(WDRB+WAVE/WKYT) — Bardstown native Technical Sergeant Ashley Pruitt was honored Saturday as a hometown hero with a portion of Highway 523 named in her memory.
Pruitt’s sacrificial bravery made her one of the Americans killed in the ongoing war with Iran. She was among six airmen killed when an air tanker crashed in March in Iraq during Operation Epic Fury.
“Tech Sergeant Ashley Young Pruitt was a brave American who sacrificed everything serving our country, and for that, she will always be remembered,” Gov. Andy Beshear said Saturday.
She embodied service and sacrifice in every sense of the word up until her death, as she replaced a fellow airman aboard that fated KC-135 who was about to become a dad for the very first time.
“Ashley said she was going in his place, and I don’t think he wanted that, but she outranked him,” said Pruitt’s father, Patrick Young. “She made the decision. She made up her mind. I don’t think she would still, knowing this would be the outcome, she wouldn’t do anything different.”
At 34, Pruitt was a young mom of two and married to the love of her life, Greg. Her family said she was in the happiest time of her life when she was killed in action.
“She was widely regarded as a fierce, a true force of nature, a radiant someone who could light up any room as she entered it. While Ashley deeply loved her career and her country, nothing compared to her love that she held for her family,” Beshear said. “Scripture tells us there is no greater love than this, that someone should lay down their life for their friends. My faith tells me that love is not just a feeling, but an act. It is displayed through good deeds and service to each other, by putting their needs before our own. Technical Sergeant Ashley Pruitt, your wife, your daughter, mother, sister, friend, did just that.”
Above all, Pruitt was most devoted to something greater than oneself. That is why it is not simply a coincidence that her memorial sign on Highway 523 cements her legacy in Bardstown, down the same stretch of road as New Salem Baptist Church where her parents worship every Sunday. It is a literal sign of the faith Ashley held that endures even in death.
“You see, I know my little girl’s in heaven with the Lord,” Young said. “I know my family, and I will one day be together again with the Lord, and that is the greatest gift Ashley could have left us. Not just her memory, not just her service, not just her name on a road, but the reminder that this life is not the end.”
Now a portion of Deatsville Road along Highway 523 will carry her name for generations to come in Nelson County.
“Someday, someone will drive down that road and see the sign. Technical Sergeant Ashley B. Young Pruitt Memorial Highway. They may not know who she was. They may not know what she did. They may not know how many lives she touched, but maybe they’ll ask,” Young said. “And when they do, I hope someone tells them. Tell them about the Air Force boom operator who gave everything in service to her country. Tell them about the wife who loved Greg. Tell them about the mother who adored Amelia and Ollie. Tell them about the sister who loved Blake. Tell them about the daughter who was loved beyond measure. Tell them about the friend who showed up when someone was hurting. Tell them about the woman who talked about Jesus. And tell them about Ashley.”
The hope for those who loved her most is that others will not just know her name or her heroism but the faith by which she lived her life every day up until her death. The most obvious example of that, Pruitt’s mom discovered just days before Saturday’s ceremony, when she came across an unopened text message from one of Pruitt’s former neighbors to her parents, sent just days after her death. In it, the neighbor offered her condolences and described how Pruitt saved her life, by being a true friend to her in one of the hardest seasons of her life.
Pruitt’s dad read that message aloud:
During the ceremony, Pruitt’s family was presented with a gold star in her memory, which is “a national symbol of the highest honor a family can receive” and “a public acknowledgement of a loved one’s sacrifice in service to the United States.”
Pruitt graduated from Nelson County High School, where she was an active member of JROTC. She joined the Air Force while in college at UofL. Most recently, she was stationed in Alabama.
Staff Sergeant Ben Pennington of Hardin County was also killed in Operation Epic Fury.
He and Ashley shared the same devotion to their country and faith, and Pennington’s dad, Tim, was present supporting Pruitt’s family at Saturday’s ceremony.
Pennington’s memorial sign was placed on Highway 222 in Glendale in front of his home church in July.