Posted on 03/30/2005 1:05:28 PM PST by Between the Lines
Sgt. 1st Class Paul R. Smith wrote a letter to his mother days before his Army unit crossed into Iraq as part of the U.S. invasion.
His words were chilling in their foreshadowing:
"There are two ways to come home, stepping off the plane or being carried off the plane. It doesn't matter how I come home, because I am prepared to give all that I am to ensure that all my boys make it home."
He saved the letter on his laptop but never mailed it.
Smith was killed on April 4, 2003, firing a .50-caliber machine gun to save the lives of more than 100 American soldiers.
Now, the U.S. military is expected to posthumously give Smith its highest award - the Medal of Honor. The Army Times, citing a March military public affairs conference and unnamed Pentagon sources, reported Monday that an announcement is coming.
The White House is expected to present the medal to Smith's family during an April ceremony in Washington, D.C. It had no announcement Monday, a spokesman said.
Smith will be the first soldier who fought in Iraq to receive the award.
Many of the nation's 3,440 Medal of Honor recipients have become heroes in American history and pop culture. Their stories fill books and flicker across movie screens. Nearly 18 percent of them, including Smith, were killed in action, according to military records.
Smith will be recognized for climbing inside the gunner's hatch of an armored personnel carrier while his unit fought outside the Saddam International Airport.
At 6 feet 2 inches tall, Smith was a vulnerable target. Still, he held off a wave of Iraqi Special Republican Guard soldiers before an enemy bullet finally hit his throat.
Army accounts of the fight report Smith killed more than 50 Iraqis in the gunbattle.
When Smith died at age 33, he left behind a wife, Birgit; a daughter, Jessica, then 17; and a son, David, then 9.
He had joined the Army out of high school in 1989.
Smith fought in Operation Desert Storm, where he lost a friend in combat. Family said the experience cemented his determination to be a top-notch soldier.
Birgit Smith met her husband when he was serving in Germany, and the two started dating before he left for Desert Storm.
"I knew a boy, and all of a sudden he came back a man," Birgit Smith said in a 2003 interview.
As Smith earned promotions through the enlisted ranks, he gained a reputation for being tough.
"I knew why he did it," Birgit Smith said. "He wanted to prepare all the guys for the real life. The Army is not a joke."
AIRPORT ATTACK
Once Smith's 11th Engineer Battalion arrived in Kuwait in early 2003, Smith hounded his soldiers to be perfect in their war preparations. He rode their backs about cleaning weapons and trained every soldier to operate a .50-caliber machine gun.
The 11th Engineer Battalion was part of 3rd Infantry Division's Task Force 2-7. As part of the division's 1st Brigade, the task force would help capture Saddam International Airport in Baghdad.
Around dawn on April 4, Smith's platoon arrived at the airport after driving all night. Fellow soldiers said Smith did not sleep as he guided his troops across the Euphrates River and through villages and farms.
Task Force 2-7 blocked highways around the airport to hold off enemy reinforcements.
Gunfire popped in the distance, but Smith gave his platoon time to eat, clean up and rest. Nearby, the task force’s operations center ran the airport battle; medics treated wounded soldiers in an aid station; and a mortar platoon nearby was ready to fire.
Smith's platoon was called to duty to build a holding cell for captured Iraqis.
A courtyard with a guard tower seemed to be the perfect place, even though it was part of a Special Republican Guard complex. But Iraqi fighters attacked as the engineers burned brush and strung concertina wire.
Smith directed his soldiers to shoot their M-16 rifles. He threw grenades and fired an anti-tank missile.
An enemy grenade slammed into an American armored personnel carrier, wounding three soldiers inside. Smith oversaw their evacuation.
Smith and two privates were left to hold off the Iraqis.
The most powerful weapon in the courtyard was a .50-caliber machine gun mounted on the roof of the armored carrier.
Smith climbed inside the carrier's gun hatch and ordered Pfc. Jonathan Seaman to drive into the courtyard's center. But the carrier was towing a trailer that had jackknifed. It wouldn't budge.
Smith ordered Pfc. Gary Evans to get out and detach the trailer. He gave Seaman specific instructions, too: If the machine gun stopped, hand up another box of ammunition.
Then, Smith fired.
'HIS WHOLE BODY COLLAPSED'
Meanwhile, 1st Sgt. Timothy Campbell, the senior enlisted man in Smith's company, organized an attack on the guard tower where Iraqis were hiding.
Campbell knew as long as he could hear Smith's gun, his group had cover.
Campbell's group reached the tower and unloaded a barrage of bullets through its windows. When they stopped firing, the whole battlefield had gone quiet.
Inside the armored personnel carrier, Smith's machine gun stopped. Seaman turned to hand Smith another box of ammo.
"I still saw his legs standing up there," Seaman said in an interview after the war. "I blinked my eyes, and his whole body collapsed into the tank."
The engineers carried Smith to medics, who tried for 45 minutes to revive him.
When medics placed a blanket over Smith's face, his fellow soldiers knew they had lost a hero.
'WHATEVER IT TAKES'
It would be several hours before two uniformed officers knocked on the Smith family's front door to tell about his death.
Birgit Smith lived in Hinesville, Ga., near the 3rd Infantry Division's headquarters at Fort Stewart. She said she had watched enough war movies to know why the officers were there.
At first, she begged them to double-check because Smith is a common name. Then, she grew angry and asked them to leave.
Birgit Smith and her children wouldn't realize what a hero Paul Smith had become until she read articles written by embedded reporters. In fall 2003, the 11th Engineer Battalion’s soldiers came home with their stories.
Birgit Smith said in 13 years of marriage Paul spent more time with the Army than at home - a typical problem for a soldier.
As hard as Paul pushed his soldiers at work, his behavior at home was lovable and attentive.
Because of those characteristics, Birgit said she was never surprised that Paul Smith would risk his life to save others.
"That's what Paul was. He was always taking care of others," she said in 2003. "He was always so concerned about bringing his soldiers home. He would do whatever it takes."
Lump in throat, proud tear running down side of face bump.
Ditto only make that tear plural.
I was so hoping this warrior would get the MOH.
mc
dang monitor keeps clouding up.... I've got to get it fixed.... well he's a hero and has two children to pass those fine qualities on.
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