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Navy Crosses for 2 Marines in Afghanistan actions

by Jonn Lilyea••16

Two Marines are about to be awarded Navy Crosses tomorrow for their valor in Afghanistan. One is Sgt. Clifford Wooldridge who was a vehicle commander when they were ambushed by about 15 Taliban. Sgt. Wooldridge dismounted his Marines and assaulted the ambush killing, wounding and running off all of the Taliban. DVIDS continues the story;

As his fire team was withdrawing, Wooldridge heard voices from behind an adjacent wall of a nearby compound. When he went to investigate the voices, Wooldridge found himself face to face with two Taliban fighters, whom he then killed with his weapon. Out of ammunition, Wooldridge crouched to reload his weapon when he saw the barrel of a Taliban machine gun appear from around the corner of the wall. Wooldridge grabbed the barrel and pulled the surprised fighter around the corner with it. The two began fighting hand-to-hand.

Realizing his predicament against the 220-pound former football player, the Taliban fighter attempted to pull the pin on a grenade in order to kill them both. Wooldridge used the fighter’s own machine gun to kill him with several blows to the head.

The other Marine is Sgt. Christopher Farias who had promised his Marines that he’d get them all home alive and he claims that was his motivation that led to this award according to the Houston Chronicle;

“I had to keep my promise, which was to bring my guys home,” Sgt. Farias told the news station. “I promised my best friend’s wife that I would get him home. I could hear him screaming and I knew I had to do something.”

In 2010, Farias was knocked out during an attack, and when he regained consciousness he started fighting back against the Taliban. He saved his fellow [M]arines by leading them out of danger, KTRK reported.

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16 thoughts on “Navy Crosses for 2 Marines in Afghanistan actions”

  1. Well done, Sergeants. Your valor has brought honor to your branch of service and yourselves – and earned a salute from this old soldier.

  2. “Wooldridge used the fighter’s own machine gun to kill him with several blows to the head.”

    Has there ever been crafted a more bad assed sentence than that? Screw shooting the guy with his own weapon, no, Wooldridge takes the guys weapon from him and butt strokes him to the face a few times.

    I love the Marines.

  5. Holy s**t, now THAT is one bad ass Marine. I can’t imagine the balls it takes for someone in an extreme situation like that to act so heroically.

    I would have been crumpled in a heep, soiling my pants and crying for mommy.

    I salute these bad ass heroes!

  6. NHSparky-I like Hall of Heroes, but some of their stuff is not up to date. I guess what I was looking for was something from the Navy or Marine Corps similar to what the Army does.

  9. Awesome Story! I cannot for the life of me understand why this story and those like it are NOT in the mind of our collective American body. Semper Fi Brothers.

  11. God Bless these two Marines, United States Marine Corps, and the United States of America. HooYah!

  12. HA! OUT-FREACKIN’-STANDING!

    “Realizing his predicament against the 220-pound former football player…” LOL … yeah, gettin’ beat like a red-headed step-child … hahaha, this made my day!

    Well Done young men, you’re a credit to the Corps!

  13. Well done Marines! Gives me a chill up my spine reading about their badassness.

  14. Jesus Christ that Sgt Woolridge guy sounds scary as hell. His citation would make excellent slapstick comedy if it wasn’t real. I want to know what sort of nicknames he’s acquired since then.

  16. Ann-thanks. I don’t think that link is inclusive of all GWOT valor awards, but it has some cool citations and it is interesting to read about what GIs have done.

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