FR WAR NEWS!WAR News at Home and Abroad You'll Hear Nowhere Else!
All the News the MSM refuses to use!
Or if they do report it, without the anti-War Agenda Spin!
Posted on 06/15/2007 5:15:08 PM PDT by SandRat
FOB HAMMER — Following in your parents’ footsteps takes on new meaning for a 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat team Soldier.
Pfc. Stephanie McCulley, a combat medic with 3rd HBCT, from Uniontown, Pa., followed the steps of her grandfather, who raised her. They both served in the Army. They both served in combat, and they both earned a Bronze Star Medal as a private first class.
“My grandfather raised me,” said McCulley. “He was more of a dad than a grandfather. I lived with him and my grandmother from the age of 2 until I graduated high school.”
Ronald Jobes instilled a strong sense of patriotism in McCulley at a young age.
“He would always put up a flag for my grandmother on her birthday because it was the same day as Flag Day,” said McCulley. “I remember that he fell and broke some ribs twice, but he still did it. It was very important to him.”
The man who McCulley affectionately called “Pap Pap” is much more than a patriotic father figure, however.
During World War II, Jobes fought with the 398th Infantry Division in France. From January 1945 to March 1945, Jobes routinely volunteered for dangerous night patrols to hinder the Nazi defensive preparations in his sector. Jobes went out an average of three nights a week for three months. His service and commitment did not go unnoticed by his superiors. As a private first class, Jobes was awarded the Bronze Star for his exemplary performance in Eastern France.
“I didn’t even know I had been awarded the thing until I re-enlisted for my second tour,” said Jobes. “We didn’t have a formation or anything like that. We just did our duty as best we could. Every patrol was pretty much the same. I don’t recall any one time that I earned it, but they gave it to me.”
Sixty-two years later, Jobes’ granddaughter would earn the same award for her service in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
For McCulley, receiving the same award as her grandfather was a special moment.
“I think it is interesting that we both received our awards as privates first class,” said McCulley. “Col. (Wayne) Grigsby told me my grandfather would be proud after he pinned it on me. I couldn’t help but smile after that. “
While on a combat patrol with her platoon, the lead convoy vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device. McCulley reacted instantaneously.
Leaving the safety of her humvee, she ran through the thick smoke with her section sergeant, Staff Sgt. Michael Henderson, from Vidor, Texas, to the disabled.
“I felt the IED before I heard it,” explained McCulley. “They train us to wait and let Soldiers bring the casualties to us, but I knew if anyone was alive in that truck; they were barely alive. I didn’t have time to wait. I didn’t feel much at the time. I just hopped out of our truck and ran to the truck.”
Henderson was not surprised to make it to the vehicle with McCulley by his side.
“She did what she was trained to do and then some,” said Henderson. “I knew she wouldn’t stay in the truck. That’s just the type of Soldier she is.”
Two of the three Soldiers in the vehicle were dead, but the third was alive.
Henderson and McCulley quickly freed him from the wreckage and went to work stabilizing the seriously wounded soldier.
“It’s important to remember that neither of them knew what was on the other side of that cloud,” said Capt. Steven Hemman, their team leader in the 3rd HBCT, from St. Louis. “Both of them could have run into small-arms fire or a secondary IED, but they didn’t think about that. Their only thought was getting to that vehicle and taking care of their battle buddies. I think that says something about them both.”
Hemman, who was there and nominated both Soldiers for the Bronze Star, was impressed with McCulley’s performance.
“I can’t say enough about how she performed,” he said. “I know without a doubt that if she had not performed how she did we would have lost three Soldiers that day.”
FR WAR NEWS!Hurrah for America’s Women of War - may they continue to strike fear into the hearts of their enemies!
(of course no bias on my part; my daughter just got back from Iraq, Air Force Intel serving with Army EOD support)
Have you stopped hugging her so tight yet so that she can breathe??? Good for her!
There was not any 398th Infantry Division in WW2 in the Americal Army. I get so sick of socalled 'journalists' writing crap that just goes to show they do not know their elbows from their hinneys!
And the author, Spc. Ben Hutto, is supposedly in the Army!
The 100th Infantry Division had a 398th Infantry Regiment. Perhaps, just perhaps, that is what the writer (And I do use that in the most liberal connotation...) should have said.
More info at http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-18,GGLD:en&q=398th+Infantry+Division
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