ARMY SPC. LORI PIESTEWA

"WOMAN KILLED IN IRAQ HONORED"

From "The Tulsa World," Wednesday, March 24, 2004

Associated Press

PHOENIX -- More than 200 people gathered on a mountaintop before sunrise Tuesday to honor Army Spc. Lori Piestewa, the first American servicewoman killed in the war with Iraq, one year after her company was ambushed.

Piestewa, 23, served in the 507th Maintenance Company along with former prisoners of war Jessica Lynch and Shoshana Johnson. Nine soldiers died in the attack near the southern Iraq city of Nasiriyah.

Tuesday's ceremony celebrated Piestewa's heritage by mingling Hopi, Catholic and Mexican-American traditions. Mariachis strummed a song that simply said "Adios." They later sang the Lord's Prayer in Spanish during a Mass.

Piestewa, a member of the Hopi Tribe, is believed to have been the first American Indian woman killed while fighting for the U.S. military. Tuesday's ceremony was held on Piestewa Peak, a mountaintop named for the fallen soldier.

"It makes my heart heavy to think of those people who haven't made it home. This peak belongs to all the veterans who didn't make it," said Piestewa's father, Terry, a Vietnam war veteran.