Airman 1st Class Charity Lee Trueblood
Maj. Gen. Thomas F. Deppe, 20th Air Force commander, presents Senior Airman Charity Trueblood, 341st Logistics Readiness Squadron, with the citation to accompany the Bronze Star Medal with Valor she received Sept. 14 for duties performed in support of the Global War on Terrorism. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman Emerald Ralston)
Bronze Star with V device
Airman Trueblood was driving an up-armored Humvee providing security to a group that was moving supplies on Dec. 5, 2005, when her convoy was attacked near Balad Air Base in Iraq. A driver indicated over the radio that he had been hit. Under fire, Trueblood moved her truck between the enemy fire and the other vehicles, which were not up-armored. The injured man pulled to the side of the road because his truck caught on fire. Trueblood drove up to the injured man’s vehicle, which was engulfed in flames. She performed first aid and helped to get him to a secure location for medical treatment.
Trueblood received the Bronze Star with Valor on Sept. 14, 2006.
Airman Charity Trueblood is with the 341st Logistics Readiness Squadron. Major King is with the 341st Space Wing command post, and Captain Bennett is with the 741st Missile Security Forces Squadron.
Driving a Humvee the night of Dec. 5, 2005, Airman Trueblood was returning with her convoy after performing a mission. Her team came under fire by insurgents from a village just outside Balad Air Base, Iraq. Before they could get out of the “kill zone,” two of the civilian truck drivers in the convoy were shot.
“When we halted the convoy and got up to him, I saw he’d been shot,” Airman Trueblood said. “He’d been hit in the shoulder and it was a clean entry and exit wound.”
As she and three other Airmen provided security, the truck caught on fire and their attempts to put it out failed. She pulled the driver from the truck and performed combat life-saver skills.
In addition to her treatment of the gunshot victim, “her application of sound tactics resulted in the safe onward movement of the convoy and disrupted an enemy plot to interdict coalition supply routes,” her citation stated. “Airman Trueblood’s selfless acts during hostile actions saved the lives of 39 personnel.”
For this and other actions that took place that night, Airman Trueblood earned a Bronze Star Medal with Valor for heroism.
“We [she and the gunshot wound victim] were reunited at a later date and I got to meet him, officially this time, and see how he was doing. He was fine and that was a good thing,” she said.
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As a result of this incident and being deployed together, Trueblood and her three fellow teammates have formed a sisterhood that develops, she says, “when you eat, sleep and work together 24-7.â€
It is a sisterhood that will last well into her trip home, back to the 341st Logistics Readiness Squadron, Malmstrom Air Force Base, Great Falls, Montana, the Army Air Force reports.
Trueblood returned from Iraq to the United States right before her 21st birthday celebrated Feb. 14. Being stationed in Montana allows her the opportunity to be a “tomboy,†said Mark Trueblood. She enjoys hunting and driving her pickup truck around, said Trueblood.
The incident occurred during her second tour of duty. In the summer of 2004, she spent three months in Iraq and didn’t want to leave, Mark Trueblood said. When the opportunity came for a second tour, Trueblood said Charity didn’t hesitate.
In June 2005, she went to Texas to train for six weeks. She left for Kuwait in August and then it was on to Iraq.
Although Trueblood is proud of his daughter, it is difficult to watch the television news and learn of soldiers getting hurt or killed. He worries that he will receive a call or visit from the military with bad news.
But Trueblood knows his daughter is proud of what she is doing and she praises the people she works with — both civilians and the enlistees.
“It’s such an awesome thing for these 20- to 25-year-old kids knowing that they are protecting people’s lives,†Trueblood said. “Few people get a chance to do this. And this is a volunteer service. Everybody is in on their own free will. It is not like people are drafted and forced to serve.â€
Charity Trueblood graduated from Cowden-Herrick High School and enlisted in the Air Force before she was 18.
Trueblood said his daughter is a typical 21-year-old, often changing her career plans and goals in life.
“It changes from one day to the next,†he said. “One day she said she is planning a military career but then it changes and she thinks about becoming a trauma nurse. This experience in Iraq was rewarding to her because she got to help somebody and then see them recover.â€
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Airman Charity Trueblood
