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November 5, 2003
NEWS FROM THE FRONT From Beatty wrestler to a war hero in Iraq
By DOUG McMURDO
Last week the soldier was awarded the Army Commendation Medal "for valor and courage in the face of enemy action." The wrestler's name is Jessica Lynn Nicholson, and she is a 22-year-old private first class assigned to the HHC, 40th Engineer Battalion, 2nd Brigade. According to Monday's edition of The Old Ironside's Report, the 1st Armored Division's newsletter, Nicholson's usual job assignment is as a tracked-vehicle mechanic, but she found herself working at a security checkpoint in Baghdad to search women who passed through. It was the seventh of June, around 9 a.m. Baghdad time when the checkpoint became "very busy," according to comments attributed to Nicholson in The Old Ironsides Report. "There were a lot of people gathering at this checkpoint, so I was asked to search some men, too." Nicholson was searching the Iraqi driver of a vehicle that other soldiers were searching. After initially believing the car was safe, one of the soldiers got an uneasy feeling, Nicholson explained, and resumed the search. The grenade was hidden behind a visor. When the searcher shouted out a warning, Nicholson said, "I immediately got the driver down on the ground, face down, and I remember pressing his face into a sandbag." Nicholson restrained the man in this fashion until other soldiers came and zip-cuffed the suspected insurgent. The man tried to talk his way out of the situation, telling Nicholson and other soldiers that his intent was to turn the grenade into American forces. But since he never mentioned there was an explosive device hidden in the vehicle, Nicholson and her comrades didn't buy his excuse. Nicholson said she didn't remember how, exactly, she subdued the man, but she credited her Army training and the time she spent on the boys' wrestling team at BHS back in 1998, her sophomore year. And Nicholson is a soldier through and through. She has nicknamed her weapon, an M-249 SAW (squad automatic weapon) "Camille," and calls it her baby. She has boxed with some of the men in her company, and when asked by a reporter if she wore gloves during bouts, she replied, "Oh yes, of course we had boxing gloves. I wouldn't want to hurt them." The citation reads: This is to certify that the Secretary of the Army has awarded the Army Commendation Medal to Private First Class Jessica L. Nicholson, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 40th Engineer Battalion, for valor and courage in the face of enemy actions ... her decisive actions at a security checkpoint prevented the enemy from endangering the lives of her fellow soldiers." Jim and Kris Nicholson, Jessica's parents, couldn't be more proud. Kris Nicholson and her husband Jim moved to Winnemucca after Jessica's junior year at BHS. They work as miners for the Newmont Mining Company. "This is all pretty exciting for a parent," said Kris in an interview Tuesday. "We're quite pumped up with pride." Nicholson said both she and Jim are veterans. "We served in peacetime, and we never thought Jessica would go to war when she signed up. She's done us proud." Jessica was back home in Winnemucca, where she graduated from Lowry High School in 2000, for a two-week leave granted in October. Kris isn't certain if her daughter, who seems to have what it takes to defend her country, plans on making the Army a career. Comments Jessica made during her visit have led Kris to think not. "She wants to go to college, she wants a family and she's seen the hardship military families go through," explained Kris. "She said some of the men she serves with have newborn babies at home they've never been able to hold." For now though, Kris is walking on air. "Not many women have that medal, it's just one below the Bronze Star," she said. Jessica's heroic actions that day came with an unintended consequence - the apparent saboteur was shamed. "She told us an interpreter asked the man how it felt to be taken down by a woman. I guess it's quite an insult because he crawled into the fetal position and cried like a baby." Kris said she and her husband, who both worked at the Barrick Bullfrog Mine near Beatty until the operation closed down, continue to walk on air. "When I heard what she had done I was shaking and crying and laughing and swelled with pride all at the same time. All these emotions were surging through me. We're so proud." Jessica is five-feet, six inches and weighs a whopping 120 pounds. She said her Army training, her experience on the wrestling team at BHS, and for a brief time at Lowry until she decided, "the boys were getting a little too strong," helped her react the way she did on June 7. "I guess I kind of grew up in the middle of nowhere," she said to Staff Sgt. Conrad College, who interviewed her for The Old Ironsides Report. "I just always had to do whatever needed to be done." The Nicholsons, like all Americans who have a loved one in Iraq, worry about their daughter and all of the troops serving their country. "I just want her to come home safely. I want all of our troops to come home safely ... obviously not all of them will come home." |
