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Leigh Ann Hester was a twenty three year old sergeant with the Kentucky National Guard on 20March 2005 when her convoy rolled into a narrow road southeast of Baghdad. Insurgents hadplanned the attack carefully. They struck with rifles, machine guns, and RPGs, hammering thelead and rear vehicles to trap everyone inside a kill zone. For a moment the entire column frozeunder the weight of surprise and fire.Hester did not freeze. She and her squad leader, Staff Sergeant Timothy Nein, maneuveredtheir Humvee through the ambush, swinging wide to flank the attackers. Their move shifted thebalance of the fight. Instead of waiting for rescue, they took the fight to the enemy.Hester left cover with her M4 and moved into a trench line where insurgents were firing on theconvoy from close range. She engaged the fighters one by one, clearing the trench in a seriesof rapid bursts and precise shots. The attack collapsed under the pressure of her movement. Bythe end of the firefight more than two dozen insurgents had been killed, and every soldier in theconvoy was alive because a small team chose to push forward instead of retreat.For her actions, Hester became the first woman since World War II to receive the Silver Star andthe first woman ever to earn it for direct ground combat. She rejected the label of trailblazer andinsisted she was simply a soldier doing her job. But the significance of the moment reached farbeyond the roadway where she fought.Her story remains a reminder that courage does not follow expectations and heroism does notask permission. It appears in the moment when someone steps into danger because othersneed them to. Leigh Ann Hester did exactly that.