Lori, a Hopi, was the mother of two children.
The name Hopi means "Peaceful People" and when the the U.S. Cavalry occupied their ancestral lands, the Hopi met their
rifles with nonviolent resistance.
Lori believed in peace, but the army offered a good job when she had few options, a chance to build a better life for her children.
Jessica and Lori had become friends in
basic training. They grew even closer when they were assigned to the 507th Maintenance Company and were roommates at Fort Bliss. When the 507th got orders to the Middle East, Lori was not on the list to go because of an injury. Jessica's job as a quartermaster supply clerk was not a combat position, but she was nervous about heading to a war zone.
Lori had a premonition that Jessica or someone else in her unit would get into danger in Iraq, and she wanted to be there to help. She convinced her superiors to add her to the list for deployment.
Three days into the war disaster struck.
A U.S. Army investigation blamed the
ambush of the 507th on
navigational error, lack of rest, communication problems and human error. Eleven soldiers died and nine were injured.
The unit had been on its way to
Baghdad, the tail end of a 600-vehicle convoy. It’s heavier, slower vehicles bogged down in the sand, fell behind and got lost. After wandering through the desert for hours, the support group of clerks, repairmen and cooks took a wrong turn and stumbled into the city of Nasiriyah. They were surrounded and attacked by a mob of paramilitary forces loyal to Saddam Hussein.
Jessica Lynch and Shoshana Johnson still suffer from their physical and psychological
wounds. In Shoshana's case, the army initially refused to treat her PTSD. Lori Piestewa's family was comforted to hear she never fired her gun during the ambush either. She died a Hopi, trying to help a friend.
