Female medic, 19, awarded Silver Star

Last update: March 9, 2008 - 8:23 PM

A 19-year-old medic from Texas will become only the second female soldier since World War II to receive the Silver Star, the nation's third-highest medal for valor.

Army Specialist Monica Lin Brown saved the lives of fellow soldiers after a roadside bomb tore through a convoy of Humvees in eastern Afghanistan in April 2007, the military said. After the explosion, which wounded five soldiers in her unit, Brown ran through insurgent gunfire and used her body to shield wounded comrades as mortar shells fell less than 100 yards away, the military said.

"I did not really think about anything except for getting the guys to a safer location and getting them taken care of and getting them out of there," Brown said Saturday at Camp Salerno, a U.S. base in eastern Afghanistan.

Brown, of Lake Jackson, Texas, is scheduled to receive the award later this month.

Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester, of Nashville, Tenn., received the Silver Star in 2005 for gallantry during an insurgent ambush on a convoy in Iraq.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Recent World stories

Philippine police search for American suspected of killing presidential staffer's son - March 9, 2008

Philippine police search for American suspected of killing presidential staffer's son - Philippine police searched for an American who escaped after allegedly killing a government official's son in a road-rage shooting — the second homicide case against him, officials said Monday. More