Sergeant First Class Tricia L. Jameson was born November 29th, 1970.
Jameson grew up in St. Paul, Nebraska, had always held a love for animals, and wanted to pursue a career as a veterinarian.
She was known as quiet, but not someone who would shy away when something was important to her. In elementary school, she was told that she and other young girls could not play on the softball team. In response, she started a letter writing campaign to change the rules. The community soon took notice and revised the policy to include girls.
Later in her youth, when a dear friend took his own life, Tricia again turned to pen and paper and wrote a letter that was published in a local newspaper where she condemned bullying and honored the life of her friend. Quiet perhaps, but she always advocated for what was right.
Jameson attended St. Paul High School, where she played volleyball, and set several athletic records. Her family moved to Omaha her senior year and she graduated from Millard South High School in 1989. Several years later in 1994, she felt called to serve her country and joined the National Guard as an opportunity to also elevate her own financial stability.
She served as a full-time training instructor at Camp Ashland for a time. As combat intensified in the Middle East, so too did the need to improve battlefield medical knowledge and Jameson was tasked to improve the Combat Life Saver course. With the same quiet determination she approached every angle of life, Sergeant Jameson raised the program into a world class operation, and hundreds of soldiers who went through the program would go on to save lives on battlefields across the world.
In early 2005, Jameson volunteered to fill a position with Nebraska’s 313th Medical Company. By June, she was in Iraq.
On July 14th, Jameson and her team received an urgent call from a Marine convoy injured just a few miles away. Immediately, she acted. On the way to the battlefield to attend to the injured, however, her field ambulance was struck by an IED. Sergeant First Class Jameson was 34 at the time of her death.
Remembering Jameson, friends recalled how she always kept a medical kit in her car in case of emergencies. Her friend Holly Freeman reflected, “She would call me and say, ‘I almost got to help someone, but someone beat me there.’” Today however, her legacy lives on as soldiers continue to save lives on the battlefield, just as she did.
Sergeant First Class Tricia L. Jameson is buried at Westlawn-Hillcrest Memorial Park, Omaha, Nebraska.
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