Bruce McQuain from Blackfive joined us once again for Someone You Should Know, our weekly tribute to the troops. Bruce spent 28 years in the U.S. Army and he is a veteran of the Vietnam war. He brings a perspective and understanding to these stories that we could never match.
This week Bruce told us about SFC Jose Rodriguez. From his Silver Star citation,
The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star Medal to Jose R. Rodriguez, Sergeant First Class, U.S. Army, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action while serving as a Platoon Sergeant with Company B, 3d Battalion, 69th Armor, 3d Brigade Combat Team, 3d Infantry Division, during combat operations in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, on 19 March 2007, in Iraq.
On that date, Sergeant First Class Rodriguez rushed out of Forward Operating Base Hawas in a Bradley vehicle to help two of his platoon’s Bradley vehicles that were on overwatch duty. They were attacked by an unknown number of insurgents who pinned them down with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire. When he got there, he heard the gunfire, but he couldn’t lay eyes on his two Bradleys and didn’t want to lay down suppressive fire until he could figure out where they were. Sergeant First Class Rodriguez began looking down a series of alleys perpendicular to a main road. Turning down one of them, his driver struck a roadway bomb. The driver of the Bradley Sergeant First Class Rodriguez was looking for couldn’t back up, either, because there was another roadway bomb. Pinned down, Sergeant First Class Rodriguez called for more help, and his tactical operations center dispatched two more Bradleys and a recovery vehicle for his own Bradley. While his driver was on the radio Sergeant First Class Rodriguez realized the front of his Bradley was on fire and the driver’s compartment was filling with smoke and he crawled in through the space between the gunner’s position and the driver’s compartment and pulled him out by the handle on the back of his vest. The gunner was still engaging the enemy with his main gun and the two Bradleys on the main road were still taking and returning fire. More improvised explosive devices were being tossed everywhere making it harder and harder to move around. After pulling his driver to safety into the back of the Bradley, Sergeant First Class Rodriguez got out to help the recovery vehicle operator hook up the towing chains and saw a number of insurgents approaching their position. He raised the muzzle of his rifle and shot and killed eight of them.
The Someone You Should Know radio collaboration began as an extension of Matt Burden’s series at Blackfive. Bruce does an incredible job with the series every week. The Pundit Review Radio Podcast RSS feed can be found here.
What is Pundit Review Radio?
On Boston’s Talk Station WRKO since 2005, Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to the radio every Sunday evening from 8-10pm on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.