Posted on 04/05/2005 8:19:10 AM PDT by TMSuchman
Sgt. Smith USA is finally getting his medal of honor! Rummy is now speaking.
CNN is covering the whole story of this American Hero!!
AWESOME!!! You can never hear too many stories like this!!
Ahh, I thought I saw President Bush present it to his son yesterday at the White House. What's with this ceremony?
I believe that because of all of the coverage of the Pope, that a cermony is being done today so it would be covered by MSM!
The medal was presented yesterday, both Sgt Smith's wife & family were there. his wife is trying to become a citzen. She is a German by birth, and has childern by Sgt Smith. I hope that she can become one too. She is jumping through all of the flamming legal hoops to become on too!
Yep it was yesterday (4-4-05) and CSPAN-1 covered it well.....The President made that young man very proud of his Dad as we all are.
Not that I want to introduce any cynicism here, but has the JAG's office investigated Sgt Smith's action thoroughly enough to assure that he played fair and there was no "premeditation" on his part as in the case of Lt Pantano??
That is why it took 2 years to present the medal to his family! The DoD has to throughly check out the story, to make sure to is true. I fully believe in my heart that Lt. Pantano will be vindacated.
Thank God for men like Sgt. Smith.
Let's hope she gets her citizenship fasttracked! We owe it to her family.
FYI, one of the Florida papers (Tampa?) had a wonderful and very detailed website about this hero. I was shocked to see a newspaper doing such a good job. I'll try to dig the link out.
Furthermore, Lt Pantano has already been severely injured by this process in that he and his family are now well known to our internal al qaeda cells which homeland security seems unwilling to touch. He (Pantano) must watch his back for the rest of his life unless this al qaeda vermin is cleaned out.
The military are such a great class of human beings, I am in awe...
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Wish he'd been there to receive it personally, but it is touching and heartwarming that his son accepted it.
But it is a poignant reminder that the heroes are often the ones who don't make it back.
From the Citation of this hero's bravery...
"Sergeant First Class Paul R. Smith distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action with an armed enemy near Baghdad International Airport, Baghdad, Iraq on 4 April 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. Sergeant First Class Smith’s extraordinary heroism and uncommon valor are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, the Third Infantry Division “Rock of the Marne,” and the United States Army."
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