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From EMSNetwork News Your best source for EMS News. we . search . so . you . don't . have . to http://www.emsnetwork.org/ Military
An Alaska-based soldier who rushed through a blitz of gunfire as she tried to save the lives of two civilian convoy drivers injured in Iraq received the military's fourth-highest combat award this week, according to the Alaska Army National Guard. Spc. Veronica Alfaro, 23, of Modesto, Calif., was presented the Bronze Star Medal for Valor in a ceremony Wednesday in Iraq, the Guard said. The award was given to her by Vice President Dick Cheney. Alfaro, a combat medic and driver with Bravo Company, 297th Support Battalion, was confronted by heavily armed insurgents Jan. 15 when driving a gun truck as an escort to the civilian convoy on the main U.S. supply route between Baghdad and Balad, Iraq, the Guard said. The ambush came just after midnight, according to the award citation. STRATEGIC DRIVING Four machine guns lit up the night, with small-arms fire bursting out across the flat landscape from positions concealed behind brush. Alfaro turned into the fire to protect some of the civilian drivers and give her gunner a shot at the attackers, according to the Guard. A barrage of bullets pelted her vehicle in the process. She wasn't hit, but the civilian driver of the vehicle ahead of her was. Alfaro grabbed some medical supplies and sprinted to the position, more than 50 yards away from her own, despite the persisting onslaught. Members of Alfaro's crew reported seeing bullets kicking up dust at her feet and tracer rounds whizzing past her head as she ran, the Guard said. When she reached the wounded driver, she used her body as a shield as she tried to help him, though he later died from his injuries. Moments later, a report of another wounded civilian driver came over the radio, leading Alfaro to hop into a gun truck and rush to the position, where she saved that driver's life, according to the Guard. "Spc. Alfaro's courage under fire is exceptional," Bravo Company commander Capt. Joshua Shrader, of Juneau, said in a written statement. "She helps make this hostile environment a little safer through her actions and willingness to help protect everyone around her." Alfaro first joined up with the California Army National Guard in March 2005, then applied to be transferred to the Alaska Guard in 2007 when she learned the unit would be deploying to Iraq, the Guard said. Her unit, based out of Fort Richardson, is scheduled to return in mid-April. Members of the unit could not be reached in Iraq on Thursday |