Category: Real Soldiers

Chief Tango sends us a link to the awesome story of Marine SSG Daniel W. Ridgeway, an EOD technician who was awarded a Silver Star for clearing minefields on his hands and knees to rescue a wounded Marine;

His award citation reads that he cleared a 40-meter path on his hands and knees to a fellow Marine after the team member was struck by an explosive device.

Upon reaching the victim, he treated the Marine’s wounds before turning him over to a corpsman for continued treatment.

Ridgeway then began clearing a 100-meter by 100-meter landing zone so his team member could be evacuated.

That would seem to be enough for a day’s work, but Ridgeway’s team came under fire and his job had just begun;

After the team member was evacuated, his unit came under fire and he continued to clear more paths for his team and disarmed five more improvised explosive devices.

There’s a video of SSG Ridgeway and the ceremony at this link.

We discussed Mario Wilson the other day when he confronted a gunman at Denny’s in Indiana. WBIR10 talks with Don Fitzgibbon who met Wilson when Fitzgibbon lost his own son in Afghanistan;

Casualty assistance officers typically finish their duty to families after a few months. But Mr. Wilson and Mr. Fitzgibbon kept up their connection for the last three-and-a-half years. They talked two to three times a month, shared holidays together, and spoke a few days before Mr. Wilson was killed.

“I feel like I’ve lost another child,” said Mr. Fitzgibbon.

Thanks to MCPO Ret. in TN who made me weep like a baby this morning.

MCPO Ret. in TN sends us a link to the story of SFC Greg Robinson who graduated from Air Assault School at fort Campbell, KY. I know it happens every few weeks, but SFC Robinson is an amputee;

“Right now, I am a platoon sergeant,” Robinson told reporters after graduating. “I have roughly 30 men in my platoon. As a leader, I didn’t want to tell my soldiers that they needed to go to air assault school, if I am not air assault qualified.”

On Monday, he had his followers: dozens of soldiers from his unit lined up to congratulate Robinson after he graduated. His 4-year-old daughter, Drew, and his wife, Amanda, gave him hugs and kisses.

The 34-year-old noncommissioned officer from Elizabethtown, Ill., toughed out Monday’s 12-mile road march even after he had to repair his prothesis in mid-trek.

From the Tampa Tribune;

“It’s not a disability if you don’t let it slow you down,” he said.

His instructor, Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Connolly, said there was some concern at one point whether he was going to make it through when a piston in his leg stopped working on the obstacle course.

“He got down and fixed it, reattempted the obstacle and went back on,” Connolly said.

Capt. Greg Gibson, an Army nurse with Robinson’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team, said his attitude was what pushed him to finish the course. Gibson said that in his experience treating amputees, attitude and will are critical to recovery.

Robinson’s accomplishment not only inspires his soldiers, it’s an inspiration for all of us.

royh and Athena sent us a link to the heartwarming story of a young sailor who had spent the day shopping in Dubai. When she was done, she tried to hail a cab, but when a bus pulled up she climbed aboard. Soon she became suspicious of the route the bus driver was taking his lone passenger, but he told her not to worry, he knew where he was going. Soon, he stopped the bus and tried to kiss her and she returned his gesture;

Prosecutors said that she knocked the knife from his hand, broke it in two, bit him in the hand, forced him to the ground and locked him between her thighs.

After she beat the creep into submission she went back to her base and reported the incident to her commander. Casanova was apprehended by local police;

“He was drunk at the time of arrest,” said the attending officer.

The driver, K?S, 21, from Pakistan, was charged with attempted rape, threatening to kill, assault and consuming alcohol illegally.

He confessed only to the alcohol charge and said he was too drunk on the night to remember what else happened.

The court ordered he be examined to determine his age after he failed to provide the court with a birth certificate.

So, I guess American women are a little different from what he’s accustomed to with the local ladies. But, I’ll bet he won’t try that shit again.

ROS sends us a link to the story about Army veteran, SFC Mario Wilson, who prevented Leonard Bond from re-entering a Denny’s in Indiana, when it’s believed that Wilson spotted Bond’s gun through the window of the restaurant.

“He seen the danger that was about to come in and he wouldn’t let that young man come in to hurt anyone else. He was not going to let that young man come back in there.”

[Karen Dunbar, Wilson’s fiance`] and other customers were just a few steps behind Wilson but before they stepped outside, there were three gunshots.

“By that time I hit the door and Mario was fighting the guy. He had…he’s been shot and he still had the man’s arm…the man can’t get (to his gun).

“I grabbed the man’s arms as well and in between the two, Mario had eye-to-eye…looking at this young man and keeping him from being able to pull the trigger again.”

The gun clattered off across the pavement. The customers wrestled Bond to the ground. Dunbar tried to save Wilson’s life.

Still saving the world from itself.

Chief Tango sends us a link to a Military.com story about five soldiers, SPCs Ian Carman, Anthony Willis, PFCs Philip Hawkes and Daniel Hinojoza, and SPC Daniel Garcia who all heard gun shots in Roy P. Benavidez Park last week and ran towards the sound of the gunfire without thinking about what could be waiting for them.

The scene, as they ran up on the injured men, with the worst having 18 gun shot wounds, was stunning.

“When I first got there, and he tried to utter ‘help me, help me,’ it was not a pretty sight,” said Carman. “I was like, where are all the gun shot wounds? The man was riddled, we were just trying to look at him, and see what we needed to do.

“Hopefully someone called it in, but you got to do something in the moment, or this guy’s in trouble,” said Carman.

The Soldiers quickly started removing belts, as Willis called his wife, and had her throw more belts and towels off their balcony, which overlooked the park, and used those to help care for the men that had been shot. A short while later, they were joined my another Soldier with a CLS bag and litter.

You should read the whole story.