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Tampa Veteran Called To Speech

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By KEITH MORELLI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 29, 2008

Updated: 01/29/2008 12:12 am

TAMPA - Diane Lopes, a Tampa police officer less than three weeks before she was called up to military duty, was a guest of first lady Laura Bush at the president's State of the Union address to Congress.

Air Force Senior Airman Lopes, as she is now called, was sent to Iraq in August and within a month was injured in a mortar attack, said Air Force Capt. Cathleen Snow, with the 920th Rescue Wing at Patrick Air Force base in Cocoa Beach.

Lopes, 38, was sent home, where she recuperated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. While there she was awarded the Purple Heart.

The Pentagon chose Lopes to be a guest of the first lady.

Lopes was the fifth woman in the history of the rescue wing to be injured in combat, according to the wing's newsletter, Angel's Wings.

She was working security at the Kirkuk Air Base when a mortar hit the ground near a wall less than 30 yards from her, the article said.

Shrapnel hit her, her left leg was broken in two places and hot metal sliced through the tendons in her right wrist. The blast perforated her right eardrum and burned much of her body.

In recalling her thoughts, she told a newspaper, "I said, 'Hell no, I'm not dying here today. No way.'"

Originally from Connecticut, Lopes calls Tampa home. With a background in corrections, she was hired by Tampa police in March, police spokeswoman Andrea Davis said.

Lopes had just completed the police academy and spent less than three weeks riding with training officers when she got her call to active duty.

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

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