Lakeville airman in Afghanistan gets Thanksgiving call from Obama

Senior Airman Ashley Jackson
Senior Airman Ashley Jackson of Lakeville, Minn. received a phone call from the Commander in Chief for Thanksgiving.
Photo courtesy of USAF

A Lakeville native serving in Afghanistan was among the 10 troops President Barack Obama called last week to wish them a happy Thanksgiving and thank them for their service.

Senior Airman Ashley Jackson received the call Thursday from where she is stationed in a remote area of Afghanistan.

Jackson, a medic in the U.S. Air Force, was nominated to receive the call after an incident in September in which she was riding in a vehicle attacked by an improvised explosive device, said Capt. David Faggard, an Air Force spokesman.

Faggard said Jackson helped stabilize injured soldiers and earned a Purple Heart for her actions.

Jackson is a member of a Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan's Kapisa province.

The Air Force has posted a video of the Thanksgiving call, in which Jackson put the president on speaker phone.

The video can be found here.

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