Thank you for adding this hero to the thread. What fine men and women we have in todays Armed Forces. I salute each of you.
****Brookfield soldier to receive medal****
Distinguished Service Cross cites courage
By TOM HELD
Last Updated: Nov. 7, 2003
The first Distinguished Service Cross awarded since the Vietnam War will be bestowed upon a Special Forces officer from Brookfield during a ceremony in Florida on Thursday.
Maj. Mark Mitchell will receive the nation's second-highest military honor for his "unparalleled courage under fire, decisive leadership and personal sacrifice" during a fierce, three-day battle in outside Mazar-e-Sharif in Afghanistan.
Johnny Michael "Mike" Spann was the first American killed in Afghanistan during the uprising of roughly 500 Taliban prisoners in the Qala-I-Jangi fortress. Mitchell led the Special Forces group that quelled the uprising and ensured that Spann's partner escaped safely.
Mitchell's parents, Terry and Kathy Mitchell, will join him at the award ceremony MacDill Air Force Base, Tampa, Fla.
The Special Forces commander graduated from Marquette University High School and Marquette University before joining the Army. He served in the 24th Infantry Division in Desert Shield/Desert Storm, in 1990-'91.
In the first months of the war in Afghanistan, Mitchell commanded a Special Forces group assisting the Northern Alliance and preparing the area around Mazar-e-Sharif for humanitarian aid workers.
When the uprising broke out in the fortress, he gathered roughly 15 Special Forces troops and led them into battle against Taliban prisoners who had armed themselves from stockpiles of machine guns, automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars.
With assistance from the Northern Alliance, the Special Forces troops ended the uprising on the third day.
Mitchell has continued to serve under the Special Forces central command in the war on Iraq.
August 16, 2004
Release Number: 04-08-51
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SILVER STAR MEDAL GOES TO 1ST CAVALRY DIVISION SOLDIER
BAGHDAD — 1st Cavalry Division’s first Silver Star Medal for valor in combat during this deployment was presented to Private 1st Class Christopher Fernandez Aug. 13.
Fernandez, a multiple launch rocket system crewman, was awarded the Silver Star for actions he had taken May 5, when his unit came under attack. Fernandez, a Tucson, Ariz. native, was on a patrol through the city’s Saidiyah neighborhood when insurgents ambushed his unit.
An improvised explosive device hit the patrol’s rear vehicle. Immediately following the explosion, the patrol was barraged with small-arms fire. The patrol’s crew-served weapons, an M-240B machine gun and a .50 caliber machine gun, immediately returned fire.
Two U.S. Soldiers were killed and five others were wounded in the IED explosion and their vehicle was inoperable.
Fernandez returned fire with his weapon, an M-249 squad automatic weapon. He reloaded his weapon at least once during the short engagement, said Capt. Thomas Pugsley, Battery A’s commander.
“There was a tremendous volume of fire coming at them,” Pugsley said.
In all the chaos, Fernandez saw the stricken vehicle’s M-240B machine gun was unused. Acting on instinct, Fernandez knew that another weapon would suppress the enemy’s fire long enough to evacuate the wounded and leave the area. He left his vehicle, ran to the disabled humvee and recovered the weapon and its ammunition.
Fernandez then opened fire on the enemy.
What made all of that spectacular was the recovered weapon’s condition, said Pugsley. The hand guards covering the machine-gun’s barrel, so the gunner’s hands won’t burn, were blown off in the explosion. That didn’t matter to Fernandez though; he kept firing even though his hands were burning.
Almost 10 minutes later, the wounded were loaded onto the Fernandez’s vehicle and the ambush site abandoned.
“Pfc. Christopher Fernandez is a hero,” Chiarelli said. “He represents the best of us. He embodies the Army Values and the Warrior Ethos.”
“It’s a great honor,” said Fernandez in Battery A, 1st Battalion, 21st Field Artillery Regiment. “I never thought it would happen.”
The Silver Star is the Army’s fifth highest medal for valor and the third highest during combat and is rarely given to enlisted Soldiers.