Pfc. Lori Piestewa was the daughter of a Vietnam veteran and the granddaughter of a World War I veteran. She was a source of pride for Tuba City, Ariz., a town of 8,200 people on the Navajo Reservation but close to Hopi land.

Piestewa, a single mother raising a 4-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl, enlisted in the Army two years ago and had served as a commanding officer of Junior ROTC in high school.

“She will be remembered as a daughter, as a proud mother of two, as a good friend able to comfort others in distress,” said Hopi Tribal Chairman Wayne Taylor.

— Associated Press

Army Pfc. Lori Piestewa has become the nation’s most recognizable Native American military icon since Ira Hayes helped raise the Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima.

Just ask retired Army Col. Tom Spencer of Hampstead, N.C.%2