Specialist Jenny (Beck)
Bos
Our unit became really close-I met some
of my best friends.
|
Specialist Jenny (Beck) Bos |
Specialist Jenny Beck of Columbus was
a truck driver for the 1075th Transportation Company during its deployment to Kuwait. She was deployed
with her future husband, Tim Bos. Jenny helped fulfill the 1075th's
mission to transport material from Kuwait to Iraq, and back.
The single greatest lesson she learned from her deployment was
that "our hard times now are nothing like they were then.
Also, not to prejudge anyone in life, many will surprise you
and become your best friends."
Source: All
objects were loaned by Jenny (Beck) Bos
Jenny
Beck's jacket and hot weather BDU cap
Tim and I had a going away party at my
Mom and Dad's house. While there, one
of my aunts purchased these shirts and had my family
sign and add a little note. When I was having a bad day or missing
my family, I would pull these out and read what they said. Every
time that I would do this, it would bring tears to my eyes, and
even today when I look at them or talk about them I feel like
crying because I know how much my family loves us and missed
Tim and me at this time.
I received these from my cousin Ryan, who
decided that Tim
and I needed to have a snowball fight with our friends
during Christmas time. He mailed an entire package full of snowball
fighting stuff, like the snowballs, gloves, Chapstick, a Santa
hat, and a few other things. I also received a few softballs
and baseballs from my Aunt Lynette's kids, who sent Tim and me
a glove and balls to play with.
This
sign was great. It was
on Highway 81 on the outskirts of town, so when we were going
to our Welcome Home ceremony in Columbus we all noticed it.
We had a large coming home ceremony
in Columbus. The auditorium was packed with supporters. I was
astonished by how many people showed up and very excited to be
home and see my family along with Tim's. Some of my loved ones
were so happy they had tears. I received flowers from them.
Iraq is a dirty, stinky country. It surprised
me that the land itself was a lot like Nebraska-sandhills, rolling
plains, and flat lands. I couldn't believe that there were people-including
children-wandering, begging for food and water.
During our deployment, I wrote letters
back and forth to the Duncan [Nebraska] Elementary School students.
They sent this to us.
On March 20, 2005, a convoy under the command of the 1075th Transportation
Company was ambushed by a group of 40 to 50 Iraqi insurgents
near a suburb of southeastern Baghdad on a supply route called
Bismark. In a nearly 45-minute battle, members of several National
Guard units, including 14 Nebraskans, fought the larger and better
armed insurgent force to a standstill and ultimately defeated
them. Bos was driving an armored vehicle in the convoy and was
behind a truck driven by two other 1075th soldiers, Private First
Class Ricky DeLancey and Sergeant Terry Ricketts. Ricketts was
shot through the knee and trapped under a large piece of metal
after a mortar hit the vehicle. DeLancey received two non-life
threatening wounds to the head.
(text
of video) (download Quicktime
to view?)
This video shows Beck in action during
the battle. She had already helped
load DeLancey into her truck, which also contained an injured,
non-military truck driver, and her co-driver. She went back to
get Ricketts, helped pull him from his entrapment, and out of
the line of fire. She did not have room for Ricketts, but radioed
his location to the other soldiers. She then drove her truck
and the injured passengers out of the combat zone.
In February 2006, Jenny (Beck) Bos received
the Bronze Star with Valor device for her heroism.
