Bluesman

The Army occassionally will do something very right. THIS site is one of those occasions. Well done.

Look at the entire site. Link to everything. Understand it, because taking a little time is the least we can do to honor SFC Smith.

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"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it, and if one finds the prospect of a long war intolerable, it is natural to disbelieve in the possibility of victory."
- George Orwell

Julie

Now THAT's awesome.....he saved many lives by his experience and bravery.

Jeremy

Way to go Bluesman, I appreciate your effort.

Confed999

Another thread about SFC Smith http://www.militaryaffairsboard.com/...ead.php?t=4580

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No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

Julie

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Outnumbered and exposed, Army Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith stayed at his machine gun, beating back an advancing Iraqi force until a bullet took his life.

Smith is credited with protecting the lives of scores of lightly armed American soldiers who were beyond his position in the battle, on April 4, 2003, near the gates of Baghdad International Airport.

On Monday, exactly two years after Smith's death, President Bush awarded him the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest honor for valor.

"We are here to pay tribute to a soldier whose service illustrates the highest ideals of leadership and love of our country," Bush said in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House.

Bush said Smith "gave his life for these ideals in a deadly battle outside Baghdad. It is my great privilege to recognize his great sacrifice by awarding Sgt. Smith the Medal of Honor."

Smith's widow, Birgit, decided that the couple's 11-year-old son, David, would accept the medal on his father's behalf.

"It was a very easy decision for me because, after all, he's the man of the house now," she said Monday. She said she often hears from the men her husband saved, as well as their families. "They're so grateful for what Paul did that day," she said on ABC's "Good Morning America."

It is only the third Medal of Honor given for actions since the Vietnam War, and the first from the Iraq war.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/04/04/med....ap/index.html

Shek

SFC Smith's son receiving the Medal of Honor from President Bush

Attached Images

moh.jpg (11.6 KB, 58 views)

TopHatter

Hollywood types, please take note. The Medal of Honor never goes around the neck of anyone but the recipient.

SFC Smith is a real American hero. His story reminds me just a little bit of Shughart and Gordon. Horatius at the bridge...

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If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
~John Quincy Adams

Anon

http://www.army.mil/MedalOfHonor/battlescape/index.html

Check this out.

Confed999

Thanks Snipe.

Avenger

Kudos to this valiant young man and the American military--breeding ground of heroes in defense of freedom.

This man has more moral fiber and raw human courage in his pinky finger than 1000 Osama the Idiots put together.

(My humble two cents'.)