Daily Ramblings:
Somewhere Among The Many Thousands
...04/11/2005 10:38:15 am
Sergeant First Class Paul Ray Smith gave his life
in the battle for Baghdad airport, and was awarded the Medal Of Honor on April
4th. There is a Macromedia presentation here that
describes the nature of the battle. And from the
citation that accompanies the medal there is this
description of the events of April 4th, 2003:
On that day, Sergeant First Class Smith
was engaged in the construction of a prisoner of
war holding area when his Task Force was
violently attacked by a company-sized enemy
force. Realizing the vulnerability of over 100
fellow soldiers, Sergeant First Class Smith
quickly organized a hasty defense consisting of
two platoons of soldiers, one Bradley Fighting
Vehicle and three armored personnel carriers. As
the fight developed, Sergeant First Class Smith
braved hostile enemy fire to personally engage
the enemy with hand grenades and anti-tank
weapons, and organized the evacuation of three
wounded soldiers from an armored personnel
carrier struck by a rocket propelled grenade and
a 60mm mortar round. Fearing the enemy would
overrun their defenses, Sergeant First Class
Smith moved under withering enemy fire to man a
.50 caliber machine gun mounted on a damaged
armored personnel carrier. In total disregard for
his own life, he maintained his exposed position
in order to engage the attacking enemy force.
During this action, he was mortally wounded. His
courageous actions helped defeat the enemy
attack, and resulted in as many as 50 enemy
soldiers killed, while allowing the safe
withdrawal of numerous wounded soldiers.

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