Staff Sgt. receives Purple Heart, cluster

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Phillip Butterfield
  • 56th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. --  A 56th Operations Support Squadron intelligence analyst will receive a Purple Heart with an Oak Leaf cluster in a ceremony at 2:30 p.m. today at the Desert Star Club. 

Staff Sgt. Aime Hart, having never been involved in combat operations, volunteered for a short-notice eight month deployment to Iraq within six months of returning from a short tour in the Republic of Korea. 

"She chose to forgo her recuperation period in order to take this deployment," said Capt. Stephannie Seigfried, 56th OSS chief of intelligence. "She demonstrated the Air Force's core value of service before self."
 
Sergeant Hart performed as a member of Weapons Intelligence Team 11, conducting more than 50 counter-improvised explosive device missions and collected key evidence at more then 30 IED events. 

"As the junior intelligence analyst, she started a program to work with brigade intelligence and established a two-way information highway to increase the team's effectiveness,"  Captain Seigfried said. 

When two explosively formed projectiles detonated in their area, she produced a slideshow on EFPs that was distributed throughout the brigade's area of responsibility. This increased ground fighters' knowledge of the most dangerous IEDs in Iraq. Additionally, Sergeant Hart performed duties as team photographer. 

"She took the initiative to enhance photographs, which resulted in a 100-percent improvement in the quality of night scenes," Captain Seigfried said. "Her actions enabled the team to operate more effectively in both day and night operations, which improved the equality of reports." 

In October 2006, Sergeant Hart's WIT team participated in Operation Comanche III, a nine-vehicle mission to bring down an IED manufacturer and placer. At 11:10 a.m., Sergeant Hart's humvee triggered a pressure switch IED that destroyed the vehicle and injured all four passengers. Even though Sergeant Hart  sustained a concussion and was wounded in her hand by a piece of fragmentation, she immediately began processing the scene and took critical photographs that enabled combined explosive exploitation cell members to document and analyze the data to protect future convoys. 

Then, on Dec. 19, 2006, she was shot in the leg during a sniper attack near Kirkuk, Iraq, while responding to an IED report as part of a WIT team. She returned to Luke where she made a full recovery. 

"She is a true warrior whose dedication to the mission represents the best of our Air Force and our nation," said Captain Seigfried