RSS Feed MenuThis is an unusual story of bravery in Afghanistan that is both surprising and inspiring – Able Seaman Kate Nesbitt of the Royal Navy, at age 20, standing a tall five-foot-nothing, winning the Military Cross.
It happened in Helmand province last March, when she was attached as a medic with 3 Commando Brigade and her unit was ambushed.
A corporal (John List) went down when a bullet ricocheted off his flak jacket into his jaw and out his neck. “I thought this was it, that I was done,” he said later. “And then suddenly she was there.”
A medical assistant, Nesbitt acted instantly. Under heavy small arms and rocket fire, she raced some 70 meters across what was no-man’s-land to the wounded soldier who was gagging and drowning on his own blood. She opened another air passage to his lungs.
For some 45 minutes she worked on him, bullets zipping around her, while troops from the Commandos took on and routed the Taliban. A helicopter evacuated the wounded soldier.
Nesbitt later expressed astonishment that she’d been recommended for the MC. “I didn’t think in a million years anyone would notice me,” she said. “I was just doing my job, and I know if it had been me out there, they’d have been doing the same for me.”
At the investiture at Buckingham Palace, Prince Charles towered over the diminutive sailor as he pinned on her medal. It’s tempting to call Kate Nesbitt “perky,” but that’s what she seems to be – the first British navy woman to win the MC.
Her citation reads: “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.”
Born in Plymouth in 1988, Kate joined the navy in 2005 when she was 17. Military service runs in the family – her two brothers are soldiers and her father was in the Royal Marines for 22 years until he retired as a color sergeant.
I stumbled on this story thanks to Vince Courtenay’s website. Until then, I hadn’t realized that the Military Cross, which used to be awarded to junior officers for acts of bravery on the battlefield, can now be won by non-commissioned ranks for conspicuous acts of courage.
The Military Medal, which used to be awarded to non-commissioned ranks for acts of notable bravery, has been abandoned by the British since 1993 in the name of equivalency. All junior ranks are eligible for the MC.
Canadian Forces no longer award the MC or MM. Now, distinctive merit awards have been devised for Canadian forces, but as yet don’t carry quite the same prestige as the old British awards. Canada authorized its own Victoria Cross in 1993, with slight changes from the British version. Instead of “For Valour” that the British VC carries, Canada has the Latin “Pro Valore.”
As yet, no one has ever been awarded the Canadian VC.
Carney // Dec 3, 2009 at 3:41 pm
http://cmrlink.org/WomenInCombat.asp
Carney // Dec 3, 2009 at 4:20 pm
See also:
“Women in the Military: Flirting With Disaster” by Brian P. Mitchell (Regnery, 1998)
and
“The Kinder, Gentler Military: How Political Correctness Affects Our Ability to Win Wars” by Stephanie Gutman (Encounter Books, 2001)
and
“Co-ed Combat: The New Evidence That Women Shouldn’t Fight the Nation’s Wars” by Kinsgley Browne (Sentinel HC, 2007)
Just thought it important to provide a conservative response to the upbeat story posted above without context and with the unstated implication that a woman in combat is normal, desirable, and to be celebrated.
Is there a culture war issue that FrumForum takes the conservative side on?
aDude // Dec 3, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Actually, that is precisely the point. Focusing on culture wars is how to stay in the minority. In the mid 19th century, being on the conservative side of the culture wars meant being in favor of slavery. In the early part of the 20th century, being on the conservative side of the culture wars meant denying women the right to vote. In the mid 20th century, being on the conservative side of the culture war meant being in favor of racial segregation. (There are many articles from that time period similar to the ones quoted above that went into great detail about how the racial integration of the armed forces would inevitably lead to Communist victory.) In the latter half of the 20th century, being on the conservative side of the culture wars meant supporting the notion that women should stay home barefoot and pregnant.
Meanwhile, there is a new generation out there that wants to be given a positive vision of the future. We could show them a future of limited government, low taxes, individual freedom, and unlimited potential, or we could show them a future where we spend our time limiting the extent to which women, gays, Hispanics, etc, can fully participate in society. On the whole, they have already rejected the conservative side of the culture wars. Do we want to bind economic conservatism to social conservatism so tightly that the new generation will have no choice but to embrace a left wing future?
I think Able Seaman Kate Nesbitt represents exactly what we want this new generation to see as the example of a true hero.
sinz54 // Dec 4, 2009 at 10:18 am
There are quite a few female military heroes who, unfortunately, have remained unknown to much of the public:
http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/KCpilot.html
Check out the home page of this website too.
ottovbvs // Dec 4, 2009 at 5:14 pm
……she’s a little duck as the British would say and certainly deserves her decoration (I assume that when the Brits made the change in 93 they also changed the convention whereby officers received “decorations” and O/R’s “medals”……….I used to have a guy working for me who had won the MC and a bar in Italy who was completely fearless in terms of corporate culture……I was talking to him about this one day over a Glenmorangie and he said “when you’ve been shot at by the Wehrmacht whose going to be frightened of *****”
Carney // Dec 6, 2009 at 9:04 am
aDude, thanks for dragging us through the all-too-familiar litany of the “march of progress” that Ted Kennedy could have droned from a podium.
You are of course begging the question as to whether feminism has produced a “positive vision for the future”. It has certainly contributed to routine divorce, abortion, promiscuity, and below-replacement fertility – what a certain influential figure called “the culture of death”.
You also make the routine error of believing that polls of the young showing that they are more culturally liberal make a culturally liberal future inevitable. As people accumulate wisdom and life experience, and see the consequences of irresponsibility, and especially when they marry and have children, their outlook and worldview shift sharply rightwards, and libertinism is seen as the threat to their children’s well being and to the broader society. That’s why we should encourage marriage, childbirth, and affordable family formation, rather than shrugging our shoulders and seeing all possible life choices and outcomes as being totally equal.
Finally, how about asking the Left to stop focusing on the culture wars? Why are we at fault for resisting radical and destructive change, and for preserving a society handed down from our parents and grandparents that is essentially good, wholesome, and functional? They are the aggressors, pressing relentlessly ahead. You want the war to stop? Tell them to leave us alone.