The Rockdale News Rockdale News Digital Edition, December10, 2014 | Page 4

In Depth
Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014

A Purple Heart
for JUSTICE
BY PETE MECCA
August 7, 2013: Forward Operating Base
(FOB) Shank, Logar Province in Afghanistan. She remembers a ‘thump’ followed
by the sensation of a big hand picking up
her body then squeezing the breath from
her lungs. Hurled through the air, her body
smashes against a blast wall, called an Alaska Wall by the U.S. Military. A water truck
packed with 3,000 lbs. of explosives had
just detonated ‘inside the wire.’ Major Patty
“Mama Bear” Justice lies wounded and motionless, another casu