Someone You Should Know: Maj. Daniel A. Strelkauskas

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 Maj. Daniel A. Strelkauskas,

In June 2008, Strelkauskas was on dismounted patrol in Afghanistan when his team came under heavy machine gun and sniper fire, according to his medal citation. With fire coming from more than a dozen positions, he “ran deeper into the kill zone to drag a wounded Marine across open terrain to a covered position,” the citation reads. He suffered multiple fragmentation wounds to his hands from rounds ricocheting near his position.

He ordered critical air support of 2000 pound bombs which provided suppression of the enemy to allow movement of casualties. After the evacuation, the citation reads, Strelkauskas coordinated follow up airstrikes that killed an estimated 40 among the enemy, including several mid-level Taliban leaders.

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 6-8pm on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.

Someone You Should Know: Spc. Aaron Davis

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 Spc. Aaron Davis,

“With all my years in the Army, I have never pinned a Silver Star to a Soldier. This ceremony is a huge honor for me,” said Brig. Gen. James Gilman, commander, Great Plains Regional Medical Command and Brooke Army Medical Center.

Davlyn Davis, mother of Davis, emphasized the ceremony is not only about her son but also for the ones that perished from the fight.

“They are the true heroes; I’m proud to be a mom of a Soldier. Every-one involved in this journey took extraordinary measures to ensure my son and my family was in good hands,” added Mrs. Davis.

The Purple Heart is awarded to members of the Armed Forces of the United States who are wounded by an instrument of war in the hands of the enemy.

The Silver Star is the third highest military decoration that can be awarded to a member of any branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is also the third highest award given for valor, in the face of the enemy.

“Although it’s hard to think about what happened in the battlefield, I am glad I was there to help my comrades,” said Davis.

Davis remains as an outpatient with BAMC but hopes that when he makes a full recovery he can return to be a squad leader with the Warrior in Transition Unit. “I’d really like to stay on and help out with the other Soldiers who are coming back; I know what it’s like. I’ve been through it,” concluded Davis

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 6-8pm on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.

Someone You Should Know: Charlie Company of the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment

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 Charlie Company of the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment,

From Stars and Stripes,

In May 2007, Charlie Company of the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment patrolled Adhamiyah, a Sunni enclave in northeast Baghdad that was arguably the most dangerous neighborhood in Iraq. No battalion has seen more soldiers fall in a single deployment since Vietnam, and Charlie, with 13 lost, was the hardest-hit company in the battalion.

When Charlie was pulled from Adhamiyah a few months later, it was replaced with an entire battalion augmented by a company and specialty platoons.

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 6-8pm on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.

Someone You Should Know: Lance Cpl. Mina Salama

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 Lance Cpl. Mina Salama. We had a bad connection for about a minute but then he came in clear and told us another amazing story. This summary is from Stars and Stripes,

“They told me there were people inside,” said Salama, 22, a Jersey City, N.J., native.

That was all he needed to hear. He immediately headed for a small gap in the rubble.

…In a deposition, Sgt. Shane R. Bertrand called it “one of the bravest and most unselfish acts I have witnessed in three combat deployments.”

Once they pulled the Iraqi man out, Salama continued talking with bystanders to see if additional aid was needed. From them, he learned of a young girl injured in a nearby building and coordinated medical evacuation for her as well.

For his actions, Salama, currently deployed to the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit on Okinawa, received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal.

According to the Navy, the medal is awarded to servicemembers who risk their lives to save others in actions not involving actual conflict with an enemy. President John F. Kennedy was awarded the medal for his World War II actions in saving crewmembers of his Navy patrol boat — PT-109 — after a Japanese destroyer sliced through it in the Solomon Islands.

Though others call Salama heroic, the Marine says otherwise:

“I’m not a hero. I was just doing what I had to do.”

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.

Someone You Should Know update: Maj. Jim Gant

On June 24, 2007 Bruce McQuain joined us for another edition of Someone You Should Know. He told us about an Army Major who was doing incredible work training and leading army and police forces in Balad, Iraq.

MAJ James “Jim” Gant,

This eventually led to two of the most amazing comments we have received in ten years of blogging.

Jim Gant says:
December 22, 2007 at 6:34 pm

Sir,

Just listened to this on your website. I enjoyed it very much. I am honored and humbled. My Iraqi interpreter who fought with me on this day and was with me for over a year is now living with me at Fort Bragg, NC. Once again, thank you.

Major Jim Gant
United States Army Special Forces

James Karl Gant Sr. says:
December 23, 2007 at 8:37 pm

My son … with whom I am well pleased!!

Jim Gant Sr ( Major Gant is no Jr. )

The excellent milblog Op-For has a post about a recent Washington Post story and the headline grabbed my attention:

Jim Gant, the Green Beret who could win the war in Afghanistan

In recent months, Gant, now a major, has won praise at the highest levels for his effort to radically deepen the U.S. military’s involvement with Afghan tribes — and is being sent back to Afghanistan to do just that. His 45-page paper, “One Tribe at a Time,” published online last fall and circulating widely within the U.S. military, the Pentagon and Congress, lays out a strategy focused on empowering Afghanistan’s ancient tribal system. Gant believes that with the central government still weak and corrupt, the tribes are the only enduring source of local authority and security in the country.

“We will be totally unable to protect the ‘civilians’ in the rural areas of Afghanistan until we partner with the tribes for the long haul,” Gant wrote.

A decorated war veteran and Pashto speaker with multiple tours in Afghanistan, Gant had been assigned by the Army to deploy to Iraq in November. But with senior military and civilian leaders — including Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates; Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan; and Gen. David Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central Command — expressing support for Gant’s views, he was ordered instead to return to Afghanistan later this year to work on tribal issues.

“Maj. Jim Gant’s paper is very impressive — so impressive, in fact, that I shared it widely,” Petraeus said, while McChrystal distributed it to all commanders in Afghanistan. One senior military official went so far as to call Gant “Lawrence of Afghanistan.”

How lucky are we to have men like this on our side?

Someone You Should Know: Sgt. Aubrey McDade Jr.

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.

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.

Someone You Should Know: SFC Jose Rodriguez

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.