Cpl. Jessica Ellis died in Iraq serving to others. Her father remembers his daughter and the “final sacrifices” navy ladies make on Memorial Day.

The knock on the door got here at nighttime on Mom’s Day 2008 in Oregon, the place Jessica Ellis’ dad and mom lived. It was round 9:20 p.m. and his spouse, Linda, was already in mattress; her father Steve Ellis advised CBS Information, that he thought somebody let their animals out — however two troopers in Class A uniforms had been standing on the door.  

” why they’re there. I imply, they do not must say a factor,” Steve Ellis mentioned.  

Ellis, a fight medic assigned to the 2nd Brigade Particular Troops Battalion, 2nd Brigade Fight Workforce, a hundred and first Airborne Division in Iraq, had volunteered a second time for a mission to clear a route. It was her second deployment to the area. She primarily accompanied fight engineers on clearance missions to search for roadside bombs, however this time, their automobile was hit by three projectiles. Everybody needed to exit via a again door. Ellis did not make it.  She was 24 years previous. 

“Neither certainly one of us envisioned shedding a daughter in fight,” her father mentioned. “Life isn’t actually the identical after that.”

Rising numbers of ladies within the navy, rising fatalities

Girls make up about 16% of the nation’s navy – the biggest proportion in America’s historical past, partly fueled by the chance to serve in all positions together with fight. However because the variety of ladies serving within the navy has grown, so have fatalities. 

Because the world warfare on terror started in 2001, 179 feminine navy members have been killed in motion – surpassing different U.S. wars or engagements. Eight navy ladies had been killed in Vietnam. 

“The Division of Protection is happy with the bravery and sacrifice made by all service members who’ve given their lives in protection of our nation,” a spokesperson advised CBS Information.

Nonetheless, mentioned Marilla J. Cushman, the president’s senior adviser at Navy Girls’s Memorial, a D.C.-based group that tells the collective story of ladies’s service, ladies have made nice strides and are actually serving at each degree within the navy. 

She mentioned ladies are “driving tanks, commanding 1000’s of individuals, and flying fighter planes,” one thing that wasn’t doable when she served within the Military for 25 years. 

“I’d be proud to face beside any of those ladies,” Cushman mentioned. 

The final word sacrifice

Ellis’ dad and mom met their daughter’s colleagues at Fort Campbell in Kentucky so they might study extra about what occurred that evening. 

“She was such a cheerful youngster, she had a heat persona and he or she lifted her unit up – we acquired met by tons of of women and men there,” mentioned Steve. 

Her father mentioned they gave her the nickname “Doc Ellis.” He mentioned her buddies advised them that even after she was gone “she stored saving lives.” They defined to her dad and mom that she skilled all of them to cease bleeding they usually used her method usually after she was gone. 

Only a few weeks earlier than she was killed in motion, her father mentioned she had gone out on the same mission. Her automobile acquired hit and he or she referred to as her dad and mom to them, her father recalled.

“She mentioned her automobile burned and her assist bag burned,” Steve mentioned. “We advised her to watch out. However that was the final time we ever talked to her… about three weeks later she was killed.”

Her colleagues helped them piece collectively what occurred. Ellis borrowed an assist bag and volunteered to return out once more. Final April, certainly one of her feminine medic buddies advised her dad and mom that Ellis’ accidents from the primary blast had been worse than they knew. One among her legs acquired contaminated from the burn, he mentioned the buddy advised them. However she did not wish to let her buddies down, Ellis mentioned. 

“Speak about braveness she went again on the market, she volunteered to return to our on the mission. There have been 21 guys and her, she volunteered to exit once more with burns on her leg,” mentioned Steve.

Ellis was emblematic of a fight navy that’s sacrificing a lot to safeguard our freedoms, he mentioned. These ladies, he mentioned, had been devoted of their service, their sacrifice, and for some “the final word sacrifice for his or her nation.”