Category: Real Soldiers

The Houston Chronicle tells the tale of Sgt. M. Joshua Ryan Laughery who is about to be awarded the Silver Star for his actions in Afghanistan which resulted in his entire platoon surviving the withering fire of an ambush which left him in charge when his squad leaders and platoon leader were wounded;

Realizing that his squad and platoon leaders had been incapacitated by injuries, Laughery had another soldier take his place as gunner, started medical evacuation procedures, and reorganized his squad, according to a statement from Fort Polk.

Laughery engaged the insurgents and held them at bay until relief arrived, the statement said. His actions resulted in the survival and rescue of every soldier on his patrol, including five who had been wounded.

The pitched battle lasted about 25 minutes, Laughery said. Twice, he and another soldier, Spc. John Penilton, ran into a pitch-black cellar to root out insurgents hiding there.

“We went down in the hole and engaged these dudes almost at point-blank range,” Laughery said. One of the insurgents charged the Americans with an AK-47. “I could see the whites of his eyes,” Laughery said. Everyone opened fire, lighting up the dark with muzzle flashes.

Laughery still doesn’t know how he and Penilton survived. “It’s magic,” he said.

Laughery is humble about the award;

“It’s not an award that I earned by myself,” Laughery told the Houston Chronicle by telephone from Fort Polk. “My guys helped. It was definitely a group effort. It wasn’t just me. … If I could, I’d split it up and give it to all my guys.”

Of course, he comes from good stock;

“He didn’t do what I told him because I told him no John Wayne stuff,” said his father and Vietnam veteran Christopher Laughery.”When he explained it, I was just amazed that he didn’t get hurt and that the other guy didn’t get hurt.”

Parachute Cutie sends us a link to her post at From Cow Pastures to Kosovo entitled “Army Names Fort Bliss Soldier Family Care Center In Memory of SPC Hugo V. “Doc” Mendoza“. She went there last week to watch the Fort Bliss/Biggs Airfield, TX rename the Soldier Family Care Center to the “SPC Hugo V. Mendoza Soldier Family Care Center” which was named to memorialize young paratrooper Hugo “Doc” Mendoza who gave his life in service to his brothers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry, being a medic and a partrooper to the end.

You should go read the rest.

John J. McKenna IV, a Marine Reservist with the Fox Company, 1st Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment and New York State Trooper was was fatally wounded Aug. 16, 2006 attempting to save the life of another Marine. He awarded the Silver Star posthumously. His hometown, Clifton Park, NY near Albany, still remembers him as they named a street after the 30-year-old hero. From the Albany Times Union;

Flanked by leather-clad members of the American Legion riders of East Greenbush who held flags aloft, the Clifton Park Town Board unveiled the sign for John J. McKenna IV Way Sunday morning before a crowd of about 70 people.

“I believe John and all the other first responders, their spirits are standing by us just a breath away, trying to make the world a better place,” said McKenna’s father, John J. McKenna III, at the small ceremony off Crescent Road near Northway Exit 8.

I know that in The Big Scheme of Things, this is a small gesture, but I’m heartened because I remember the post-Vietnam days and that street would have been named after the city supervisor’s favorite girlfriend in high school before it would have been named for a fallen soldier of that war. I commend Clifton Park for recognizing the folks who have protected their city.

AverageNCO writes to tell us there’s a Air Force Cross being awarded today at the Pentagon to Air Force Capt. Barry F. Crawford Jr. for his service in Afghanistan;

Crawford exposed himself to insurgent fire in an open field to guide in a medical evacuation helicopter and twice again exposed himself to launch attacks on militant positions with his assault rifle. This was all the while controlling 33 aircraft and well over 40 strafing and bombing airstrikes during a 14-hour ambush and battle in eastern Afghanistan.

“Capt. Crawford braved effective enemy fire and consciously placed himself at grave risk on four occasions,” the citation from President Barack Obama says. “His selfless actions and expert airpower employment neutralized a numerically superior” insurgent force.

There’s more from his citation at Blackfive.

We need a break from the phonies today, and who better than SGT Pereira, a dual citizen of the US and Brazil.

According to the Army, Sgt. Felipe Pereira will be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross today for his actions in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, Nov. 1, 2010.

He was serving with Combined Task Force Strike when his unit came under heavy fire. Then a specialist, Pereira and his squad were returning from a dismounted patrol in Senjaray, Afghanistan, when a suicide motorcycle-borne explosive device detonated in the middle of his squad as they attempted to enter their combat outpost.

Two Soldiers were killed instantly, while four others were severely wounded, including his squad leader and fellow team leader. Pereira sustained shrapnel wounds to his spleen, liver, and left lung.

While Soldiers struggled to gain situational awareness, the enemy initiated a complex ambush, firing on the patrol from an estimated seven fighting positions with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades.

His lung beginning to collapse, Pereira struggled to breathe. But he refused medical treatment and instead commandeered an all-terrain vehicle and moved back into heavy enemy fire to provide an evacuation platform for his wounded comrades.

Pereira was able to move the vehicle within 20 meters of his fellow Soldiers, who were pinned down by enemy fire, but he was unable to gain effective cover. He immediately provided suppressive fires from the vehicle, allowing two of his fellow Soldiers to move two casualties to the vehicle.

As bullets ricocheted off the vehicle and nearly missed Pereira, he continued to provide fire direction for the remaining Soldiers on the ground. he then quickly pulled the vehicle back into the entrance of the outpost, where medics were standing by to receive the casualties.

Pereira helped move the casualties to care, then moved back into enemy fire a second time to continue evacuating and directing his fellow Soldiers. He is credited with saving the lives of two of his fellow Soldiers, while risking his own on multiple occasions. Only after all of the wounded Soldiers had been evacuated and were receiving medical care, did he accept treatment himself.

CNN reports that Spc. Dennis Weichel, a Rhode Island National Guardsman, lost his own life when he saved an Afghan girl from being crushed under an MRAP last week;

According to the Rhode Island National Guard and the U.S. Army, Weichel was in a convoy a week ago with his unit in Laghman Province, in northeast Afghanistan. Some children were in the road in front of the convoy, and Weichel and other troops got out to move them out of the way.

Most of the children moved, but one little girl went back to pick up some brass shell casings in the road. Afghan civilians often recycle the casings, and the girl appeared to aim to do that. But a Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicle was moving toward her, according to Lt. Col. Denis Riel of the Rhode Island National Guard.

MRAPs, as they are known, usually weigh more than 16 tons.

Weichel saw massive truck bearing down on the girl and grabbed her out of the way. But in the process, the armored truck ran him over, Riel said.

These are the kinds of things that happen every day, but you never hear about because it’s not as important as Koran burnings, urination videos and a lone nut shooting 17 people.

I seriously dislike Lincoln Chaffee, the Republican Independent governor of Rhode Island, but in this case, I have to commend him;

Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee has ordered flags in the state lowered to half-staff until Weichel, who was posthumously promoted to sergeant, is laid to rest Monday.