Heroes: Capt. Kellie McCoy
With 11 paratroopers under her command, Army Airborne Capt. Kellie McCoy coolly directed fire and cranked out rounds from her M-4 carbine to take out two of the enemy in breaking a well-planned ambush of her convoy.McCoy’s courage and leadership near the rebel stronghold of Fallujah on Sept. 18, 2003, earned her the Bronze Star with combat “V” for valor.
“Capt. McCoy willingly and repeatedly took action to gather up her soldiers under enemy fire and direct fire at the enemy,” the medal citation said. “Her actions inspired her men to accomplish the mission and saved the lives of her fellow soldiers.”
“It was only my third day in the country,” said McCoy, 29, of St. Louis, in recalling the firefight that was symbolic of the sweeping changes in the ways women serve in the military brought on by the nature of warfare in Iraq.
Under 1994 Pentagon rules on land combat, women in the military are barred from infantry, armor and most artillery front-line units.
But as commander of a headquarters company in the 307th Engineer Battalion of the elite 82nd Airborne Division, McCoy had command of 180 troops – three of them women.
The company’s mission in support of designated combat units often puts it on the front lines of a war defined by the enemy’s hit-and-run tactics.
McCoy, a jump-trained West Point graduate, said she was running a four-vehicle convoy – two Humvees and two 5-ton trucks – with 11 troops in her command when the ambush hit on the road from Fallujah to Ramadi.
“I was going to see the rest of my company” at other positions, McCoy said. The second vehicle in a convoy is considered the most vulnerable, and that was where she put her Humvee.
“The first IED [improvised explosive device] went off right in front of my vehicle,” McCoy said, and a second roadside bomb hit at the rear in what she called a “daisy-chain IED.”
The enemy then swarmed from both sides of the road, raking the convoy with rifle fire and rocket-propelled grenades to disable the three other vehicles, McCoy said.
She ran her Humvee up and down the road, gathering up her troops and directing well-aimed fire to repel the attack.
The roof gunner on her Humvee fired 500 rounds and McCoy fired off several clips from her carbine. “I believe I hit two [of the enemy],” McCoy said, “but I don’t know how many we killed.”
McCoy somehow jammed all 11 paratroopers into her Humvee and drove to Ramadi, with three of her troops suffering minor injuries.
“We were probably quite a sight coming back through Ramadi,” McCoy said with a laugh about her overloaded vehicle.
