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> Bona Fide Hero, Leigh Ann Hester
maxnmike
post Jun 23 2006, 10:11 AM
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Yes I know this is an old story. My question is, why did it take so long to be told? Is it because it is a "good" news story? Is it because the national media is biased against good news, not just in the war but all good news? The sad thing is that good things happen over there all the time and if this hadn't been about a woman the story would not have been told. In saying that I don't mean to take anything away from her or what she and her fellow soldiers did, but our young men and women are doing good things there and we never hear about them. All we hear about are the bad things that happen. It is a sad sad thing.


Richmond Times-Dispatch
Jun 20, 2006

Seemingly everyone knows the name Lynndie England, and how she stepped into infamy. That so few people understand Leigh Ann Hester's significance may illustrate why at least some feel the national media ignore many of the Iraq war's most compelling stories.

Sgt. Hester is a bona fide hero. In March, 2005, she and her unit were protecting a supply convoy traveling southeast of Baghdad when in- surgents attacked. She and nine other soldiers faced off with 50 enemy combatants. The coalition forces won spectacularly. In 30 minutes of engagement they killed 27 insurgents, wounded six, and captured one. None of Sgt. Hester's complement was killed; only three suffered wounds.

For her bravery, Sgt. Hester became the first woman in U.S. history to receive a Silver Star for action during close combat, and the first female to earn the medal since World War II.

Private England has had much ink spilled about her story, but Sgt. Hester's has been allowed to languish. A Nexis search of "Leigh Ann Hester" produces 180 hits (including from this newspaper). A search of Pvt. England's name returns more than a thousand articles.

How many other stories comparable to Leigh Ann Hester's does the public know little about?

News outlets have trumpeted almost every unpleasant moment of the Iraq war for all to see. Yet only when the public is presented with the good and the bad of this conflict can a proper judgment form in the nation's collective mind.

Sgt. Hester has returned from Iraq to her family. This nation is safer because of her service -- and would be better off if more people knew it.


http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/soldierstories/s...ory_id_key=7474


http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/read.php?story_id_key=7472
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robroy
post Jun 26 2006, 05:31 PM
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sounds about normal for the news media. Thanks for the story


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