'Wolfhounds' Receive Combat Badges - Afghanistan Ceremony First for Unit Since Vietnam

'Wolfhounds' Receive Combat Badges
Afghanistan Ceremony First for Unit Since Vietnam

By U.S. Army Capt. Juanita Chang / Task Force Thunder

FORWARD OPERATING BASE ORGUN-E, Afghanistan, Aug. 27, 2004 — The "Wolfhounds" of 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment held their first Combat Infantryman Badge and Combat Medical Badge ceremony since the Vietnam War, Aug. 23.

In the sunset ceremony at Forward Operating Base Orgun-e, about 100 infantrymen and 10 combat medics representing Task Force 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment were awarded the badges.

Five soldiers were awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge second award for participation in two eras of combat: Sgt. Maj. Anthony Marrero, 1st Sgt. King Parks, 1st Sgt. Timothy Johnson, Staff Sgt. Benjamin Munden and Spc. Christopher Jacobs.

Jacobs, an infantryman with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, said he is very proud of receiving a second Combat Infantryman Badge.

"It shows proof I did something while I was in the Army," Jacobs said. "It shows my time in the Army was put to good use."

Soldiers who receive the Combat Infantryman Badge must be under fire by the enemy.

"We've had a lot of rockets fired at us," Jacobs said.

Soldiers who put their life on the line stood in formation as the sun dipped below the jagged desert mountains.

Maj. Gen. Eric T. Olson, Combined Joint Task Force 76 commander, pins a Combat Medical Badge on a soldier during a ceremony at Forward Operating Base Orgun-e, Afghanistan, Aug. 23, 2004.

U.S. Army photo

Maj. Gen. Eric T. Olson, Combined Joint Task Force 76 commander, paid a surprise visit to help present the warriors with their badges.

One platoon, which had just come off of a mission exhausted and filthy, was unaware Olson was coming.

First Lt. Clint Dodson, a platoon leader with Task Force 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment , was one of the soldiers coming off the mission. Dodson is one of Olson's former Cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and former captain of their football team. Olson was formerly the Commandant of Cadets at the academy.

"It's hard to express the pride I felt when General Olson pinned on my Combat Infantryman Badge right after returning from a combat mission," Dodson said.

Soldiers "walked a little taller," after the ceremony, Olson said, continuing to write another story in the Tropic Lightning Division history.

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