Marine Captain Vernice Armour, 29, grew up in Tennessee. In Iraq, her mission was to seek out and destroy the enemy from the cockpit of a Cobra attack helicopter. Armour is the first black female combat pilot in DoD history.

Marine Lance Corporal Carrie Blais, 28, is a native of Connecticut. A heavy equipment mechanic for Combat Landing Battalion 2 in Al Asad, Blais’s most harrowing experiences in the war happened outside the wire, when she got in her first firefight.

“Courage Under Fire” is more than the title of a movie for Army Captain Robin Brown, whose Kiowa helicopter got shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade. The 28-year-old Brown became the first female pilot in U.S. military history to be shot down and survived. She grew up all over the country. Her father was career Army.

Marine Lance Corporal Chrissy DeCaprio, 21, hails from Brooklyn and Long Island, New York. She was an MP/turret gunner who fought for the position of the .50-cal gunner and proved that she was one of the best there is, male or female.

Army Sergeant Angela Jarboe, a long-haul truck driver for 3rd Platoon of the 594th Transportation Company out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, was riding shot gun when a van loaded with bombs detonated on the side of the road. Jarboe, 28, was raised in a small rural town in northeast Tennessee.

Marine Lance Corporal Priscilla Kispetik, 23, is from Houston, Texas. She was working in heavy equipment maintenance for Combat Landing Battalion 2 in Al Asad when she and Blais volunteered to accompany the grunts into cities and towns and search women and children.

Marine Gunnery Sergeant Yolanda Mayo was part of one of the first female public affairs teams to travel into combat. The 35-year-old Michigan native traveled into Iraq with Recon and the 2d Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB), which later became Task Force Tarawa. On her second deployment, Mayo reported from the Green Zone in Baghdad.

Navy Aviation Boatswain’s Mate Handler (ABMH) Marcia Lillie supported the war from one of the most dangerous work environments—the flight deck of an aircraft carrier (the USS HARRY S. TRUMAN). The 23 year old grew up in Iowa and Chicago.

Twenty-eight year old Marine Captain Amy McGrath grew up in northern Kentucky. As an F-18 backseater, she dropped 500-pound bombs on targets in Afghanistan and Iraq. In doing so, McGrath became the first female F-18 backseater in combat in Marine Corps history.

Lieutenant Colonel Polly Montgomery is the first female commander of a combat squadron in the United States Air Force. She commanded the 41st Airlift Squadron at Pope Air Force Base in Fayetteville, North Carolina. In Iraq, this 41-year-old pilot transported troops on and off the battlefield in C-130s (Herks). Montgomery grew up all over the country. Her father is a retired Air Force general.

An experienced nurse, 37-year-old Navy Lieutenant Estella Salinas was used to seeing blood. What this member of Bravo Surgical Company found most disturbing was the emotional side of war. Salinas, the daughter of migrant workers, grew up mostly in Texas and Nebraska.

Army Specialist Rachelle Spors, 23, was a medic with the 313 Medical Company, a National Guard unit from Lincoln, Nebraska. While on her way to treat wounded Marines, Spors was seriously wounded when her ambulance drove over a stack of IEDs and mines.