Benutzer:Rayx/Werkstatt

Lori Ann Piestewa (*14. Dezember 1979 in Tuba City, † 23. März, 2003) war Soldatin der US-Armee und starb als erste Frau im Dienste der amerikanischen Streitkräfte im Irak. Als Mitglied des Stammes der Hopi war sie die erste indianische Frau, die im Kampf für das US-Militär gefallen ist.

Leben

Piestewa was born and raised in Tuba City, Arizona, a town with more than a 50% unemployment rate, the daughter of Terry Piestewa and Priscilla "Percy" Baca Piestewa. Lori Piestewa's father is Hopi and her mother is of Mexican ancestry. ^photo They met in 1964 and married in November 1968.

Her family had a long military tradition, with both Piestewa's father and grandfather having served in the U.S. Army. (Her father was drafted and served in Vietnam in 1965, and returned home in March 1967.) Neighbors described her as, while generally supportive of the army, having joined primarily to provide a secure income for her and her two children, Brandon and Carla Whiterock.

As a child, she was given the Hopi name Köcha-Hon-Mana (also spelled Qotsa-hon-mana, meaning White Bear Girl). Her surname, Piestewa, is derived from a Hopi language root meaning "water pooled on the desert by a hard rain"; thus, Piestewa translates loosely as "the people who live by the water."

Ambush in Nasiriyah, Iraq

Piestewa was a member of the army's 507th Army Maintenance Company, a support unit of clerks, cooks, and repair personnel. Her company was traveling in a convoy through the desert and was supposed to bypass Nasiriyah, in southern Iraq, during the opening days of the war; but the convoy got lost and ran into an ambush in Nasiriya on March 23, 2003.

In the confusion and chaos of the battle, Piestewa crashed her Humvee into a pole, and the vehicle was then struck by an RPG. Three other soldiers in the Humvee died in the crash. Lynch attempted to shoot her M16, but it jammed. Piestewa and Jessica Lynch both survived but were wounded. They were taken prisoner, with Piestewa dying soon after of her wounds. A video of some of the American prisoners of war, including Piestewa (filmed shortly before she died in an Iraqi hospital), was later shown around the world on Al Jazeera television. According to Jessica Lynch's book—I'm a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story—Piestewa was wounded in the head, and it was impossible to perform delicate neurosurgery in an Iraqi civilian hospital in wartime conditions (such as intermittant electric power): in a U.S. military hospital, both reliable power and neurosurgeons were available around the clock, and she might well have survived. As POWs, both Lynch and Piestewa got the best care that the Iraqis could provide.

The families of soldiers in the 507th heard almost right away of the ambush and fatalities in the unit. The Piestewa family saw people in Lori's unit being interviewed by Iraqi TV, and for more than a week families of the two women waited for news. All around Tuba City signs were hung out telling people: "Put your porch light on, show Lori the way home." They used white stone to spell her name on a 200-ft mesa just outside the town.

Honoring Piestewa

Piestewa was awarded the Purple Heart and Prisoner of War Medal (although a number of people felt that she deserved additional medals for her actions). The army posthumously promoted her from Private First Class to Specialist.

Jessica Lynch has repeatedly said that Piestewa is the true hero of the ambush and named her daughter Dakota Ann in honor of her fallen comrade. In addition, many entities have honored her memory with memorials. Arizona's state government renamed Squaw Peak in the Phoenix Mountains (whose original name some found offensive) near Phoenix as Piestewa Peak; the freeway that passes near this mountain was also re-named in her honor. In addition, Senator Tom Daschle honored her, as did Indian Nations across America. Since her death, the Grand Canyon Games organizers have held an annual Lori Piestewa National Native American Games, which brings participants from across the country. A plaque bearing her name is also located at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

Her death led to a rare joint prayer gathering between members of the Hopi and Navajo tribes, which have had a centuries-old rivalry.

In May 2005, Lori's parents and children had a brand-new home built by Ty Pennington and his crew on ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition accompanied by Jessica Lynch. They also built a new veterans' center on the Navajo reservation.

More Reading

• Rick Bragg: I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story.. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003, ISBN 1400042577.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Piestewa, Lori}} [[Category:1979 births]] [[Category:2003 deaths]] [[Category:Women in the United States Army]] [[Category:Women in the Second Iraq War]] [[Category:Native American women in warfare]] [[Category:Hopi tribe]] [[Category:American military personnel of the Iraq War]] [[Category:Recipients of the Purple Heart medal]] [[Category:United States Army soldiers]] [[Category:Military logistics]] [[Category:Native American military personnel]] [[Category:American military personnel killed in the Iraq War]] ca:Lori Ann Piestewa