'Wonder Woman' Wins Silver Star

A Texas teenager has become the second woman since World War II to be awarded the Silver Star for bravery in combat. Texas medic Monica Lin Brown, 19, used her body to shield five wounded comrades from gunfire while she treated them after their convoy was caught by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, reports the Houston Chronicle.

"We stopped the convoy. I opened my door and grabbed my aid bag," Brown said. "I didn't really think about anything except for getting the guys to a safer location and getting them taken care of. I was in a kind of a robot-mode." Brown is scheduled to leave Afghanistan next month. She joined the military to get a college education, said her grandmother, who described the young medic as "a strong young woman and very caring." (More Silver Star stories.)