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 Marine Corps Sgt. Aubrey McDade Jr. Here is an account from Marine Corps Times,
JACKSONVILLE, N.C.–These days, drill instructor Sgt. Aubrey McDade Jr. is making Marines to win battles, but two years ago he was saving Marines during battle.
His actions on Nov. 11, 2004, in Fallujah, Iraq, have earned him the Navy Cross, the Navy’s second highest award for valor. The medal was presented to him during a ceremony at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C., during a recruit graduation ceremony Jan. 19.
McDade, a drill instructor with Charlie Company, 1st Recruit Training Battalion, was a machine-gun squad leader with 1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, in Iraq in 2004.
On the night of Nov. 11, as the Marines in the platoon moved south into the city, they entered an alley where they immediately met a barrage of small-arms and machine-gun fire, according to McDade’s citation.
“In the opening seconds of the engagement, three Marines were seriously wounded as the well-positioned and expecting enemy pinned others down,” the citation states.
McDade “rushed from the rear of the platoon column toward the kill zone,” leading a machine-gun team into the alley to spray suppressive fire at insurgents.
The wounded Marines were pinned down under a blanket of gunfire that spewed furiously every time the other Marines tried to reach their injured comrades.
McDade told the platoon sergeant that he would get them.
“He just informed me that if I got hit he wasn’t going to be able to help me right then,” McDade said in an interview. “I wasn’t just going to let them sit out there like sitting ducks. They needed me, and I went.”
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.
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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.