A soldier who was injured during a January drone attack on a U.S. military outpost in Jordan known as Tower 22 was awarded a Purple Heart this week.
On the morning of Jan. 28, Sgt. Aneska S. Holness woke up buried under rubble at Tower 22, an outpost in Jordan, after a drone slammed into her containerized housing unit. Despite being injured, Holness climbed out of the debris and “quickly worked to help her comrades out of rubble,” according to an Army news release.
On Wednesday, Holness received the Purple Heart award at a Fort Bliss, Texas ceremony prior to her transition out of the military due to her injuries. Holness, a wheeled vehicle mechanic, was assigned to the Arizona National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 158th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Brigade.
“The number one takeaway from this experience is to appreciate the small things more; focus on the people and things that add value to your life and less on the things that don’t,” Holness told officials in an interview. “I am thankful for being alive.”
Holness was deployed to the American military outpost with over 350 service members from the Arizona National Guard’s unit, known as the “Bushmasters.” The unit had deployed to the region in September 2023 for approximately one year to support Operation Spartan Shield, a contingency operation set up to deter threats in the region. The Arizona unit was helping “provide law and order and personal security capabilities,” according to a release from Arizona state officials.
Holness was one of more than 40 others who were injured in the drone attack, with many suffering from traumatic brain injuries. She was medically evacuated to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and then on to Walter Reed Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. She was released to the Fort Bliss Soldier Recovery Unit at William Beaumont Army Medical Center to finish her treatment and rehabilitation.
She also joined three other 129th Rescue Wing airmen who received the Purple Heart in an October ceremony at Moffett Air National Guard Base in California and were also injured in the attack that killed three Army Reserve soldiers. Army Reserve soldiers Sgt. Kennedy L. Sanders, Sgt. Breonna Moffett, and Staff Sgt. William Rivers were assigned to the 718th Engineer Company, 926th Engineer Battalion, 926th Engineer Brigade, based at Fort Moore, Georgia. Sanders and Moffett were posthumously promoted.
Recently retired Col. Jim McDermott from the Army Joint Modernization Command presented Holness with the award at the ceremony.
“This unit was part of the forces based on the Jordanian border to prevent the Syrian civil war from spreading,” McDermott said. “The wound may or may not be visible, but all were earned by the soldiers and fellow service members who were performing their duty and made a sacrifice above and beyond and Sgt. Holness is one of these soldiers.”
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