Category: Real Soldiers

Stars & Stripes reports that a fourth American was killed in that ambush near the Niger/Mali frontier. The Defense Department delayed reporting the fourth casualty hoping that he would be found alive.

The three initially reported killed were identified as Staff Sergeants Bryan C. Black, Jeremiah W. Johnson and Dustin M. Wright all were assigned to the 3rd Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Black, 35, was a Special Forces medic from Puyallup, Washington, according to the Army. He initially enlisted in the Army in October 2009. His awards and decorations included the Army Good Conduct Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Special Forces tab, the Ranger tab and the Marksmanship Qualification Badge for sharpshooter with rifle.

Johnson, 39, was a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear specialist from Springboro, Ohio, according to the Army. He enlisted in the service in October 2007. His awards and decorations included two Army Commendation Medals, five Army Achievement, three Army Good Conduct Medals, the National Defense Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Armed Forces Service Ribbon and the Marksmanship Qualification Badge – Expert for pistol and rifle.

Wright, 29, was a Special Forces engineer from Lyons, Georgia, according to the Army. He joined the Army in July 2012. His awards and decorations included the Joint Service Achievement Medal, the Army Good Conduct Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Army Service Ribbon and the Special Forces tab.

UPDATE: The fourth soldiers has been identified, according to Stars & Stripes;

Sgt. La David T. Johnson, 25, of Miami Gardens, Fla., died from wounds suffered in the surprise attack Wednesday in the southwestern part of the country, near the border with Mali. He was assigned to Fort Bragg, N.C.-based 3rd Special Forces Group.

Eggs sends us a link to the story of Staff Sergeant Cory Hinkle, a Guardsman from North Carolina who was driving home from work when he witnessed a head-on collision in front of him;

An Iraq combat veteran, Hinkle didn’t think twice about running toward the car that was smoking.

“My instinct and training tells me that a smoke means there’s going to be a fire, and a car has gasoline in it,” Hinkle said.

As he approached the vehicle, 28-year-old Brandy Guin was trying to get herself out, but couldn’t walk because her ankle was broken. Guin, a mother of two, is still in the hospital but told us Thursday afternoon she might not be here if it weren’t for Hinkle.

Hinkle helped her to safety on the side of the road, but the rescue wasn’t over yet.

“As the fire started to spread in my car, the shocks started to explode and hot debris was flying everywhere,” Guin said, “He shielded me with his body and said ‘It’s going to have to go through me to get to you.’”

Hinkle laid his body beside Guin to keep the debris from hitting her body.

A piece of metal hit him on his ankle, leaving it bruised and swollen.

Last year we speculated on whether Gary Michael Rose would trade in his Distinguished Service Cross that he earned in 1970 for a Medal of Honor. Stars & Stripes says that he will on October 23rd at the White House.

Soldiers who served with him, lawmakers and Pentagon officials have lobbied for several years for Rose’s award to be upgraded, which required a special waiver passed by Congress and presidential approval.

In an Army statement, Rose said the Medal of Honor belongs to the secretive unit he served with during the Vietnam War, the Army’s Military Assistance Command Studies and Observations Group.

The citation for the DSC reads thusly;

T]o Sergeant Gary M. Rose, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action in connection with military operations involving conflict with an armed hostile force in the Republic of Vietnam while serving as a medical aidman with a company-size exploitation force, Command and Control (Central), Task Force 1, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces. On 12 September 1970, his company was engaged by a well armed hostile force. Enemy B-40 rockets and mortar rounds rained while the foe sprayed the area with small arms, automatic weapons, and machine gun fire, wounding many and forcing everyone to seek cover. One ally, was unable to reach protective shelter due to his weakened condition. Sergeant Rose, braving the bullet-infested fire zone, sprinted fifty meters to his downed comrade’s side. The sergeant then used his own body to protect the casualty from further injury while treating his wounds. After stopping the blood flow from the wound, Sergeant Rose carried the man back through the bullet-ridden zone to protective cover. As the belligerents accelerated their attack, Sergeant Rose continued to disregard his own safety as he ran from casualty to casualty, administering emergency first aid. Suddenly, a B-40 rocket impacted just meters from Sergeant Rose, knocking him from his feet and inflicting wounds throughout his body. Ignoring his own pain, Sergeant Rose struggled to his feet and continued to administer medical treatment to the other injured soldiers. As night approached, the order was given to dig defensive slit trenches. Sergeant Rose, his own wounds yet untreated, worked tirelessly to excavate many trenches for the severely injured who were unable to dig their own, stopping only when all the casualties had been placed in safe positions. All through the night and into the next day, the foe pounded the allied force with a continuous barrage of B-40 rockets and mortars. Despite the deadly volleys falling around him, Sergeant Rose displayed a calm professionalism as he administered medical treatment to countless men; two were so severely wounded that they would have died without the sergeant’s vigilant care. Finally, on 14 September, the company was successfully extracted from the embattled area by helicopter support ships. Sergeant Rose, though tired and wounded, refused evacuation until all other casualties were safely out of the area.

Stars & Stripes reports that Major Andrew Downey was awarded the Soldier’s Medal for the time he rescued a family of 3 from drowning off the beaches at Kauai, Hawaii;

“There’s not much time to think,” Downey said of the seconds the catastrophe unfolded. “It’s more of a reaction to the situation. You have to make a quick assessment of what’s going on. A quick decision makes a difference when somebody’s going under.”

“Without regard to his own safety, Downey immediately jumped 20 feet into the ocean, navigated through the whitewater to the woman, hooked his arm around her, and took her safely to shore,” the award citation reads.

He returned to the father, who was holding onto the baby.

“He did a great job holding onto that child,” Downey said. “He did a phenomenal job staying afloat.” But when the father told Downey he “really couldn’t swim,” the soldier took the baby ashore himself. He then returned for the father, who was by then clinging to a jutting rock.

Chief Tango sends us a link to the story of Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jesse Rhymes who was driving on a country road when the car in front of him did a few barrel rolls and came to rest in a ditch. The engine burst into flames as the Chief was calling 9-1-1;

The front of the vehicle was fast filling with smoke, Rhymes recalled. The victim’s legs were trapped, and there was no way to extricate him from the driver’s side of the vehicle. So Rhymes crawled through the passenger side window of the upside-down car.

“When the flames started coming through the windshield, I was hoping it wasn’t going to blow,” Rhymes said.

Rhymes managed to get the victim and himself out of the car and to safety. He administered first aid until emergency responders arrived. By then, the entire car was engulfed in flames, which firefighters were able to extinguish.

The Army awarded Rhymes the Soldiers’ Medal at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington;

“I just did what any Soldier would do,” he said. “I just knew if I didn’t go in, (the victim) wasn’t going to make it out.’

When he arrived home, he was covered in his own blood, from glass he’d crawled through in the vehicle. Although his wife, Sally, said she was shocked to see her husband in that condition, she wasn’t surprised he’d perform such an heroic act.

“That’s just the kind of person he is,” she said. “I thought he was a little crazy crawling into a burning vehicle, but he’s a wonderful person, a wonderful husband and a wonderful father. I’m proud, very proud of him.”

Stars & Stripes tells the story of Staff Sergeant Nicholas “Bruce” Davis, an artilleryman with the C Battery, 1st Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, who has just returned with his unit from the mean streets of Mosul, Iraq to Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Last June, he was driving with his son to Chattanooga when he saw a man standing alongside the road near an overturned car;

“On my way up to the car, I had noticed an engine fire that started,” he said in the statement.

After checking to see that the people in the car — Rick and Sharon Steiert — were both conscious, he used a glass-breaker on his pocket knife to shatter the car window. He noticed a gas can pouring into the passenger compartment, tossed it away from the vehicle and got inside the burning wreck to help the couple exit.

“As soon as I started doing all that the whole car [was] just engulfed in flames,” he said. “I felt it wrapped around my body.”

Like the DC Comics character The Flash, he said, he quickly pushed the man out of the vehicle and pulled the woman through a tight door opening. She was on fire from her waist down and he soon noticed his leg was also burning.

He snuffed out the fire on his own leg and used his shirt to battle the flames on Sharon Steiert before someone else showed up with a fire extinguisher. After putting out the flames, which kept reigniting on the woman’s pants, they moved away from the burning vehicle to await emergency responders.

SSG Davis suffered severe burns to his own legs from his fearless rescue of the elderly couple. He’s been nominated for a Soldiers’ Medal.

“He’s just an all-around good soldier,” [1st Lt. Charles Trumpfheller, Davis’s platoon leader] said in the statement. “He’ll do anything for anybody and really I mean he’s one of those [noncommissioned officers] who you can count on to get things done.”

From the Fort Campbell Courier;

For Davis though his job is not done as he helps Rick and Sharon make it through a difficult recovery that will have an impact on them not only physically, but financially.

“I’m just trying to help them get any kind of donation that anybody can be willing to give, because … [they] might have been insured and stuff and so the other person might have had insurance that’s going to pay for a little bit, but I know how expensive medical bills can get,” he said. “I know she’s been in [the hospital] over 30 days and she’s in ICU getting wound care every day. Physical therapy and multiple surgeries are going to be a lot.”

Mick sends us a link to the Virginian-Pilot about 24-year-old Navy veteran Damion Hedington who kicked down a door to rescue 50-year-old Jason Lewin from a raging fire;

“I’ve never kicked a door down, and it didn’t come down the first time I kicked it. The second time the door flew open.”

Through thick smoke, Hedington could barely make out a man’s figure at the top of the stairs. After removing a dog gate, Hedington grabbed the man by the hips and helped him down. Hedington asked if anyone else was inside. The man, later identified by Saratoga Springs police as 50-year-old Jason Lewin, told him that his wife and eight dogs were trapped.

“When I went up there you couldn’t see anything. It was like a blanket of smoke. I’ve never seen smoke that thick.”

Hedington went back up the stairs two more times, shining his phone flashlight to try to find the woman, but couldn’t find her. Lewin returned to search for his wife, too.