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 an amazing 56 hour firefight and the amazing courage and stamina of SSG Nicholas Gross, who was awarded the Silver Star,
Staff Sergeant Gross immediately pinpointed and engaged this highly trained, numerically superior, and well-equipped ACM force that the ODA had been dealing with and pursuing for the past thirty hours. Staff Sergeant Gross continued to engage without care for his own life. His only concerns were for the care of his fellow team mates and trying to eliminate, or draw some of the fire from those machine gun positions that had the lead element pinned down. No sooner had Staff Sergeant Gross begun to engage the well-emplaced enemy positions, when the rest of the ACM ambush opened up with an enormous amount of fire on the entire element. Within minutes Staff Sergeant Gross was the only machine gunner still in operation and engaging in the fierce enemy with pinpoint accuracy by himself. Staff Sergeant Gross played an instrumental role in the ability of other members of the team to move Staff Sergeant Falkel’s body down from his turret by placing high volumes of fire on the enemy forces with hopes to draw fire away from Staff Sergeant Falkel’s vehicle and onto his own position. He continued to engage without care for his own welfare or safety, his only care being that of his fellow team members. Staff Sergeant Gross single handedly continued to lay down heavy volumes of fire on the well-emplaced positions while receiving heavy volumes of fire on his positions until the whole element was able to move to a place of protection from the enemy fire.
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 SYSK archive can be found here and The Pundit Review Radio Podcast RSS feed can be found here and you can find us on iTunes at Pundit Review Radio.
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 6-9pm on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.