3rd SFG(A) honors 19 Soldiers with Silver Stars
Dai Uy
“As we have listened to these incredible tales, I am truly at a
loss for words to do justice to what we have heard here,” said Lt.
Gen. John F. Mulholland, commander of the U.S. Army Special
Operations Command, who presented the awards to the Soldiers. “Where
do we get such men? There is no finer fighting man on the face of the
earth than the American Soldier. And there is no finer American
Soldier than our Green Berets.”
Mulholland said that many people wouldn’t believe the courage
displayed by these men. “If you saw what you heard today in a movie,
you would shake your head and say, ‘that didn’t happen,’” Mulholland
said. “But it does, every day.”
He explained that the majority of the firefights highlighted in
the vignettes took place within ranges that would fit inside the
auditorium.
“You can’t imagine the intensity and the stress these men endured
for hours and days on end,” he said.
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X-URL: http://news.soc.mil/releases/News%20Archive/2008/December/081212-02.html
or http://tinyurl.com/59qp4a
RELEASE NUMBER: 081212-02
DATE POSTED: DECEMBER 12, 2008
3rd SFG(A) honors 19 Soldiers with Silver Stars
By Janice Burton
USAJFKSWCS Public Affairs
FORT BRAGG, N.C. (USASOC News Service, Dec. 12, 2008) – In one of the
largest awards ceremonies since the Vietnam-era, the 3rd Special
Forces Group (Airborne) awarded 19 Silver Star Medals, two Bronze Star
Medals for Valor, two Army Commendation Medals for Valor and four
Purple Hearts here at the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare
Center and School, Dec. 12.
Col. Gus Benton II, the commander of the
3rd SFG(A), said the men of the 3rd SFG(A) have distinguished
themselves by taking the fight to the enemy and simply “doing what had
to be done.”
“It is my distinct honor and privilege to celebrate the
awarding of these medals to our intrepid warriors,” Benton said.
“History will record and we will long remember their sacrifices.”
Addressing the standing-room-only crowd, Benton said that earlier this
week the group had the honor of awarding 43 Bronze Stars for Valor and
39 Army Commendation Medals for Valor.
Prior to the awarding of the
medals, vignettes narrated by members of the group explained the
daring feats of the SF Soldiers. Each vignette told the story of the
battles that occurred and the actions performed by each man receiving
a medal. As each group of Soldiers received their medals, they were
treated to a thunderous and ongoing standing ovation from the
audience.
“As we have listened to these incredible tales, I am truly
at a loss for words to do justice to what we have heard here,” said
Lt. Gen. John F. Mulholland, commander of the U.S. Army Special
Operations Command, who presented the awards to the Soldiers. “Where
do we get such men? There is no finer fighting man on the face of the
earth than the American Soldier. And there is no finer American
Soldier than our Green Berets.”
Mulholland said that many people
wouldn’t believe the courage displayed by these men.
“If you saw what
you heard today in a movie, you would shake your head and say, ‘that
didn’t happen,’” Mulholland said. “But it does, every day.”
He
explained that the majority of the firefights highlighted in the
vignettes took place within ranges that would fit inside the
auditorium.
“You can’t imagine the intensity and the stress these
men endured for hours and days on end,” he said.
Prior to taking
command of USASOC, Mulholland was the commander of Special Operations
Command Central, the command which has control over the forces in
Afghanistan and Iraq.
“As the commander responsible for the area, as
the reports rolled in, I would shake my head in disbelief,” he said,
speaking of the courage and persistence of the SF Soldiers.
“Alone and unafraid, working with their counterparts, they took on a
tenacious and dedicated enemy in his homeland, in his own backyard.
Imagine the Taliban commander thinking, ‘What the hell do I have to do
to defeat these guys?’”
Mulholland said that he was “incredibly
humbled” to stand and address the actions of his men, because their
actions “speak volumes beyond what I can say.”
“Day-in and day-out,
they are the unsung heroes, seeking no recognition,” he continued. “If
you asked them, I’m sure they would say the other guy did it.”
Honored during the ceremony with Silver Star Medals were:
The
members assigned to ODA 3336 for valorous actions undertaken in
Afghanistan onApril 6, 2008:
Capt. Kyle Walton (Carmel, Ind.)
Master
Sgt. Scott Ford (Athens, Ohio)
Staff Sgt. Dillon Behr (Rock Island,
Ill.)
Staff Sgt. Seth Howard (Kenne, N.H.)
Staff Sgt. Luis Morales
(Fredricksburg, Va.)
Staff Sgt. Ronald Shurer (Pullman, Wash.)
Staff
Sgt. John Walding (Groesbeck, Texas)
Sgt. David Sanders (Huntsville,
Ala.)
Sgt. Matthew Williams (Casper, Wyo.)
Spc. Michael Carter
(Smithville, Texas)
The members assigned to ODA 3312 and 3214 for
valorous actions undertaken in Afghanistan on Nov. 2, 2007:
Master
Sgt. Frederick Davenport (San Diego, Calif.)
Staff Sgt. Robert Hammons
(Hunstville, Ala.)
Sgt. 1st Class Jacob Allison (Livonia, N.Y.)
Sgt.
1st Class Paul Fiesel (La Porte, Texas)
For actions undertaken in
Afghanistan on Nov. 10, 2007:
Sgt. Gabriel Reynolds (Oswego, Ore.)
For actions undertaken in Iraq on July 27, 2007:
Capt. Kent Solheim
(Oregon City, Ore.)
For actions undertaken in Afghanistan on Aug. 26-
Sept. 13, 2006:
Sgt. 1st Class Benjamin Konrad (Winchester, Tenn.)
For actions undertaken in Afghanistan Aug. 7-9, 2005:
Capt. Brandon
Griffin (Athens, Ga.)
For actions undertaken in Afghanistan July 25,
2005:
Sgt. 1st Class Larry Hawks (Bowling Green, Ky.)
Schurer,
Fiesel, Allison and Reynolds each received additional awards during
the ceremony.
The Silver Star Medal is awarded in recognition of a
valorous act performed during combat operations while under direct
fire from enemy forces. It may also denote an accomplishment of a
heroic nature in direct support of operations against an enemy force.
--usasoc--
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X-URL: http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=313046 or
http://tinyurl.com/6drr24Published on Saturday, December 13, 2008
Soldiers' valor under fire better than a movie
By Henry Cuningham
Military editor
About 100 Special Forces and Afghan soldiers each were carrying more
than 60 pounds of equipment when they jumped from helicopters onto
icy, jagged rocks and waist-deep running water in 30-degree
temperatures on April 6 to assault a terrorist stronghold in
Afghanistan.
Seven hours later, the members of Special Forces A-Team 3336 would
have encountered a tenacious enemy in the Shok Valley and earned 10
Silver Stars, the Army’s third highest award for combat valor. The
award of a single Silver Star is considered a significant combat
decoration. The 12-man A-team is the basic fighting unit of Special
Forces.
The 10 team members were among 19 soldiers from Fort Bragg’s 3rd
Special Forces Group who received Silver Stars on Friday for actions
in seven separate engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan. The recipients
range in rank from captain to specialist, from 20-year-olds to 40-year-
olds. The soldiers also received other valor awards and Purple Hearts
for combat wounds.
During the ceremony, narrators, including some who were commanders on
the scene, described the events.
Not even all the recipients were Green Berets. Some were support
troops who fought alongside the Special Forces soldiers. They fought
in battles up to 56 hours long in conditions ranging from frigid cold
to burning hot.
The ceremony was in a full auditorium of the John F. Kennedy Special
Warfare Center and School.
“If you saw it in a movie, you’d shake your head and say it couldn’t
happen,” Lt. Gen. John F. Mulholland Jr., the commander of U.S. Army
Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, said in his remarks at the
ceremony.
At least one of the soldiers walked with a cane. Another limped. One
had a deep scar running across his jaw.
“It was a very tough situation that we got put in,” Staff Sgt. David
J. Sanders of Huntsville, Ala., said after the ceremony. He was among
the 10 soldiers of A-Team 3336.
“When we started taking casualties, I think the teamwork is what
became very apparent,” Sanders said. “It wasn’t one guy’s actions that
saved the team. It’s multiple individuals on the team who did so many
heroic things that brought back all our U.S. guys alive.”
The soldiers of A-Team 3336 were ambushed by about 200 insurgents
firing AK-47 assault rifles, machine guns and rocket-propelled
grenades.
Sgt. 1st Class Luis Morales and Staff Sgts. John W. Walding and
Matthew O. Williams organized a counterassault to scale a mountain and
reinforce their trapped comrades. Despite life-threatening wounds,
Staff Sgt. Dillon Behr provided cover fire to allow U.S. and Afghan
wounded to be moved. Behr kept fighting until he was unable to hold
his weapon. Morales ran into the line of fire to shield Behr until he
himself was wounded.
Capt. Kyle M. Walton exposed himself to enemy fire to pull wounded
Americans and Afghans to safety. Spc. Michael D. Carter left his
covered position and charged 15 feet into insurgent fire to recover
Behr. Staff Sgt. Ronald J. Shurer “took off through the hail of
bullets and began scaling the rock face to get the casualties,” the
narrator said. He kept fighting despite wounds and was credited with
saving the lives of four wounded U.S. soldiers and 10 Afghans.
Walding kept firing to protect his wounded comrades until a sniper
bullet “effectively” amputated his leg below the knee.
“Despite his life-threatening wound, Sergeant Walding continued to
engage the insurgent fighting position,” the narrator said. Sanders
put a tourniquet on Walding’s leg, moved him to a partially covered
position, then fired a grenade launcher and helped coordinate air
strikes.
Williams defended wounded soldiers for several hours. He set up a
landing zone for a helicopter to come and move the wounded soldiers.
Mulholland, the three-star general, presented the awards and gave the
recipients a hug, a slap on the back and a handshake.
“It was very humbling,” Sanders said afterward. “I think about the
guys on my team that got injured.”
Mulholland asked during his remarks where such men come from as those
who performed the combat heroics.
“Part of it’s their personalities, part of it’s the training we go
through that prepares us for the worst,” Sanders said. “The training
that we go through in the (Special Forces Qualification) course to
become a Green Beret gives us a mind-set that we can handle any
situation we are faced with. We will do what we have to do to get out
of there or deal with it.”
Master Sgt. Frederick L. Davenport, Master Sgt. Paul D. Fiesel, Sgt.
1st Class Jacob E. Allison and Staff Sgt. Robert J. Hammonds of A-
Teams 3212 and 3214 received Silver Stars for their actions on Nov. 2,
2007, in southern Afghanistan. The 68 U.S. and Afghan soldiers were
trying to locate and destroy the enemy in rugged mountains of one of
the most highly contested areas of the country. Enemy forces of 300 to
400 attacked them.
Despite having the left side of his face split open by gunfire,
Hammonds continued shooting until wounded soldiers could be pulled to
cover.
Allison went under heavy enemy fire to rescue an Afghan casualty.
“There’s a lot of things going through your mind” during a fire fight,
Allison said.
“Bullets whizzing by and all that jazz,” Allison said. “You are
looking to your left and right, making sure your buddies are OK,
trying to complete the mission, trying to keep your head down when you
can at the same time.”
Fiesel said Allison saved his life twice in one day in a different
battle.
“This is the third tour I’ve been to Afghanistan with him,” Fiesel
said. “He’s done some crazy things, but he’s always pulled me out of a
tight spot.”
“You’re always up front,” Allison told Fiesel. Earlier in the week,
their team members received eight Bronze Stars for valor, nine Army
Commendation Medals for valor and two Purple Hearts.
“All these guys have done fabulous things,” Fiesel said. “They were
engaged in eight major battles against odds that were three-to-one or
more. The shortest one we had was five hours. Most of them were
daylong engagements.”
Fiesel said he gave his soldiers a choice of getting on a helicopter
and going back to the base camp.
“If we’re staying, we’re going to fight,” he said. “Every last one of
them stayed.”
Sgt. Gabriel Reynolds, a network administration specialist who
volunteered for missions, received the Silver Star for his actions on
Nov. 10, 2007. He left his machine gun to fire a 60mm mortar from a
dangerous position, saving his unit from “a well-emplaced and heavily
armed enemy positioned on the high ground.”
Capt. Kent G. Solheim, a company executive officer, received the
Silver Star for his actions in Iraq on July 27, 2007, in an operation
to capture an insurgent leader in Karbala. Despite being wounded in
both legs and his back, Solheim shot three enemy soldiers.
Sgt. 1st Class Benjamin J. Konrad received the Silver Star for his
actions on Aug. 26 and Sept. 13, 2007, to drive Taliban forces out of
a strategically important valley.
“His determination and selfless action in the face of an unbelievable
volume of fire encouraged the (Afghan National Army) and prevented the
first wave of Taliban fighters from overrunning our position,” said
Capt. Bruce Scullion, the former commander of A-Team 3136.
Capt. Brandon Griffin received the Silver Star for “numerous acts of
valor and bravery” during a 56-hour fight between Aug. 7 and 9, 2005,
in the battle of Mari Ghar, Afghanistan.
Master Sgt. Larry Hawks received the Army’s third highest valor award
for his actions during a 14-hour battle in 115-degree heat on July 25,
2005, in Afghanistan.
“As (rocket-propelled grenade) rounds exploded around his position and
facing a hail of enemy tracer fire, Sgt. Hawks again exposed himself
as he began an uphill charge against the enemy’s elevated position,”
the narrator said. Firing on the run, his bold action drove the enemy
fighters from their overlook.”
Military editor Henry Cuningham can be reached at
cunin...@fayobserver.com or 486-3585.
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