A 19-year-old medic from Texas will become the first woman in Afghanistan and only the second female soldier since World War II to receive the Silver Star, the nation's third-highest medal for valor.

Army Spc. Monica Lin Brown saved the lives of fellow soldiers after a roadside bomb tore through a convoy of humvees in the eastern Paktia province in April 2007, the military said.

Rafiq Maqbool/Associated Press (ENLARGE)

Spc. Monica Lin Brown, a 19-year-old medic from Lake Jackson, Texas, will be the first female soldier to be awarded the Silver Star for her bravery in Afghanistan. She saved fellow comrades after a bomb hit their convoy in April.

RELATED: • More national and world news

After the explosion, which wounded five soldiers in her unit, Brown ran through insurgent gunfire and used her body to shield wounded comrades as mortars fell less than 100 yards away, the military said.

"I did not really think about anything except for getting the guys to a safer location and getting them taken care of and getting them out of there," Brown said Saturday at a U.S. base in the eastern province of Khost.

Brown, of Lake Jackson, Texas, is scheduled to receive the Silver Star later this month.

Pentagon policy prohibits women from serving in frontline combat roles — in the infantry, armor or artillery, for example. But the nature of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, with no real front lines, has seen women soldiers take part in close-quarters combat more than previous conflicts.

Four Army nurses in World War II were the first women to receive the Silver Star, though three nurses serving in World War I were awarded the medal posthumously last year, according to the Army's Web site.

Brown, of the 4th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, said ammunition going off inside the burning humvee was sending shrapnel in all directions. "I was in a kind of a robot-mode, did not think about much but getting the guys taken care of. ...I did not really have time to be scared," she said.

The military said Brown's "bravery, unselfish actions and medical aid rendered under fire saved the lives of her comrades and represents the finest traditions of heroism in combat."

Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester of Nashville received the Silver Star in 2005 for gallantry during an insurgent ambush on a convoy in Iraq.