Category: Real Soldiers

Chief Tango sends us a link to the story of Louisiana National Guardsman Captain Andrew Gremillion who, upon hearing a loud splash, left his family and sprinted to the scene where a woman’s car fell into a nearby canal. Captain Gremillion, formerly enlisted and an Afghanistan veteran rescued the woman from her watery grave. He was characteristically humble;

“In my opinion, anybody that wears this uniform would have done the exact same thing I did, because we’re just programed that way,” Gremillion said. “I was just fortunate enough to be the one there to help out a nice lady in a time of need.”

He was awarded the Soldiers Medal for non-combat heroism for his actions in February 2014 that saved a woman’s life.

The Ann Arbor News reports that Charles Kettles is a step closer to having his Distinguished Service Cross upgraded to a Medal of Honor for his actions on May 15, 1967 when he rescued eight soldiers who had been stranded on a Landing Zone after the Major’s aircraft had cleared the “hot LZ”. You should read the story at the link above.

The article reports that Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has signed off on the paperwork for the Medal of Honor and now it goes to Congress before the President signs off on it. Here’s a link to Kettles’ citation for the DSC.

AW1Ed sends us a link from Fox News about Matias Ferreira, a Marine who lost his legs in Afghanistan in 2011. On a busy street in Queens, he heard a woman screaming after she hit a median pole. Her car was smoking and she couldn’t get out of the vehicle;

Thinking of his own 11-month-old daughter, the 26-year-old Ferreira jumped out of his pick-up truck and sprinted over – on two prosthetic legs – to the car.

“With the Marines, you are taught to be prepared and act,” Ferreira, who was leaving his wedding rehearsal at St. Mary Gate of Heaven Parish when he heard the screams, told the New York Daily News

Matias and his future father-in-law were able to free the woman and her child from the car. It’s comforting know Matias is out there watching out for the rest of us.

Someone sent us a story on Facebook about 75-year-old veteran and retired chess teacher, James Vernon who protected sixteen students from a knife-wielding 19-year-old Dustin Brown at the local public library in Morton, Illinois.

Vernon, 75, won his “90 seconds of combat” with Brown, “but I felt like I lost the war,” he chuckled. He cut two arteries and a tendon on Vernon’s left hand as Vernon blocked Brown’s knife swipe.

“I failed my mission to kill everyone,” Brown told police, according to a prosecutor’s court affidavit that accompanied formal charges Thursday that included attempted murder.

Vernon’s first mission was to get the children out of the room with Brown blocking the only entrance. He distracted Brown until all of the kids escaped, then Vernon went after the thug. You should read the whole story.

Marine_7002 sends us a link about Kenneth Altazan who was a Marine sergeant on May 9, 1969 in Quang Nam Province, Vietnam. He was a crewchief on a CH-47 helicopter and their mission that day was to evacuate wounded Marines while under fire from enemy forces.

At the second pickup, crew chief Altazan, standing on the ramp of the helicopter, saw one Marine carrying another. Both men fell, and Altazan ran to them in open fire. He picked up one Marine and began helping them. As they moved to the helicopter, the Marine he was carrying was shot, and they all collapsed, severely injuring Altazan’s knee in the process. He stood back up, however, and pushed forward.

Then, at the last landing, Altazan noticed someone waving a green T-shirt in a field of rice paddies, and he went out again, despite the excruciating pain in his knee.

He jumped from the helicopter, running to the Marine and toward the enemy line firing at him, with no regard for his own safety, and found not one person but two in need of help. One had heat stroke, and the other was unconscious. Altazan pulled the unconscious man onto his shoulder, carrying him and stumbling to safety while he assisted the other.

Sergeant Altazan was awarded a Silver Star at the time, but years later, someone uncovered a recording of the air traffic that day and his Senator, Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana thought that Altazan deserved more recognition, so he was awarded a Navy Cross for his actions more than 45 years ago at an emotional ceremony in Baton Rouge.

In August, 2012, Army Captain Florent A. Groberg, while leading a personal security detail for his commander, tackled a suicide bomber whose detonation caused a second bomber to detonate prematurely and saving most of the people he was supposed to protect. He was wounded himself and spent three years at Walter Reed recovering from that day. Late last month, he was informed by the President that he will be awarded the Medal of Honor on November 12th for his actions that day, according to the Army Times;

Groberg, who suffered severe wounds to his left leg, said his goal is to make sure others know about the four men who died that day: Command Sgt. Maj. Kevin J. Griffin, the brigade’s senior enlisted soldier; Maj. Thomas E. Kennedy, the brigade’s fire support coordinator; Air Force Maj. Walter D. Gray, of the 13th Air Support Operations Squadron; and Ragaei Abdelfattah, who was on his second voluntary tour with the U.S. Agency for International Development.

“Four heroes, true heroes in this case, individuals who gave it all,” Groberg said. “This medal belongs to them. It is my mission to tell everyone, ‘Thank you for recognizing me, but this does not belong to me. It belongs to them.’ That’s how I’m coping with it mentally. This gives me an opportunity to represent them and their families.”