{"id":113450,"date":"2021-05-13T07:00:31","date_gmt":"2021-05-13T11:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=113450"},"modified":"2021-05-12T20:19:58","modified_gmt":"2021-05-13T00:19:58","slug":"fort-benning-officer-receives-soldiers-medal-for-tackling-knife-wielding-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=113450","title":{"rendered":"Fort Benning officer receives Soldier’s Medal for tackling knife wielding man"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Jeff LPH 3 sends in this Army Times piece<\/a>;<\/p>\n

\n

An officer at\u00a0Fort Benning, Georgia, received the\u00a0Soldier\u2019s Medal\u00a0this week, more than two years after he tried to save a soldier from an ambush stabbing attack that interrupted a post-deployment celebration.<\/p>\n

Capt. Christopher Long may have received the Army\u2019s highest award for non-combat valor, but\u00a0he told<\/a>\u00a0other soldiers that he regrets not acting faster to save\u00a0Sgt. Amy Colbert<\/a>, a mother of two who was marking her return from her second deployment.<\/p>\n

Fort Benning commander Maj. Gen. Patrick Donahoe presented the award to Long in a small outdoor ceremony Monday.<\/p>\n

The attack occurred on the night of April 6, 2019. Colbert had returned home to Fort Bliss, Texas, from Kuwait only a week before. Her unit was excited to be home, and they were gathering to celebrate.<\/p>\n

But Colbert\u2019s husband, Lance, was disguised and waiting with a 13-inch hunting knife for his wife to arrive, according to Long. Lance was also an Army noncommissioned officer.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe pulled out a big 13-inch hunting blade hidden in his pants,\u201d Long recalled in an Army\u00a0news release<\/a>. \u201cHe went for his wife.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former infantryman-turned personnel staff officer jumped into action as Lance ambushed his spouse with the knife.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got there as fast as I could, ripped him off her and took him to the ground,\u201d Long said. \u201cI just held him\u2026until the MPs got there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long unfortunately was unable to save Colbert, who died from her wounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t [initially] know he had a knife. Had I known he had it, she would be alive,\u201d said Long. \u201cIt\u2019s tough because I wish I would have been fast enough\u2026but I wasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long later testified against Lance at his court-martial.<\/p>\n

After Long\u2019s testimony, the assailant was convicted of murdering his wife, and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole as part of a plea agreement.<\/p>\n

For Long, though, no award can account for the loss he bore witness to that day.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow her kids are without a parent. I deal with that all the time. I wish I had been a little bit faster,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jeff LPH 3 sends in this Army Times piece; An officer at\u00a0Fort Benning, Georgia, received the\u00a0Soldier\u2019s … Fort Benning officer receives Soldier’s Medal for tackling knife wielding man<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[359,406,389],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-army","category-guest-link","category-valor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=113450"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113453,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113450\/revisions\/113453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=113450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=113450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=113450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}