THE SILVER STAR FAMILIES OF AMERICA
REMEMBERS
Remembering 1LT Ashley Henderson~
From a Soldier's blog~
There is one less great person on this earth today. It happens everyday, effects someone, somewhere, but this one affected me, my platoon, and a good leader's now saddened family. Yesterday, on 19 Sept, a suicide car bomber hit my platoon leader's truck, killing her instantly and giving flash burns to two more Soldiers, who are going to be all right, but we are forever without 1LT Ashley L. Henderson.
1LT Henderson wasn't just my platoon leader, she was my first platoon leader, a great woman, a good soldier. She loved her job, she lived for us joes. She was like a sister to me. Often times back in the rear, she would ask how my little sister was doing in college and offer her help to me when we got back with getting my college started. Like I said, she lived to work with my fellow soldiers and would try everything she could to go out to lunch with us when we were all back at Ft. Stewart.
1LT Henderson graduated from college at the University of Georgia, which she also proudly called her home. She went into the Army directly afterwards and became part of the 549th MP company. I came to the 549th in January of 2005 and have had the pleasure of knowing her since. She had a great personality, was always smiling and enjoying what she was doing as much as she could. I remember one time we were out training and my friend and I were throwing a Koosh ball back and forth. Well, as my luck is, I accidentally hit her smack dab in the forehead. Her face was priceless. She did her leadership job, and took us out back to "correct" us. But she also was having her fun with it, knowing it was just an accident. By the end, we learned, and we were all laughing and having fun with it. That's just how she was. She was the kind of person that could let the little things slide and saw the big picture of things.
1LT Henderson was married, and was planning to start her family when she got back and had her CPT, which would have been not too long after we got back. She had a loving mother and father, and a little 13 year old sister. All of them will sorely miss her as will her platoon and everyone that she touched.
She died a warrior's death out there and will never forget what she was doing to make something of this world. I'll end this blog with two things. The first is to ask whomever is reading this, to pray to whatever God it is that you are close to. Pray for her family, for her spirit, and for the rest of us here in Iraq that have to soldier on without her leadership. The second is to keep the injured Soldiers in your thoughts and prayers as they make recovery, and that 3rd platoon will get to see them waiting on us when we get back to the states.
Thank you for reading.
And I hope to never have to write anything like this again. ~
"Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for her friends."
John 15: 13
We will always love you.
1LT Ashley L. Henderson
549th MP company
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Ashley's Father remembers~
When she was looking at colleges, Ashley Henderson fell in love with Athens, and the University of Georgia quickly became her first choice for school.
“Basically, her only choice,” her father, Mark, recalled Friday.
Henderson, 23, was killed Tuesday in Iraq in a suicide attack on her convoy. A member of the 3rd Infantry Division, Ashley Henderson was to return home in about six weeks.
“She was a good leader,” Mark Henderson said of his daughter. “She enjoyed being a leader.”
Ashley Henderson grew up in Louisiana and New Jersey, but enjoyed living in the South.
“She always to come back to the South,” Mark Henderson said. “She fell in love with Athens.”
Even after she moved to Savannah, Ashley Henderson regularly returned to Athens. She rarely missed a University of Georgia football game.
“They were big ‘Dawg fans,” her father said. “She still had a lot of friends around Athens.”
She married Brian Huff about a year ago.
“She was a newlywed, so she was looking forward to coming home and buying a house,” her father said. “After the leave, that’s what she was focusing on - coming home.”
A 2004 graduate of UGA, Henderson was a member of Sigma Kappa sorority.
In Iraq, Henderson was working to create that country’s police force.
The Defense Department has not released Henderson’s identity to the public, but the Associated Press reported on Tuesday that a suicide car bombing in Iraq had killed one soldier and wounded two others.
“She was a happy person, a good leader,” Mark Henderson said. “She was very caring about her soldiers - well respected by them and by her commanding officers. She had a promising career in the Army and whatever else she chose to do later.”
~Please sign Ashley's Memorial Book~
