Profiles of Valor: U.S. Army Pfc. Moss

Moss with family

Pfc. Channing Moss of the United States Army was serving in Afghanistan in March 2006 when disaster struck. His convoy was attacked by Taliban fighters with small arms and rocket propelled grenades. Moss, manning an MK 19 machine gun in the turret of his Humvee, was struck by an RPG — and survived. Though Moss was impaled through the abdomen with live ordnance, his comrades didn’t leave him to die. Army regulations dictate that MEDEVAC choppers should never carry a wounded soldier with a live round in him, yet the flight crew did just that. “[A]t the time, I really didn’t think about it,” said flight medic Sgt. John Collier, then a specialist. “I knew [the RPG] was there but I thought, if we didn’t do it, if we didn’t get him out of there, he was going to die.” Protocol also dictates that soldiers in Moss’s condition be placed in a sandbagged bunker and considered “expectant” — expected to die. But Maj. John Oh, 759th Forward Surgical Team general surgeon and a naturalized Korean immigrant, performed the life-saving surgery while wearing body armor and a helmet and assisted by a member of the explosive ordnance disposal team and other brave volunteers.

The Military Times has more on this incredible story here and a moving video here (warning: graphic content).

Three months after surviving the attack, Moss witnessed the birth of his second daughter, Ariana. That would not have been possible without the heroic efforts of Maj. Oh, Sgt. Collier and the crew of the 159th Medical Company. “They saved my life,” said Moss. “I hope God watches over them if they get deployed.” Indeed.

Profiles of Valor: 10th Special Forces Group

On 10 September 2007, a team of three Army Green Berets led by Capt. Matthew A. Chaney, along with nine Iraqi police, began an assault from two helicopters near Samarra, Iraq. The team was targeting Abu Obaeideah, a leader of the Islamic State of Iraq in the area. The field designated for landing was covered with water, so the helicopters had to land closer to the insurgents’ safe house, where they came under heavy enemy fire.

Practically blinded by dust from the second helicopter, the Iraqis were all but taken out of the fight from the start, so Chaney, Sgt. 1st Class Michael D. Lindsay and Staff Sgt. Jarion Halbisengibbs led a charge against the building where the hostile fire was originating. Halbisengibbs threw in a fragmentation grenade, killing two, and the soldiers rushed in. Lindsay was hit in the throat by an AK-47 round, and Chaney took a hit to the pelvis. Then both were thrown from the doorway by a grenade blast. Lindsay, who couldn’t raise his rifle, fired at the enemy with his pistol. Chaney couldn’t feel his legs, but he kept firing, killing a jihadi. Halbisengibbs “continued to clear the structure in complete darkness as his night vision goggles and personal radio were all destroyed by enemy gunfire at point blank range,” the official narrative read. He was shot in the thumb and knocked down by a grenade blast but continued fighting, killing another terrorist. As he moved back to the courtyard to protect his wounded comrades, Halbisengibbs was shot through the abdomen but managed to kill another jihadi on his way to the ground. He then directed the Iraqi police to finish the fight. Obaeideah was killed, along with 12 other insurgents, six by Halbisengibbs.

All three Green Berets have recovered from their injuries. Chaney and Lindsay were each awarded the Silver Star; Halbisengibbs received the Distinguished Service Cross, the Army’s second highest combat medal. 

Profiles of Valor: U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Rhyner

U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Zachary Rhyner of the 21st Special Tactics Squadron was serving in Operation Enduring Freedom when his unit fell under attack on 6 April 2008. Rhyner’s mission included a team of 12 Special Forces Troops who were dropped from helicopters in Shok Valley, Afghanistan, in order to take out an insurgent group. The jihadis gained the high ground, however. During the six-hour battle that followed, Rhyner, despite being injured, fought hard and provided “suppressive fire with his M-4 rifle against enemy fire while fellow teammates were extracted from the line of fire,” according to his award citation. In addition to cover fire, Rhyner coordinated more than 50 aerial attacks on the enemy. His actions helped save the lives of many American and Afghan troops. In December, 10 soldiers received the Silver Star for their heroism in that battle — the largest such number for a single battle since the Vietnam War. Sgt. Rhyner recently received the Air Force Cross, the highest decoration awarded by the service and the first in six years.

Profiles of valor: United States Army Sgt. Hernandez

United States Army Sgt. Omar Hernandez came to America from Mexico with his family when he was six months old. He joined the Army Reserve when he was 19, deploying to Iraq in 2003. He changed to the regular Army in 2004 and returned to Iraq as an infantryman, earning his citizenship after his second tour. On 6 June 2007, during his third tour in Iraq as part of the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Hernandez, three other American soldiers and nine Iraqis left Joint Security Station “Maverick” in Ghazaliya on a census patrol.

Just outside the station, however, the team was ambushed. Two Iraqi police were immediately shot. Hernandez returned fire, but was soon shot in the thigh himself. He later said it was “like Forrest Gump — where he goes, ‘Somethin’ jumped up and bit me.’” Indeed — the bullet entered the back and exited the front, just missing his femoral artery, but taking a third of his quadriceps with it. Despite his wound, Hernandez made it to the intersection where the two Iraqi police officers were down, dragging one 15 feet to safety. He then went back for the second, picking him up and carrying him on his shoulder. Hernandez made sure first aid was administered and then resumed firing on the enemy, only later accepting treatment himself. His actions saved the lives of the two Iraqis that day. “I couldn’t let anyone die out there,” he said. For his heroism, Hernandez received the Silver Star.

Profiles of valor: U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Mark Slusher

Slusher

United States Marine Corps Maj. Mark Slusher served in Iraq as team leader for Military Transition Team 111 of 1st Battalion, 1st Brigade, 1st Iraqi Army Division from 22 August 2007 until 17 August 2008. During that time, Slusher led his 15-man team through several combat operations, clearing terrorist strongholds and securing weapons caches in violence-plagued Basra, Iraq’s second largest city. Slusher also spent much of that year advising the Iraqi military. In the earliest days of this particular campaign, Slusher and his men were continuously pounded with mortar rounds and small-arms fire, and Slusher repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire to better direct his team’s defensive actions and assist the Iraqi battalion commander. During an engagement after conducting a combat patrol on 24 April 2008, one of the team’s vehicles was hit by an explosively formed penetrator — a form of IED used to penetrate armor at a distance. The vehicle was destroyed and all five Marines inside were wounded. Maj. Slusher worked to rescue all five of the wounded from the burning vehicle while under steady enemy fire. He moved each Marine to a covered position and administered first aid. For his courage under fire, Slusher was awarded the Bronze Star with combat “V” for valor.

Profiles of valor: U.S. Army Sgt. James Brasher

United States Army Sgt. 1st Class James Brasher was serving as platoon sergeant for 2nd Platoon, Company A, 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment in December 2007. His company was part of Operation Mar Kararadad, a mission to clear the Taliban stronghold of Musa Qal’eh, Afghanistan. On the night of 7 December, the company flew by helicopter to a point just outside the city and occupied a hill overlooking it. At dawn, the company began taking enemy fire from a town at the bottom of the hill, so they moved to clear the town. At one point, Sgt. Brasher killed an attacking jihadi before he could injure or kill any U.S. soldiers, and Brasher also took out an enemy position with a fragmentation grenade.

Brasher then led his men against other enemy positions as they systematically cleared the town. Repeatedly exposing himself to enemy fire, Brasher continued to lead the Americans in pursuit of retreating insurgents, killing several more. The Taliban consolidated behind a defensible compound, but Brasher kept fighting even after he was hit in the right forearm and bicep by an enemy round. In fact, the medics had to force him to take medical care. On 9 October 2008, Brasher was presented the Silver Star for “daring acts of intrepidity and gallantry in the face of a numerically superior and determined force,” according to the citation. “SFC Brasher’s fearless actions and dedication to mission accomplishment enabled Second Platoon to destroy over 20 well trained Taliban fighters. His quick decisions and aggressive stance against the enemy saved the lives of his men.”

Hero of the Week: Col. John Ripley by Tommy Batboy

“Hold and die.” Those were the orders he was given.

“Hold.”

“Die.”

During the 1972 North Vietnamese Easter Offensive, it didn’t seem that far fetched an order for Captain John Ripley. He was in charge of a 600-man unit, composed mostly of South Vietnamese soldiers, at the bridge of Dong Ha. He was staring down 20,000 of the enemy, including some 200 tanks. To say it was a modern day Thermopylae is in no way a stretch. His commanders didn’t see another way to accomplish the mission.

Captain Ripley had another idea: run back and forth under heavy enemy fire with 500lbs of explosives so he could blow up the bridge. Not the greatest plan but, better than the alternative. Then he did something legendary, he executed the plan. As 20,000 of the enemy bore down on him, against all odds, Cpt. Ripley ran directly into withering enemy fire, calmly set up the charge, and blew up the damn bridge.

He accomplished the mission and he saved his Marines.

For his acts of bravery in the face of enemy fire he was awarded the Navy Cross.

He would retire a Colonel having graduated from the US Army’s Airborne and Ranger Schools, USMC Recon School, and the British Royal Marine’s Recon school, a testament that his actions on the bridge at Dong Ha weren’t some crazy fluke. He is the only United States Marine to be inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame at Ft. Benning, Georgia. If you are in Afghanistan reading this, and you’re on FOB Ripley, you are reading about the base’s namesake.

Sadly, he has left us to spend eternity with the Great Ranger in the Sky. He was 69 years old.

This moment almost came in the summer of 2002. Col. Ripley needed a liver transplant because of a tropical disease that he’d caught long ago in Southern Asia. He’d been read his last rites twice, his family steeled themselves for the end, but the man clung to life. A liver was found in Philadelphia. The Commandant of the Marine Corps sent an entire section of CH-46 helicopters to secure the PC, then he coordinated special clearance for the birds to land in Washington DC, where the transplant surgery was to be preformed. Military valor is one thing, service to the nation above and beyond the call of duty another still, but when the Commandant of the Marine Corps whips up a flight of birds for you and garners special security clearance over DC at our current threat levels, you have passed beyond what mortal man can accomplish – you are the stuff of legend. Col. Ripley was such a man.

11 November 2008.

Veterans Day.

This is the day that our nation pays homage and respect to men like Col, John Ripley. It is a day that all of you whom have or are currently serving should hold your heads just a little higher and walk even more proudly through your day.

Freedom isn’t free, and today our nation remembers the price that was paid. Some gave all, everyone who has served gave something, and our nation gets to pay homage to those who have shown such extraordinary courage and sacrifice that only the most callous and out of touch can’t help but be grateful for the protection and freedom our Veterans have provided them.

To our fellow Vets, thank you for all you’ve done. To those currently serving, keep your heads down. To Colonel Ripley, Godspeed, sir. Godspeed.

Profiles of valor: U.S. Army 1st Lt. Ashley Henderson Huff

In October, the Interior Ministry of the Kurdistan Regional Government honored a fallen American soldier with a statue at the opening of a police college in Erbil. U.S. Army 1st Lt. Ashley Henderson Huff of the 385th MP Battalion, based out of Fort Stewart, Georgia, was honored for her work toward establishing the new academy, which will accommodate up to 650 people. Huff had worked on behalf of Coalition Forces with the Interior Ministry to build the police academy, but she was killed by a suicide car bomber in Mosul in 2006. Interior Minister Sinjari said, “First Lieutenant Ashley Henderson Huff was a woman of courage and determination. We are honored to have worked with her. Her family and colleagues should be proud of what she did for her country and for the people of Iraq in the liberation of our country. Her statue will act not only as a remembrance of her but will also inspire our police cadets to live up to her standards of commitment and professionalism.”