Lori Piestewa | |
---|---|
Nickname(s) | Kocha-Hon-Mana (Hopi name) |
Born |
Tuba City, Arizona, U.S. |
December 14, 1979
Died | March 23, 2003 Nasiriyah, Iraq |
(aged 23)
Allegiance | United States of America |
Service/branch | United States Army |
Years of service | 2001–2003 |
Rank | Specialist (posthumous) |
Unit | 507th Maintenance Company |
Battles/wars | |
Awards |
Purple Heart Prisoner of War Medal |
Lori Ann Piestewa (/paɪˈɛstəwɑː/ py-ESS-tə-wah; December 14, 1979 – March 23, 2003) was a United States Army soldier killed during the Iraq War. A member of the Quartermaster Corps, she died in the same Iraqi attack in which fellow soldiers Shoshana Johnson and Jessica Lynch were injured. A member of the Hopi tribe, Piestewa was the first Native American woman in history to die in combat while serving in the U.S. military and the first woman in the U.S. military killed in the Iraq War.Arizona's Piestewa Peak is named in her honor.
Piestewa was born in Tuba City, Arizona, to Terry Piestewa and Priscilla "Percy" Baca. Her father is a full-blooded Hopi Native American, her mother is a Mexican-American.photo The couple first met in 1964 and married in November 1968.
The Piestewa family had a long military tradition; her paternal grandfather served in the U.S. Army in the European Theatre of World War II, and her father Terry Piestewa was drafted in the U.S. Army in September 1965 and served a tour of duty in the Vietnam War before he returned home in March 1967.