Woman Gains Silver Star - And Removal From Combat
Army Sergeant Specialist Monica Brown Receives The Silver Star for Heroic Bravery During Combat
Case Shows Contradictions of Army Rules
KHOST, Afghanistan — Pfc. Monica Brown cracked open the door of her Humvee outside a remote village in eastern Afghanistan to the pop of bullets shot by Taliban fighters. But instead of taking cover, the 18-year-old medic grabbed her bag and ran through gunfire toward fellow soldiers in a crippled and burning vehicle
Vice President Cheney pinned Brown, of Lake Jackson, Tex., with a Silver Star in March for repeatedly risking her life on April 25, 2007, to shield and treat her wounded comrades, displaying bravery and grit. She is the second woman since World War II to receive the nation’s third-highest combat medal.
Within a few days of her heroic acts, however, the Army pulled Brown out of the remote camp in Paktika province where she was serving with a cavalry unit — because, her platoon commander said, Army restrictions on women in combat barred her from such missions.
“We weren’t supposed to take her out” on missions “but we had to because there was no other medic,” said Lt. Martin Robbins, a platoon leader with Charlie Troop, 4th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, whose men Brown saved. “By regulations you’re not supposed to,” he said, but Brown “was one of the guys, mixing it up, clearing rooms, doing everything that anybody else was doing.”
In Afghanistan as well as Iraq, female soldiers are often tasked to work in all-male combat units — not only for their skills but also for the culturally sensitive role of providing medical treatment for local women, as well as searching them and otherwise interacting with them. Such war-zone pragmatism is at odds with Army rules intended to bar women from units that engage in direct combat or collocate with combat forces.
Military personnel experts say that as a result, the 1992 rules are vague, ill defined, and based on an outmoded concept of wars with clear front lines that rarely exist in today’s counterinsurgencies.
“The current policy is not actionable,” concluded a Rand Corp. study last year on the Army’s assignment of women. “Crafted for a linear battlefield,” the policy does not conform to the nature of warfare today and uses concepts such as “forward and well forward [that] were generally acknowledged to be almost meaningless in the Iraqi theater,” it said.
In Iraq and Afghanistan, noncombat units in which women serve face many of the same threats that all-male combat arms units do and are performing well, commanders say. “Army personnel were consistent in their perception that a strict adherence to the Army policy would have negative implications” and that the policy should be revised or revoked, the Rand study said.
The Caretaker and Boss
Brown never imagined she would be a soldier, let alone one decorated for gallantry in combat. Growing up in central Texas, she had bounced around to nine schools, moving frequently with her brothers and mother, a nurse, before going to live with her grandmother Katy at age 15.
Despite the itinerant life, Brown excelled academically. She graduated from high school a year and a half early — a day after turning 17. She planned to enroll in college, but that changed when her brother Justin, who was a year older and like a twin, was drawn to the Army.
Justin had long dreamed of becoming an infantryman, and one day they stopped by the recruiting office together, Brown said in an interview in Khost. On impulse, she offered to join with him. Grinning, they announced the decision to their grandmother, who said she “didn’t feel it was the right time with the war on.”
But Brown persuaded her grandmother to allow her to join with her brother before she turned 18. Justin “was older, but she was always the caretaker, always the boss,” Katy Brown said.
Continued At: The Washington Post
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May 1st, 2008 at 7:41 pmThis is one amazing young woman. I just don’t understand why she is not allowed to continue to be where she is needed and “loved” being. At this point, in her case, she should have the say if she is moved or not.
May 1st, 2008 at 7:53 pmI’m for changing Army policy in these cases. Unfortunately I’m not the one to decide. lol
May 1st, 2008 at 7:59 pmSpecialist, you can be a medic in my battery any day. There’s always room for professionals. HOOAH
May 1st, 2008 at 8:35 pmGood Looking, smart, and a silver star earned at the pointy end of the spear?
I think I’m in love!
I wonder if she is married?
May 1st, 2008 at 9:40 pmI did some quick Googling, in regards to women, and combat. I thought this article was interesting:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=23886
Here is a quote from the sixth paragraph that best describes Spec. Brown’s situation.
“Writes Edward Norton, a reservist in the Israel Defense Forces: “Women have always played an important role in the Israeli military, but they rarely see combat; if they do, it is usually by accident….”
May 1st, 2008 at 10:12 pmJust read “On Call In Hell - A Doctor’s Iraq Story” by CDR Richard Jadick. Great read. He talked about setting up a forward medical aid station with the 1/8 Marines smack in the middle of Fallujah during that incredible clearing operation. Tons of casualties with a real battle all around them. Jadick talked of a female medic who worked right alongside with them for 11 straight days. I’m sure he was thankful she wasn’t pulled out.
May 1st, 2008 at 11:35 pmAll I can say is Thank God for giving us people like Spc. Brown.
May 2nd, 2008 at 12:36 am[…] Pat Dollard reports that Spc. Brown was pulled from combat duty shortly after her heroic acts that won her the bronze star. […]
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:47 amSpc. Brown has obviously proven her worth and merit anywhere in combat. Ask 10 different infantry units if they’d like to have Spc. Brown serve along side of them as their combat medic, and I’ll bet you 10 out of 10 say, “Hell yeah!”
I’m a former Combat Medic myself, and I trained and served with many amazing female medics — all of whom I’d be honored to have serve along side me anywhere on the field of battle.
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:48 amIt’s definitely time to change the rules. The need is clear, and so is the proven effectiveness of women in such roles.
But wow, I am just so impressed by her - she didn’t talk about herself one bit. Most of what she said was praise for one of the wounded guys she was tending, and about her concern for both of them. She really has the right stuff.
Well done, Spc. Brown!!
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:28 amGood work Spec. Brown! /salute
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:08 amAngel on the battle field…
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:05 am