Lori Ann Piestewa enlisted in the Army in March 2001, following in her family’s footsteps. Her father, a Native American from the Hopi tribe, served in Vietnam, and her grandfather served in Europe during WWII. After basic training, she was assigned to the 507th Maintenance Company in Fort Bliss.
In January 2003, the unit received word they were deploying to Iraq. Piestewa petitioned her command to be allowed to go on the deployment and stay with her unit, despite the fact that she was still recovering from recent shoulder surgery. The Army relented, and she shipped out a few weeks later.
On March 23, 2003, just over a month after arriving in country, Piestewa drove a humvee near the back of the now-infamous convoy driving near Nasiriyah. The convoy drove into an ambush and a RPG explode on Piestewa’s side of the vehicle. Three soldiers in the humvee were killed and Piestewa was captured with several others. She suffered head wounds during the ambush. Without proper medical treatment, she died in an Iraqi hospital while still being held as a POW.
On April 1, Special Forces conducted a successful operation, rescuing Piestewa’s friend and fellow POW Jessica Lynch, and recovering Piestewa’s body from a mass grave behind the hospital.
Piestewa was the first Native American woman in U.S. military history to die in combat, and the first female service member killed in Iraq. She was only 23 years old.
Please help me honor her so that she is not forgotten.
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