Lieutenant Colonel Jaimie Leonard, U.S. Army, graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1997, achieving a dream she had held since attending basketball camp there in middle school. Leonard was commissioned as an officer with the 10th Mountain Division of the U.S. Army. Throughout her service, she was stationed in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Fort Drum, New York, the Pentagon, South Korea, and Germany. She deployed to Bosnia in 1999, to Iraq in 2005, and Afghanistan in 2011, returning there in 2013.
On June 8, 2013, while serving in Paktika Province, Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, she and two other Americans were killed by insurgents dressed in Afghan National Army uniforms.
Through her 16 years in the Army, Leonard earned three Bronze Stars, two Meritorious Service Medals, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, three Army Commendation Medals, the Valorous Unit Award, the Meritorious Unit Commendation, the National Defense Service Medal, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, three Afghanistan Campaign Medals, two Iraq Campaign Medals, the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and the Korean Defense Service Medal.
With the rank of major, Leonard was the highest-ranking woman service member to be killed during the Global War on Terrorism, at the time of her death. She was posthumously awarded the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Leonard was laid to rest with full military honors at the West Point Post Cemetery.
A few years prior to her death, Lieutenant Colonel Jaimie Leonard penned a powerful Memorial Day piece for her hometown newspaper, the Warwick Advertiser. In it, she wrote, “Please honor them in deed and not just giving thanks, parades, or planting flowers or flags on graves. Take measure of what you have done for your country and ask yourself if you could have done more.”
Sources:
Army Lt. Col. Jaimie E. Leonard| Military Times
#VeteranOfTheDay Army Veteran Jaimie Leonard – VA News
https://www.herocards.us/hero185
https://www.west-point.org/users/usma1997/54315/
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