WINTERS-JEANNETTE

KILLED  IN  ACTION

 

Marine SGT Jeannette Lee Winters was assigned to Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 352 (VMGR-352), the "Raiders," based at Marine Corps Air Station, Miramar, California.  Winters was killed in the crash of a KC-130 refueling plane which struck a mountainside in Pakistan on January 9, 2002, killing all onboard.  The plane was later found to be flying too low at night without night vision equipment.  She became the first female member of the U.S. military to be killed in combat since the 1991 Gulf War.

 

Jeannette attended Calumet High School in Gary, Indiana, where she starred on the track team and earned a scholarship to attend Indiana University.  Jeannette joined the Marines in June 1997 because she wanted to do something different.  She had always considered joining the military and felt she was disciplined enough to push more than the 100% required in the service.  If she was at 100%, she always thought she could push to be better and could be 200%.  In the Marine Corps she became a radio operator (satellite communication technician) and she loved it; she was so proud to be a Marine.  Knowing she would not be going home for Christmas 2001 because she had received orders to go to Afghanistan, she assembled a package of Christmas gifts for her family.  Jeannette got a coat, gloves and a hat for a 2-year-old niece she had never met, and a guitar for her father, once a professional musician.  He will never play duets with his daughter but he finds comfort in the knowledge that she loved what she was doing.  She served her country.

Jeannette is buried at Calumet Park Cemetery, in Merrillville, Indiana.  There is also a monument at Arlington National Cemetery which lists her name and the other six crewmembers who were killed with her.

 

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)