Women at War
of the National Guard were called to active duty in the air force. In 2007 the
National Guard sent her to Afghanistan as a search and rescue helicopter
pilot. During an interview in 2017, National Public Radio’s
Fresh Air
host Terry
Gross talked to MJ about her memoir. Gross introduced MJ this way: “In 2009,
Major Mary Jennings Hegar [her married name] was shot down by the Taliban
in Afghanistan while co-piloting an Air National Guard medevac helicopter.
Though she was wounded in her rifle arm, Hegar managed to return fire while
hanging onto a moving helicopter, which saved the lives of her crew and her
patients.” Because of her bravery in Afghanistan, MJ received a Purple Heart,
the Distinguished Flying Cross with Valor, and several other honors. MJ left the
National Guard in 2009 after her injuries. She teaches and mentors cadets
(young people in military training) at the University of Texas in Austin and speaks
publicly about her military experiences. In 2018 she launched her campaign to
run for a seat in the US House of Representatives.
“BETTER AND STRONGER”
Until January 2016, MJ and other American women could not legally serve in
combat roles. Yet women warriors have led men into combat for centuries. In
480 BCE, Queen Artemisia of Greece commanded five ships for Xerxes, the king
of Persia, during a sea battle. Xerxes found her performance excelled that of his
male commanders. He said, “My men have become women; and my women,
men.” In the first century CE, the Celtic queen Boudicca led armies against the
Roman conquerors of what is modern-day England. Boudicca’s armies destroyed
three Roman cities in England and killed eighty thousand Romans. And in the
third century CE in Vietnam, Trieu Thi Trinh rode a war elephant into battle while
wearing golden armor and brandishing swords. She led one thousand warriors
against the Chinese, who occupied part of Vietnam. By the time she was twenty-
one years old, she had defeated the Chinese in thirty battles. Trieu is a national
hero in Vietnam, with a holiday named for her to honor her bravery.
Until the twenty-first century, American women could legally fill only about
nine out of ten military jobs. Combat positions were closed to them. In 2012 MJ
and three other women—all of whom had served in either Iraq or Afghanistan—
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