One Woman’s Valor
Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester is awarded the Silver Star for her actions during an ambush on her convoy in Iraq. She’s the first woman to receive the medal since World War II.

For the first time since World War II, a female soldier has been awarded the Silver Star Medal.

On June 16 in Iraq, Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester, 23, of the 617th Military Police Company, an Army National Guard unit from Richmond, Ky., received the Silver Star, along with two other members of her unit, Staff Sgt. Timothy Nein and Spc. Jason Mike, for their actions during an enemy ambush on their convoy.

Hester’s squad was shadowing a supply convoy March 20 when insurgents ambushed the convoy. Hester led her team into a flanking position from which she assaulted a trench line with grenades and M-203 grenade-launcher rounds. She and Nein, her squad leader, then cleared two trenches, at which time she killed three insurgents with her rifle. When the fight was over, 27 insurgents were dead, six were wounded, and one was captured.

The Black Cat

A new U.S. postage stamp features the Black Cat, the last American bomber shot down over Germany in World War II. On April 21, 1945, the B-24 Liberator was hit by enemy fire at 22,000 feet and crashed near the German town of Scharmassing. Only two of the 12 crewmembers survived. The families of those killed were informed of their loss May 8, the day the rest of the nation marked the Allied victory in Europe.

The U.S. Postal Service chose the theme after members of the 466th Bomb Group, of which the Black Cat was a part, petitioned the postal service to memorialize the Black Cat on a stamp. The stamp shows the Black Cat in flight over pastoral fields. It is part of a series of 10 commemorative aviation stamps that went on sale across the country last summer.

Endurance Challenge

To remember the crew of the USS Indianapolis, a group of 10 NAS Sigonella, Italy, sailors plunged into the NAS pool to tread water for 12 hours. The Endurance Challenge was held in honor of the Indianapolis survivors, who treaded water for four days in the Pacific Ocean after their ship was sunk before finally being rescued. On July 26, 1945, the heavy cruiser delivered the world’s first operational atomic bomb to the island of Tinian. Days later, two torpedoes from a Japanese submarine struck the vessel. Out of the 1,196 crew members, only 316 survived.