Army Green Uniform (Class B Variation), worn by Lori Piestewa
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Army Green Uniform (Class B Variation), c.2001, worn by Lori Piestewa
Granrud, Britta K.
Courtesy Family of Lori Piestewa
c. 2001
Pratima Dharm
U.S. Army, 2006-2015, Operation Iraqi Freedom
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Pratima Dharm, the first Hindu chaplain in the U.S. Army, grew up surrounded by spirituality of all kinds in India. She moved to the United States in 2001 for school. Dharm wanted to become a chaplain which required attending seminary, but Hindu studies were not offered. To meet requirements, along with studying psychology and Judaism, she attended a Protestant seminary. After becoming a Pentecostal minister, she was commissioned as an Army chaplain in 2006, joining a community of approximately 1,000 Hindu servicemembers. Dharm became the first Hindu chaplain in the Defense Department in 2011. “There's this tremendous sense of hope and relief that there is someone who understands their story at a deeper level, coming from the background I do,” she said of her fellow Hindu Soldiers. Dharm worked as a counselor on suicide prevention, combat stress training, marriage counseling, and other spiritual and psychological needs. Earlier, Dharm deployed to Iraq in 2007-2008, earning a Bronze Star and the Army Commendation Medal for running ten humanitarian aid missions for the Iraqi Kurdish population. Dharm left the service in 2015.
Ladda “Tammy” Duckworth
U.S. Army Reserve, 1992-1996
Illinois Army National Guard, 1996-2014, Operation Iraqi Freedom
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Ladda “Tammy” Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran, Purple Heart recipient and now United States Senator is an inspiration to many. Formerly the Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Duckworth served 23 years in the U.S. Army Reserve and Illinois Army National Guard before retiring as a lieutenant colonel in 2014. Among the first group of Army women to fly combat missions in Operation Iraqi Freedom, she lost both her legs and full use of her right arm when Iraqi insurgents shot down her helicopter. Speaking on women in the military she said, “We could not go to war as a nation – we could not defend America – without our women”. After her military service, she represented Illinois’ Eighth Congressional District in the House of Representatives for two terms, until she was elected to the Senate in 2016. Some of Duckworth’s firsts include being the first Thai American woman elected to Congress, the first woman with a disability elected to Congress, the first female double amputee in the Senate and the first woman to give birth while in office.
Emily (Tatum) Perez
U.S. Army, 2005-2006, Operation Iraqi Freedom
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Emily (Tatum) Perez, one of two children born into a military family, lived much of her youth in Germany. She returned to the United States in 1998, graduating from high school in Maryland in 2001. Realizing her life-long dream of becoming a soldier, Perez was accepted to the United States Military Academy at West Point, where she continued to excel. She was in the top ten percent of her class and a medal-winning athlete. She was the first minority female Corps Command Sergeant Major in the history of the Academy. Perez graduated in May 2005 and commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. She was assigned to Fort Hood, Texas, as a medical service officer with the 204th Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division. In December 2005, Perez deployed to Iraq with her unit. On September 12, 2006, 23-year-old Second Lieutenant Emily (Tatum) Perez was killed when an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) detonated near her Humvee in Al Kifl, Iraq. Joe Rogers, her assistant track coach at West Point, said of Emily, “She was just the kind of kid you want your own children to be like.”
Lori Piestewa
US Army, 2001-2003, Operation Iraqi Freedom
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Not only the first servicewoman killed in action in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Lori Piestewa, of the Hopi tribe, is also the first known American Indian woman killed in combat in the service of the United States. While on convoy in southwestern Iraq, her unit, the 507th Maintenance Company was ambushed on March 23, 2003, the fourth day of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Eight other Soldiers were killed, four wounded, and six taken prisoner. The death of the 23-year-old mother of two young children struck a chord with the nation. A third-generation soldier, her grandfather fought in World War II, her father served in Vietnam and her interest in the military began in high school when she became a leader in the Marine Corps Junior ROTC program. She enlisted in the Army in 2001, completed basic training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and Advanced Individual Training at Fort Lee, Virginia. Her first assignment was at Fort Bliss, Texas, with the 507th Maintenance Company where she kept track of supplies used by the unit. It was with this unit that she deployed to the Middle East in February 2003. Her brother, Wayland Piestewa recalled, “We think about the impact she’s had and at the same time we know she’s up in the shadow of the sacred peaks.”
Bridgette (Smith) Arnold
U.S. Air Force, 1993-2017, Operation Iraqi Freedom
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Bridgette (Smith) Arnold served 24 years in the Air Force mostly supporting Special Operations Forces and national-level intelligence agencies as a counter-terrorism subject matter expert. After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Arnold was selected as the Department of Defense’s first intelligence liaison to the President-mandated Terrorist Threat Integration Center, coordinating with analysts from many U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Arnold deployed to conflict zones around the world including Iraq and Afghanistan. She also deployed to southeast Asia in support of the humanitarian response mission for the 2004 Indonesia tsunami. In her Military Women’s Memorial memorable experience, Arnold wrote, “These deployments have afforded [me] opportunities to collaborate closely with an array of interagency partners and other U.S. and foreign organizations.” Arnold retired from the U.S. Air Force as a lieutenant colonel in 2017.