Wow! You’ve gotta read this article from the Stars & Stripes:
"You wouldn’t think this blond-haired, blue-eyed paralegal with a warm smile is a force to be reckoned with when she’s behind a .50-caliber machine gun.
"But you — and the fighters who ambushed her convoy — would be wrong.
"Army Cpl. Krista Bullard proved her combat mettle in late January when her convoy from Camp Arifjan came under attack close to Baghdad International Airport. Bullard, a private first class at the time, was the turret gunner in a Humvee when the enemy unleashed fire on her convoy at night. She returned fire with 61 rounds from her .50-caliber machine gun, causing secondary explosions at the enemy position. It was her first convoy manning a .50-caliber machine gun.
“’I can’t say I wasn’t scared, because I was really scared,’ said the 20-year-old from Altamont, Ill. ‘I didn’t want to be shot, but I wasn’t going to duck down and crawl in the vehicle. I was the .50-cal gunner. That was my job.’”
BTW, Bullard was awarded the Combat Action Badge…