America's North Shore Journal

Able Sea­man Kate Nes­bitt, Royal Navy: Nes­bitt was awarded the Mil­i­tary Cross for her hero­ism under fire with 3 Com­mando in Afghanistan. The MC is the British equiv­a­lent of the Sil­ver Star and she is only the sec­ond woman to ever be awarded it.

She dressed L/Cpl John List’s neck wound and kept him from los­ing blood while bul­lets and rock­ets flew over­head in Mar­jah dis­trict in Helmand.

Ear­lier this month, L/Cpl List said no words could describe what Ms Nes­bitt had done, but with­out her action he would not have lived.

Her cita­tion said: “Under fire and under pres­sure her com­mit­ment and courage were inspi­ra­tional and made the dif­fer­ence between life and death.

“She per­formed in the high­est tra­di­tions of her service.”

Kim­berly Mun­ley, Ft. Hood Police Depart­ment: Mun­ley was one of two police offi­cers who responded to a ter­ror­ist attack at Ft. Hood. She engaged the ter­ror­ist and was badly wounded in the engagement.

The task on Thurs­day fell to the petite Ms. Mun­ley, a civil­ian police offi­cer employed by the Army at Fort Hood. Mun­ley had taken part in inten­sive active-shooter train­ing dur­ing the past year.

One of the first respon­ders, she exited her car and entered the build­ing as shots rang out. She rounded a cor­ner, iden­ti­fied the shooter, and fired four times. He returned fire and hit her at least twice in the legs and once in the arm.

Army Chap­lain (Capt.) Rebekah Mont­gomery, Chap­lain of the Year award from the Mil­i­tary Chap­lains Association:

After an 18-month tour in Afghanistan, Mont­gomery returned to Mary­land and took on two jobs. One week­end a month, she is the brigade chap­lain for the 58^th Troop Com­mand, a job that she said keeps her grounded in the “M-day” unit men­tal­ity. An M-day unit one in which troops serve one week­end a month and a two-week annual tour each year.

“With my state, that’s where the real nuts-and-bolts mis­sion is,” she said. “I feel like I’m stay­ing in touch and serv­ing at the local level.”

Dur­ing the week, she focuses on a broader mis­sion at the readi­ness cen­ter, advis­ing high-level offi­cials on spir­i­tual issues.

Spc. Heather Leman­ski, New York National Guard: Fought off a rapist in the shower and held him until help arrived.

Upon enter­ing the shower, Leman­ski heard some­one come into the trailer after her.

“I didn’t hear another shower start, so I called out to see if any­one was in there,” she said. “No one answered.”

With a knife in one hand and a can of pep­per spray in the other, Leman­ski began check­ing each shower. Soon she found her­self face-to-face with a male Sol­dier, dressed in his army com­bat uni­form, crouched in another stall.

“I man­aged to restrain him, and I called out to a sergeant pass­ing by to notify the [mil­i­tary police],” she said.

Sergeant First Class Helen Gille­spie, WAC and tuba player: Helen is a new found friend this year. She told us her story, join­ing the Women's Army Corps (WAC) to play in the band, and then mak­ing the tran­si­tion to the "new" Army.

From early 1971 until my recent deci­sion to retire I’ve strived to be a valu­able part of what I con­sider the strongest mil­i­tary orga­ni­za­tion in the world, the US Army. Run­ning into and break­ing through brick walls of lim­ited oppor­tu­nity for women has soured my view of the US Army. How­ever, the ben­e­fit I received over the years has strength­ened my belief that the Army offers great oppor­tu­nity and growth to any­one who has the abil­ity and strength to embrace it.

Megan Schlot­thauer and her mother Lisa Altoon: This cheer­leader needed a change and the Army offered her that change. Mom wasn't sure, but before it was all set­tled, Mom had enlisted, too.

She pre­sented the idea to her mother, Lisa Altoon, who wasn’t recep­tive to the notion of her cheer­leader daugh­ter join­ing the Army.

“I was dead set against it from the begin­ning,” she said.

Altoon, like many par­ents, was con­cerned about the pos­si­bil­ity of Megan deploy­ing to a com­bat zone. That is, until she met her daughter’s recruiter, Army Sgt. 1^st Class Jes­sica Dean of the Fre­mont, Calif., recruit­ing sta­tion. Dean proved to be a per­sua­sive recruiter.

Jaeda Sichel, hon­orary Coast Guard Res­cue Swim­mer: Jada inspired us in 2009 by being unwill­ing to let her ill­ness deter­mine her life's bound­aries. In early July, we cov­ered Jaeda as she was given the basics of being a Coast Guard res­cue swim­mer at the Avi­a­tion Train­ing Cen­ter Mobile, Ala. Jaeda's diag­no­sis of Cys­tic Fibro­sis didn't slow her down at all and we posted a num­ber of pho­tos of her train­ing. She is attend­ing the Uni­ver­sity of Col­orado at Boul­der and is major­ing in Aero­space Engineering.

Lance Cor­po­ral Sally Clarke, 2^nd Bat­tal­ion the Rifles: The sec­ond Brit to appear in this year's list, Clarke ren­dered aid to her fel­low sol­diers under intense enemy fire.

L/Cpl Clarke applied field dress­ings and a tourni­quet, and then waited for the emer­gency response team to arrive. The medic, who has served in the forces for three years, treated each sol­dier before help­ing to move them to the heli­copter land­ing site so that they could be flown to Camp Bastion.

Despite being enti­tled to get on the flight she refused, insist­ing she would not leave the rest of the patrol with­out a medic. She said: “I didn’t feel like my injuries were bad enough to go back to the hos­pi­tal, par­tic­u­larly as I was the only medic on the ground at the time.

“I couldn’t leave them on their own – I came out here to sup­port the troops on the ground and give them med­ical care when they need it the most.”

Spc. Amanda Cleve­land, Task Force Key­stone: Still a teenager, this sol­dier is a teacher and a medic.

Cleve­land is hum­ble about her teach­ing abil­ity, but is quick to acknowl­edge the impor­tance of the sub­ject matter.”I really enjoy teach­ing, but it’s not always easy keep­ing a student’s atten­tion, because I’m not a dom­i­nat­ing per­son,” said Cleve­land. “I just keep remind­ing myself that what I am teach­ing these Sol­diers will not only affect them, but also the peo­ple they may have to save. I may be help­ing my stu­dents save a life!”

Cleve­land is the pri­mary instruc­tor of the 28^th CAB’s First Aid Refresher Course at Con­tin­gency Oper­at­ing Base Adder which is taught monthly to a rota­tion of Sol­diers. When she is not train­ing, she is receiv­ing clin­i­cal expe­ri­ence in her unit’s med­ical clinic. She takes vital signs, screens patients, per­forms asthma treat­ments and even stitches sutures.

Maj. Gina Sabric, 332^nd Air Expe­di­tionary Wing, and the Women Air Force Ser­vice Pilots:

It’s been more than 60 years since the Women Air Force Ser­vice Pilots or WASP took the skies by storm as the first women in U.S. his­tory trained to fly Amer­i­can mil­i­tary air­craft, over­com­ing inequal­ity and chang­ing the face of avi­a­tion for­ever. On July 1, these avi­a­tion pio­neers were rec­og­nized by Pres­i­dent Barack Obama, who pre­sented the Con­gres­sional Gold Medal as long-overdue recog­ni­tion of the his­tor­i­cal “Fly Girls.”

Here at JBB, a 21^st-century “Fly Girl,” Maj. Gina Sabric, an F-16 fighter pilot, couldn’t be more pleased with the recognition.

“I think it is amaz­ing that they were pre­sented [with the Con­gres­sional Gold Medal],” said Sabric, cur­rently deployed here as the 332^nd Air Expe­di­tionary Wing flight safety offi­cer from Nel­lis Air Force Base, Nev. “It is def­i­nitely well-deserved and prob­a­bly a lit­tle over­due, but it is amaz­ing that they are finally being rec­og­nized for their ser­vice to our country.

“They are def­i­nitely pio­neers in avi­a­tion and an inspi­ra­tion to those of us that fly now,” she con­tin­ued. “We would not be here if it wasn’t for the work that they did before us. They paved the way and opened up doors for the rest of us.”