# Heroine teenage soldier to be decorated for bravery



## MikeL (9 Aug 2006)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=399779&in_page_id=1770&ct=5

Heroine teenage soldier to be decorated for bravery

14:30pm 9th August 2006


A heroic teenager who dodged sniper fire to save her commander's life will be the first female soldier decorated for bravery in the conflict. 
Pte Michelle Norris, 19, braved a fierce gun battle to rescue the sergeant who had been shot in the mouth. 

Bullets rained down around her as she leapt out of the Warrior patrol vehicle in the darkness, and climbed up the side of it to reach the injured soldier in the turret of the vehicle. 

One bullet from an AK47 blasted through the medic's rucksack as she clamboured across the vehicle. 

Pte Norris then helped drag the injured solider back inside the vehicle - which was still under heavy fire. The rescue took three minutes. 
The vehicle was trapped in a ditch and under ambush by five insurgent teams. Pte Norris had previously only dealt with casualties in training. 
Commanding officer Lt Col David Labouchere MBE is recommending the medic from Stourbridge, West Mids, for a medal for her bravery. 

He said: "Pte Norris acted completely selflessly and, in the face of great danger, concentrated on her job and saved someone's life." 

The teenager is nicknamed 'Chuck' by comrades in the First Battalion, Princess of Wales' Royal Regiment, after the Hollywood kung fu star. 
She is in the same regiment as Pte Johnson Beharry, 26, who last year was the first living soldier since 1965 to be awarded the Victoria Cross after saving comrades in ambushes twice. 

In a statement, Pte Norris said: "It (the incident) brought it home to me and I realised why I was here. It was my first casualty since training, which was pretty scary. 

"On arrival at the scene, we stopped and when I heard 'dings' off the Warrior, I thought it was stones. 

"All of a sudden, the driver shouted down to me that my commander had been hit. 

"I didn't know where he'd been shot and how bad it was at this stage. So I jumped out the back of the Warrior, climbed up on top of the turret, looked down, and saw the extent of his injuries. 

"I then heard the crack and a thump of a round going past my head. I was under fire from a sniper, which luckily just missed me. 

"We managed to cross the turret and get my commander into the back, where one of the lads put a sweat rag over him. I got through and administered first aid, put a dressing on and checked his vital signs." 
The convoy was ambused when looking for insurgents in June. The vehicle was trying to escape near the market square of Al Amarah when the sergent was shot. 

A six-hour battle followed, with two Challenger tanks and 150 troops coming to the rescue. 
The injured sargent was taken to a military hospital and is now being treated in Birmingham.


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## paracowboy (9 Aug 2006)

Well done that man...er... soldier!


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## wildman0101 (9 Aug 2006)

outstanding  
                                     scoty


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## Jake (9 Aug 2006)

Nice work, hope the soldier recovers quickly and fully.


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## IN HOC SIGNO (9 Aug 2006)

Rescued a fellow soldier under heavy fire with total disregard for her own safety.....sounds like a lot of the VC citations I've read in history books....or will it be a military cross?
Outstanding job... 
 (where are the recommendations for our gals and guys under fire??....I hope we're not doing the old Canadian "they were just doing their job" routine. We have to be the worst when it comes to honours and awards....Fiascos in recent memories: the two Queens jubilee medals, the Canada 125 medal...and on and on  :-[)


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## Mike Baker (9 Aug 2006)

That's a great story of courage. Well done to her.


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## big bad john (9 Aug 2006)

The PAFFO's version of events.

http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/MilitaryOperations/BraveMichelleSavesLifeOfAColleagueInIraq.htm

Brave Michelle saves life of a colleague in Iraq
9 Aug 06 
A 19-year old female Army medic serving in Iraq braved sniper fire to save the life of a critically injured colleague.


Pte Michelle Norris (Chuck), 19, from the Royal Army Medical Corps attached to C Company 1st Battalion The Princess Of Wales Royal Regiment. 
[Picture: Cpl Anthony Boocock RLC]
Private Michelle Norris, 19, from Stourbridge, West Midlands, climbed on top of a Warrior armoured vehicle to reach her vehicle commander who had been injured during a fire fight in Maysaan Province in June.

Private Michelle Norris, known as ‘Chuck’, was part of a Warrior patrol in support of the Iraqi Security Forces in Al Amarah, Maysaan Province, which came under attack while it was trying to recover another Warrior that had become stuck in a ditch. 

Private Norris described her reaction to the incident: 

"It brought it home to me and I realised why I was here. It was my first casualty since training, which was pretty scary. On arrival at the scene, we stopped and when I heard ‘dings’ off the Warrior, I thought it was stones. 

"Then I heard the turret get hit, so I got onto the intercom and asked ‘is anyone hit then?’ but there was no answer. All of a sudden, the driver [Private Nani Ratawake] shouted down to me that my commander had been hit. 

"I didn’t know where he’d been shot and how bad it was at this stage. So I jumped out the back of the Warrior, climbed up on top of the turret, looked down, and saw the extent of his injuries.

"Private Norris acted completely selflessly and, in the face of great danger, concentrated on her job and saved someone else’s life."

Lieutenant Colonel David Labouchere MBE
Under fire 

"I then heard the crack and a thump of a round going past my head. I was under fire from a sniper, which luckily just missed me. 

"Ratawake pulled me down head first into the turret. A round went over and hit a battery which was at my knee height, so if he hadn’t pulled me down at that point, my knee or my leg would have been shot. 

"We managed to cross the turret and get my commander into the back, where one of the lads put a sweat rag over him. I got through and administered first aid, put a dressing on and checked his vital signs." 

The Warrior driver, Private Nani Ratawake, known as ‘Destroyer’, then drove to the helicopter landing point to take the casualty to a military field hospital. 

Commenting on the actions of Pte Norris, her Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel David Labouchere MBE, said: 

"Private Norris acted completely selflessly and, in the face of great danger, concentrated on her job and saved someone else’s life. She is part of a larger team, all of whom are acquitting themselves admirably when faced with danger." 

As the only female in C Company, she gets on with the lads.

"It’s good," she concluded. "I’ve always been one of the lads anyway. Most of my friends in ‘Civvy Street’ have always been lads, and I always used to play football at school, so it’s alright, I get on with them."

Private Norris, from the Royal Army Medical Corps, only recently qualified as a medic and is currently serving on her first tour of Iraq. She is attached to C Company 1st Battalion The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment (PWRR), normally based in Paderborn, Germany. 1 PWRR are currently half way through a six-and-a-half month tour of Iraq as part of 20th Armoured Brigade, and are due to return home to Paderborn in November.


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## 2 Cdo (9 Aug 2006)

Can't think of anything else to add but "Well done!"


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## gaspasser (9 Aug 2006)

Excellent!  Good to see the tradition of never leaving a man/woman (Troop) behind is going strong in our young soldiers.  From what I've heard, most Medics are very dedicated!
I'd like to see some decorations from our side of the pond too.
_Curee Paratum_


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## George Wallace (9 Aug 2006)

In one of the statements, she'd be missing a knee, had someone not pulled her into the turret.  

Still a very good show and thankfully she saved the day of the CC.


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## Rice0031 (10 Aug 2006)

That's pretty inspiring and pretty admirable too.
I hope if I ever get deployed over-seas that the same type of people are watching my back.


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