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Women Hold Their Own in Combat

April 8, 2005

Knight-Ridder has an interesting story about military women who are increasingly being involved in firefights in Iraq.

Army Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester bolted from her Humvee, took cover behind a berm along the road and began firing at the swarm of insurgents ambushing a U.S. military convoy south of Baghdad.

"Bullets were flying everywhere," said Hester, 23, of Bowling Green. "I could hear them pinging off the truck in back of me. I could hear them hitting the ground next to me. It was pretty crazy."

For almost a half-hour, Hester and nine other Kentucky National Guard soldiers, including another woman, Spec. Ashley Pullen, fought off 40 to 50 attackers armed with assault rifles, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. When the shooting ended, 26 insurgents lay dead and seven were wounded.

With the insurgency growing, American women are increasingly under fire in Iraq--and appear to be performing just as well as the men do. Why, we haven't had even one report of a woman wringing her hands and crying about a ruined manicure when she should be shooting at crazed insurgents. What a surprise.

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