{"id":152412,"date":"2024-01-26T13:11:17","date_gmt":"2024-01-26T18:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=152412"},"modified":"2024-01-26T13:19:04","modified_gmt":"2024-01-26T18:19:04","slug":"marine-awarded-purple-heart-finally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=152412","title":{"rendered":"Marine Awarded Purple Heart. Finally."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

A Marine finally received a Purple Heart for a 2005 ambush in Ramadi<\/strong>
\nThe award was long overdue.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

BY MATT WHITE<\/p>\n

Francisco Roman was leading a team of Marines through the chaotic roads of Ramadi, Iraq in 2005 when the streets suddenly turned quiet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were patrolling back to our base, and I noticed that the streets were empty,\u201d said Roman. \u201cA mosque started playing the call to prayer. I looked back and told my squad mate that it felt like we were in a movie and the next thing I saw was a bright orange flash.\u201d<\/p>\n

An improvised explosive device hit his team. Roman was a veteran of the first battle of Fallujah in 2004 and was now a leader of young Marines with the 1st Marine Division. They were his first thought as he regained consciousness. He stumbled to take cover, fighting through blurry vision and a \u201ctingling\u201d feeling all over his body.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found my squad and asked them who got hit and they told me that I got hit,\u201d said Roman. \u201cI didn\u2019t know I got hit.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, according to a Marine Corps press release, Roman was finally awarded a Purple Heart from the explosion, almost two decades after the ambush.<\/p>\n

Amid the violence and chaos of war in Ramadi, Roman was never put in for a Purple Heart. His company commander was killed in action, and any push to put the Marine in for a Purple Heart melted away as the violent deployment dragged on.<\/p>\n

Roman said Tuesday that he\u2019d played down his injuries and never considered himself worthy of the award.<\/p>\n

\u201cCouple of reasons why it took so long, when I got injured back in 2005, I did not want to get evacuated, I didn\u2019t want to leave my guys behind. I wanted to stay with them,\u201d he said Tuesday at an award ceremony aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California. \u201cI also felt I wasn\u2019t injured enough to leave the battlefield.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Task and Purpose<\/a><\/p>\n

Getting blown up by an IED wasn’t injured enough for him. Wear it with pride, Marine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Marine finally received a Purple Heart for a 2005 ambush in Ramadi The award was … Marine Awarded Purple Heart. Finally.<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[410,331],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-152412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bravo-zulu","category-marines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152412","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\/657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=152412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152412\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=152412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=152412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=152412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}