FReeper Canteen ~ Hall of Heroes: Jeremy Church ~ June 8, 2015

Serving The Best Troops and Veterans In The World !! | StarCMC

[Kathy in Alaska]

Our Troops Rock!  Thank you for all you do!

For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.

Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today!

~ Hall of Heroes ~

Jeremy Church

           

Medic Earns Silver Star on Deadly Road

December 21, 2009

Stephens Media| by Brian Mockenhaupt
 

He didn’t have to go back out into the kill zone. He had barely made it through the ambush, and people would have understood. But Jeremy Church’s friends were still out there, bleeding and dying, in a maelstrom of mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, roadside bombs and machine-gun fire.
 
So he went back.

“I don’t think I did anything extraordinary or special,” Church says of the actions that led to his Silver Star, the first awarded to a reservist in Operation Iraqi Freedom. “I know my buddies would have done the same thing if they were capable of doing it, if they weren’t injured. Those men were my family, and when family members are in trouble, you help them.”

The ambush had started four miles back up the road, as Pfc. Church drove the lead Humvee in a 26-truck convoy escorting Kellogg Brown & Root fuel tankers to Baghdad International Airport on April 9, 2004. Enemy attacks had recently skyrocketed across Iraq, and soldiers from the Bartonville, Ill.-based 724th Transportation Company had been told to expect contact. But no one expected this, the biggest, longest ambush of the Iraq war.

Moments after the shooting started, two rounds smashed through the windshield of Church’s truck and hit 1st Lt. Matt Brown, the convoy commander, in the helmet and face. Blood poured from his shredded scalp and left eye.

It was Church’s first combat experience, he says. “When they started firing at us, that was the first time I’d ever been engaged. Far from the last, but that was the first.”

He drove on tires flattened by a roadside bomb, firing his M-16 out the driver’s side window. He dug out a bandage and told Brown to press it over his eye, then fielded frantic radio calls from KBR drivers whose trucks were shot up and losing speed.

“You’ve gotta keep going,” Church, then 26, encouraged them. “Just keep pushing forward.”

Through mile after mile of gunfire and explosions, Church guided the convoy down the highway. Is there any daylight in this? he wondered. When are we going to get through?

Then he saw salvation: tanks and Humvees from an American cavalry unit. 

Church helped Brown to a casualty collection point, then looked around. Only half the trucks had made it. His friends were still out there. So Church led cavalry troopers back into a kill zone littered with blown-up and burning trucks.

A half-mile down the road he found the assistant convoy commander’s disabled Humvee, packed with 10 men picked up along the ambush route. Most were wounded, and Church loaded them into the cavalry Humvee.

But space was tight, so Church and another soldier volunteered to stay behind. Insurgents closed in as the Humvee pulled away.

“They didn’t know two of us were still there,” Church says. “They thought we had all high-tailed it and left. They were talking pretty loud down in the tree line, and we just opened up on them and took care of that.”

Ten minutes later, the Humvee returned. As they drove away, a rocket-propelled grenade slammed into the disabled truck, where they had been taking shelter.

The ambush had decimated the convoy. Two soldiers and seven civilian drivers died during the fight. Pfc. Matt Maupin and KBR driver Thomas Hamill had been captured.

Hamill escaped a month later from a remote farmhouse where he had been held. Maupin, Church’s friend, was executed several weeks after the ambush, and his remains were finally found in 2008.

The toll could have been much higher. Church is credited with saving the lives of five soldiers and four KBR drivers, one month into the first of his two Iraq tours.

 

Please remember the Canteen is here to honor, support and entertain our troops and their families.  This is a politics-free zone!  Thanks for helping us in our mission!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Having to do stuff only from the ground can be a royal pain, but it must be done.

I just got a pulley system hooked up to a tree branch, that I VERY carefully reached with a step stool and hanging on to the tree trunk, and running it up to a bird feeder outside the living room window. Now I have to see if I can use it to put out a new bird bell from upstairs.

[SandRat]

Wish you safety.

Have someone ther to helo if thing go wrong.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Lt. Gen. James R. Helmly, chief of the Army Reserve, left, presents Spec. Jeremy L. Church
with a Silver Star on Feb. 27 for his actions in Iraq. Next to him is 1st Lt. Matthew Brown,
who commanded the convoy from the 724th Transportation Company out of Illinois that was ambushed
as it made its way to Baghdad International Airport on April 9, 2004. Brown was hit by small-arms fire
and lost his left eye. Church is credited with saving his commanders life and the lives of others in the convoy.

[left that other site]

Not packed yet...I still have a week where i have to wear clothes! LOL!

[Kathy in Alaska]

LOL! I hear ya.

[left that other site]

I travel light, so...No Problem! :-)

[Kathy in Alaska]

Pfc. Jeremy Church receives his Silver Star medal, the first awarded to a reservist
in Operation Iraqi Freedom, from Army Reserve Chief Lt. Gen. James R. Helmly.
(Photo courtesy of Jeremy Church)

[The Mayor]

Got some today... Thanks my FRiend!

[luvie]

Thanks, Galz, for a most wonderful story of yet another of our heroes who sacrifice themselves unselfishly to save others...including US!!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Thanks...it is a great story and tribute to one of our awesome troops.

Are you home yet, or still in Fort Worth?

Did you have a great time, hit all your targets?

[luvie]

I’m in Ft. Worth trying to sort of chill out before the drive home. Lauren crashed hours ago! LOL!

It was a most awesome time and yes! I did hit my targets! Wish I could have gotten a picture of it! :) Of course, I was only using a .22 rifle and a .32 pistol, but it was fun!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Hitting the target, is hitting the target. LOL!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Prayers for Arrowhead's recovery, and in his absence....

[E.G.C.]

A very pleasant good Monday morning to everyone at the Canteen and to all our military at home and abroad. Thanks for your service to our country.

((HUGS))Good morning, Ladies. Thanks for this morning's thread, Star. How's it going?

[Kathy in Alaska]

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good afternoon/evening/night Troops, wherever you are.

Thank you for doing your part to help keep all of us free and safe.

Thanks, unique, for the pastries.

Coffee is always on........

How about a cupcake?

Cookies?

Waffles?

Treats?

[Kathy in Alaska]

God bless and keep safe our troops worldwide.

Good night.

Statler Brothers ~ How Great Thou Art

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good morning, E...((HUGS))...did you and Bo get to go “hunting” at the lake? What is Bo’s latest find?

[beachn4fun]

Good morning and good night Ma ((HUGS))

I am getting a couple things done and will be “arriving” at the Canteen in a short to take over while you snooze.

HUGS

[E.G.C.]

Monday morning coffee bump.

Well, Bo found a couple of turtles yesterday. I guess we'll see what today holds.