by Charles Simmins

Created on: January 22, 2009

The role of women in the military has never been more controversial than it is during the War on Terror. Women warfighters are finding themselves in roles and in battles unlike those of their mothers and grandmothers.

Amanda Pinson was a girl next door. She was an athlete and a cheerleader in high school. She volunteered for the Army and was sent to Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).

No dummy, Mandy was a cryptologist, using her skills to analyze captured documents and intercepted communications. She loved her job and was an inspiration to her co-workers and superiors. She worked on base, near Tikrit, Iraq.

While standing at a bus stop on base, on March 16, 2006, Sgt. Amanda Pinson was killed by a mortar attack. A fellow soldier, a man, was also killed in the attack.

Mandy received an outpouring of admiration and respect in death. One of her superiors described her thus: "She was deeply concerned for soldiers' safety and news of soldiers that had been injured or worse only increased her energy for her job. She was inexhaustible in her work. She was an expert and I continually called on her to take on some of the hardest work due to her abilities and love for her job. Due to this Hero's skills and hard work, soldiers' lives were saved. Soldiers in this Division and the ones that worked with her will benefit from her work for a long time."

Leigh Ann Hester worked in a shoe store and served as a part-time warrior with a military police unit in the Kentucky National Guard. Her unit was deployed to Iraq and she found herself a part of convoy escort duty, sometimes boring, often dangerous.

Her unit was given the call sign "Raven 42". They were a capable unit, not Regular Army but they had some experience under their belts that day. March 25, 2005 would become a day that she and the other members of her MP unit would never forget.

They were escorting a convoy from a distance when it drove into an ambush. The soldiers at the front were wounded and out of the fight. The convoy was in trouble and Raven 42 raced forward to their aid. The three HumVees and ten Kentucky Guard troopers found themselves fighting for their lives against an enemy hidden in trenches and numerically superior.

It did not matter to Raven 42 or to Leigh Ann Hester. When the dust had settled, Raven 42 had four wounded and 27 of the enemy lay dead. Hester and her boss, Tim Nein, had dismounted and gone into the trenches after the enemy. Under fire, Hester returned to the HumVees more than

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