Kabul, July 9 (Newswire): A 23-year-old Wisconsin woman has been named one of the best in the Air Force in part for her actions caring for others after she was injured in a rocket-propelled grenade attack in Afghanistan.
Senior Airman Bryenna Brooks will be honored at a ceremony in September as one of "12 Outstanding Airmen of the Year." The honor recognizes her leadership and achievements as a medic attached to an Army resupply unit in Afghanistan last year and in her current role as a clinician for the 2nd Aerospace Medicine Squadron based at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.
She earned a Purple Heart and several other medals in the June 3, 2011, attack that left her with shrapnel wounds along the left side of her body.
Brooks had volunteered for deployment to the war zone and was near the end of a six-month tour when the convoy, stalled by mechanical problems, was fired upon shortly after midnight.
Convoy security personnel were shooting back at a distant enemy position when the grenade hit Brooks' vehicle, whizzing within a foot of her left shoulder as it screamed clear through the passenger compartment.
"It was just really loud, and there were a lot of sparks and smoke," Brooks said.
"I went to grab my medical bag, but the RPG had gone through it, and all the equipment was ruined," Brooks said. "It was hard to see at first. When it was happening I guess I was just focused on making sure that everyone was OK."
She gave first aid to the others as they sped to a base where medics treated her.
"We were all very lucky to come out with minor injuries," Brooks said.
She is one of about 800 military women who have been injured in Iraq and Afghanistan in combat and noncombat incidents. More than 130 have been killed.
Despite a ban on assigning women to ground combat roles, they still end up in dangerous situations, often in convoys driving through areas that are subject to attack.
Brooks was the sole convoy medic on 25 missions, which transported 1,200 soldiers and countless tons of supplies.
"We're just really proud of her and what she's done," said Capt. Benjamin Meighan. "She's a reflection of everyone here. We have tough people across the board."
The shrapnel robbed her of feeling in her left arm for a while, but it has healed, and she now works in a clinic at the base in Louisiana.
A few hours after the grenade attack that night in 2011, Brooks telephoned her parents' home in Sherwood and calmly told her father that she had been injured in an attack but that she was fine.
Tomas Brooks passed the phone to his wife, Jayme, but the signal soon broke and was lost.
"She just wanted us to know she was all right," he said. "She handled it very well, but it was very stressful. There's a million things that go through your head afterwards when you can't see her and you don't know what happened."
Brooks graduated in 2007 from St. Mary Central High School in Neenah, then attended UW-Milwaukee for a year and held a couple of jobs before enlisting, said her father. He was worried about her joining the military, and doubly concerned when she deployed to Afghanistan.
The oldest of three daughters, Brooks was always a fast learner, but she appeared bored with high school, her father said. She had a little trouble finding direction as a young adult but seems to have grown up fast in the military, he said.
"I'm just so proud of her that she's been able to handle that and do well," Tomas Brooks said.
Senior Airman Bryenna Brooks will be honored at a ceremony in September as one of "12 Outstanding Airmen of the Year." The honor recognizes her leadership and achievements as a medic attached to an Army resupply unit in Afghanistan last year and in her current role as a clinician for the 2nd Aerospace Medicine Squadron based at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.
She earned a Purple Heart and several other medals in the June 3, 2011, attack that left her with shrapnel wounds along the left side of her body.
Brooks had volunteered for deployment to the war zone and was near the end of a six-month tour when the convoy, stalled by mechanical problems, was fired upon shortly after midnight.
Convoy security personnel were shooting back at a distant enemy position when the grenade hit Brooks' vehicle, whizzing within a foot of her left shoulder as it screamed clear through the passenger compartment.
"It was just really loud, and there were a lot of sparks and smoke," Brooks said.
"I went to grab my medical bag, but the RPG had gone through it, and all the equipment was ruined," Brooks said. "It was hard to see at first. When it was happening I guess I was just focused on making sure that everyone was OK."
She gave first aid to the others as they sped to a base where medics treated her.
"We were all very lucky to come out with minor injuries," Brooks said.
She is one of about 800 military women who have been injured in Iraq and Afghanistan in combat and noncombat incidents. More than 130 have been killed.
Despite a ban on assigning women to ground combat roles, they still end up in dangerous situations, often in convoys driving through areas that are subject to attack.
Brooks was the sole convoy medic on 25 missions, which transported 1,200 soldiers and countless tons of supplies.
"We're just really proud of her and what she's done," said Capt. Benjamin Meighan. "She's a reflection of everyone here. We have tough people across the board."
The shrapnel robbed her of feeling in her left arm for a while, but it has healed, and she now works in a clinic at the base in Louisiana.
A few hours after the grenade attack that night in 2011, Brooks telephoned her parents' home in Sherwood and calmly told her father that she had been injured in an attack but that she was fine.
Tomas Brooks passed the phone to his wife, Jayme, but the signal soon broke and was lost.
"She just wanted us to know she was all right," he said. "She handled it very well, but it was very stressful. There's a million things that go through your head afterwards when you can't see her and you don't know what happened."
Brooks graduated in 2007 from St. Mary Central High School in Neenah, then attended UW-Milwaukee for a year and held a couple of jobs before enlisting, said her father. He was worried about her joining the military, and doubly concerned when she deployed to Afghanistan.
The oldest of three daughters, Brooks was always a fast learner, but she appeared bored with high school, her father said. She had a little trouble finding direction as a young adult but seems to have grown up fast in the military, he said.
"I'm just so proud of her that she's been able to handle that and do well," Tomas Brooks said.
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