed, the V Corps headquarters was still in Baghdad. So I had the honor as the USAREUR CG to present her Silver Star at a fine and fitting ceremony. It was a terrific day and I will always remember it.”

(Read about the second female Silver Star recipient since World War II, PFC Monica Lin Brown.)

(Portrait: National Guard Bureau)

“Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

Live your life worthy of their sacrifice.

(Read more Profiles of Valor here.)

Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776

Follow Mark Alexander on X/Twitter.

---

Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen — standing in harm’s way in defense of American Liberty, honoring their oath “to support and defend” our Constitution. Pray for our Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please consider a designated gift to support the National Medal of Honor Sustaining Fund through Patriot Foundation Trust, or make a check payable to “NMoH Sustaining Fund” and mail it to:

Patriot Foundation Trust
PO Box 407
Chattanooga, TN 37401-0407

Thank you for supporting our nation’s premier journal of American Liberty.

The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both Honoring Their Sacrifice Foundation and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, Tunnel to Towers Foundation, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation.