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Woman with area connection awarded Silver Star for heroism during combat in Afghanistan
A former Bosque County woman was awarded the Silver Star for her heroic actions while serving as a U.S. Army medic in Afghanistan.
Army Specialist Monica Lin Brown is only the second woman since World War II to receive the award. She was honored in a military ceremony in Afghanistan today.
Brown, serving as an Army medic in Afghanistan, was to be awarded the Silver Star, the nation’s third-highest medal of valor.
A former student of Kopperl schools in Bosque County, Brown now resides in Lake Jackson, Texas, southwest of Houston.
During a firefight in April 2007, Brown, 19, saved five other wounded soldiers when she pulled them from a burning Humvee and dragged them to safety, using her own body to shield them from enemy fire and shrapnel in the process.
Brown was part of a four-vehicle convoy patrolling near Jani Kheil in the eastern province of Paktia, when a bomb struck one of the Humvees.
“We stopped the convoy. I opened up my door and grabbed my aid bag,” Brown told the Associated Press.
She said started running toward the burning vehicle as insurgents opened fire. All five wounded soldiers had scrambled out.
“I assessed the patients to see how bad they were. We tried to move them to a safer location because we were still receiving incoming fire,” Brown said.
Brown, of the 4th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, said that ammunition going off inside the burning Humvee was sending shrapnel in all directions. She said they were sitting in a dangerous spot.
“So we dragged them for 100 or 200 meters, got them away from the Humvee a little bit,” she said. “I was in a kind of a robot-mode, did not think about much but getting the guys taken care of.”
“I did not really have time to be scared,” Brown said. “Running back to the vehicle, I was nervous (since) I did not know how badly the guys were injured. That was scary.”
The Army said Brown’s “bravery, unselfish actions and medical aid rendered under fire saved the lives of her comrades and represents the finest traditions of heroism in combat.”
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