{"id":81256,"date":"2018-08-21T10:17:24","date_gmt":"2018-08-21T14:17:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=81256"},"modified":"2018-08-21T10:23:35","modified_gmt":"2018-08-21T14:23:35","slug":"civilian-contractor-awarded-medal-of-valor-after-he-and-another-fought-off-taliban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=81256","title":{"rendered":"Civilian Contractor Awarded Medal of Valor After He and Another Fought Off Taliban"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"seabolt\"
\nBreitbart News Link<\/a>
\nBrandon Ray Seabolt was awarded the Medal of Valor, the highest award the Pentagon can bestow on a civilian, for his actions in Afghanistan on 17 December 2015. Seabolt is a former Green Beret with 22 years of service. Currently he is a contractor with the Pentagon\u2019s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), where he is a counter-improvised-explosive device (IED) expert. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re out with the Special Forces guys every night, and when they go out, we go out with them. Our main job is to advise on counter-IED to try to keep them out of trouble, so we\u2019re out with them all the time,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The night of the firefight, the team was out on a raid looking for the shadow governor of Helmand Province. They didn\u2019t find him. <\/p>\n

HALL OF HEROES, Pentagon \u2014 Brandon Ray Seabolt, 53, said as soon as the team of U.S. and Afghan commandos stepped into the courtyard of a compound that December 17, 2015 night in Helmand, Afghanistan, he knew something was wrong. <\/p>\n

There was an open door in front of them. \u201cThere\u2019s never an open door\u201d in Afghanistan, he said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He grabbed the Army Green Beret in front of him, Mike, and pulled him to the side. At that instant, automatic machine gun fire opened up, hitting the line of Afghan and U.S. commandos who had entered the compound behind them.<\/p>\n

Seabolt began firing his weapon at the open door, laying down suppressive fire, as Mike began dragging those wounded out of the compound. There were nine hit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just knew we needed to get the wounded guys out so I just told Mike, \u2018Hey keep working on those, I\u2019ll keep them pinned down and focused on me.’\u201d<\/p>\n

That went on for a long time, Seabolt said. But it wasn\u2019t until the last guy was dragged out and he was alone that he got a little nervous.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey picked up their fire a good bit and I thought, \u2018Well, this could get ugly here.\u2019 But then Mike came back literally a couple minutes later and I heard him engaging again, and so I knew that we would be alright at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it was not over yet. The two devised a plan of attack. Seabolt stepped out from cover and sacrificed his own safety to to distract the enemy, as Mike snuck up close enough to the open door to throw a grenade inside.
\nHe and Mike then killed the five enemy fighters who ran out.<\/p>\n

That night, two Afghan commandos were killed, and two U.S. Special Forces soldiers, four Afghan commandos, and one Afghan interpreter wounded. Those wounded would survive.<\/p>\n

Mike would be awarded the Silver Star for his actions, but until now, little was known about Seabolt\u2019s role.<\/p>\n

Last week at a ceremony in the Pentagon, Seabolt was awarded the Medal of Valor \u2014 the highest award the Pentagon can give a civilian for bravery.<\/p>\n

Only 17 have been awarded the medal, which was created after Sept. 11, 2001, to recognize private citizens who have sacrificed their safety for others.<\/p>\n

\u201cRay, after receiving accurate and sustained and enemy direct fire at close range, engaged, suppressed and eliminated multiple insurgents who were barricaded in a fortified fighting position in order to ensure his own safety and the safety of those on his team,\u201d said Army Lt. Gen. Darsie Rogers, deputy director of DTRA and former commander of Special Operations Command.<\/p>\n

\u201cRay exposed himself from his position of cover to provide effective fire on the insurgent position, as a soldier assaulted the position and hurled two fragmentary grenades. <\/p>\n

The insurgents continued to fight, but as they exited the building they were met with \u2026 well-aimed effective fire by Ray, which resulted in neutralization of five enemy insurgents,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a short period of time, Ray was the sole remaining member of that fighting position, and single-handedly fended off an insurgent onslaught until his fellow soldier returned. <\/p>\n

Ray\u2019s quick thinking, his determination, and great nerves are why we are so proud of him today.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a civilian, Seabolt has built a reputation among the tight-knit Special Forces community.<\/p>\n

\u201cRay is famous for going out on almost every operation he can in the south. Everybody knows Ray,\u201d said Michael \u201cTony\u201d Dunne, 45, a fellow former Army Green Beret who was also recently recognized for his courage under fire in a separate incident in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

Seabolt is going back to Afghanistan soon, where he continues to go on missions to save more lives. He knows there is always the chance of another firefight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always the possibility. When you\u2019re around a bunch of SF guys, you\u2019re bound to get into trouble, so \u2014 ,\u201d he said wryly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Breitbart News Link Brandon Ray Seabolt was awarded the Medal of Valor, the highest award the … Civilian Contractor Awarded Medal of Valor After He and Another Fought Off Taliban<\/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":[301],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-afghanistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81256","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=81256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81256\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}