I caught the tail end of a news announcement about some soldier being about to receive the MOH for actions in protecting his fellows in Afghanistan. Supposedly drew the ferocious fire of the Taliban as 22 other soldiers used his covering fire to retreat.I suspect that the award is posthumous. Supposed to be presented by the President this month.

Anyone know his name?

T-Star

Staff Sergeant Robert J. Miller (RIP)

Obama Awards Medal Of Honor to Fallen Soldier's Family | USA | English

Thank you. May God rest his soul.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/...er-medal-honor


This is the White House video of the event, and Obama made the finest speech that I have heard him utter.

T-Star

His parents live in my curent home town..
just outside of Orlando, Florida..RIP with Honors..





The President of the of America, authorized by act of Congress, March 3rd, 1863, has awarded, in the name of the Congress, the Medal of Honor to Staff Sergeant Robert J. Miller, United States Army, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty.
Staff Sergeant Robert J. Miller distinguished himself by extraordinary acts of heroism while serving as the weapons sergeant in Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha 3312, Special Operations Task Force 33, Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force Afghanistan, during combat operations against an armed enemy in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, on January 25th, 2008.
While conducting a combat reconnaissance patrol through the Gowardesh Valley, Staff Sergeant Miller and his small element of U.S. and Afghan National Army soldiers engaged a force of 15 to 20 insurgents occupying prepared fighting positions. Staff Sergeant Miller initiated the assault by engaging the enemy positions with his vehicle's turret-mounted Mk 19 40-millimeter automatic grenade launcher, while simultaneously providing detailed descriptions of the enemy positions to his command, enabling effective, accurate close air support.
Following the engagement, Staff Sergeant Miller led a small squad forward to conduct a battle damage assessment. As the group neared the small, steep, narrow valley that the enemy had inhabited, a large, well-coordinated insurgent force initiated a near ambush, assaulting from elevated positions with ample cover.
Exposed and with little available cover, the patrol was totally vulnerable to enemy rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons fire.
As a point man, Staff Sergeant Miller was at the front of the patrol, cut off from supporting elements and less than 20 meters from enemy forces. Nonetheless, with total disregard for his own safety, he called for his men to quickly move back to cover positions as he charged the enemy over exposed ground and under overwhelming enemy fire in order to provide protective fire for his team.
While maneuvering to engage the enemy, Staff Sergeant Miller was shot in the upper torso. Ignoring the wound, he continued to push the fight. Moving to draw fire from over 100 enemy fighters upon himself, he then again charged forward through an open area in order to allow his teammates to safely reach cover.
After killing at least 10 insurgents, wounding dozens more and repeatedly exposing himself to withering enemy fire while moving from position to position, Staff Sergeant Miller was mortally wounded by enemy fire. His extraordinary valor ultimately saved the lives of seven members of his own team and 15 Afghan National Army soldiers.
Staff Sergeant Miller's heroism and selflessness above and beyond the call of duty and at the cost of his own life are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Army.

__________________
SWCA #2306
DAV in honor of POP

Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, who's very much alive thanks to his ESAPI plate, was also announced as going to receive the MOH, but that was mostly in the news a month or so ago.

Vicenza, Italy (CNN) - He's only 25 now, an Army paratrooper stationed at the headquarters of the 173rd Airborne at a sprawling base near Vicenza in northern Italy.

As the first living recipient of the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War, Sal Giunta has had plenty of media attention heaped on him. But this staff sergeant is determined to make the medal, at least symbolically, belong to others.

"When I first heard that they were putting me in for the Medal of Honor, I felt lost, I felt kind of angry, I felt, I think, angry," he said in an exclusive interview. "Just because, you know, this is so big. This is, it came at such a price. It came at the price of a good buddy of mine, not just Brennan. But Mendoza. Mendoza died that night as well. And people want to put a medal around my neck."

Giunta is talking about one of his best Army friends, Sgt. Josh Brennan, whose life he tried to save during a vicious firefight in eastern Afghanistan's Korengal Valley in the fall of 2007. Giunta's squadron, with Brennan walking as "point" - or first man in the front - was trapped in a deadly ambush by Taliban fighters during a nighttime operation. The squadron's medic, Hugo Mendoza of El Paso, Texas, was caught with the rest of the group.

"People congratulate me on a good job when there's two people that have basically given their entire lives for this mission, for the Army, for the people of the United States of America," Giunta said. "And now, I'm gonna be the one they are gonna shake hands with and congratulate? It didn't seem real and at the same time, what did seem real was that this shouldn't happen."

Giunta, whose armor-plated vest took a bullet during the ambush, saw Taliban fighters dragging away Brennan. Army documents say he immediately began to fire at the two men dragging his buddy away, killing one and driving off the other. Giunta pulled the badly-wounded Brennan to protective cover and stood by him until medical help arrived. Brennan, whose father is a policeman in Madison, Wisconsin, died from his wounds the next day.

"It is a great thing," Giunta said, speaking of the Medal of Honor. "But it is a great thing that has come at a personal loss to myself and so many other families."

And that, he said, is what he wants Americans to know.

"Absolutely," he said. "And not it's just the soldiers out there doing it. It's their families. It's their parents. It's the Mike Brennans of this world. And Mendoza's parents, you know. His brothers and sisters. The families that we leave when we go do this."

"It's not just, we're gonna go fight, but we're gonna leave our families for a while and hope that they can be taken care of," the sergeant explained. "It's a sacrifice that everyone makes, and these two men on that day made the biggest sacrifice anyone can ever make. And it's not for a paycheck."

Giunta's Medal of Honor ceremony will take place in November at the White House. And while his friends Brennan and Mendoza can't be there with him, he knows who can be. And he wants as many of his squadron mates as possible at the presentation.

Just a sidebar here. There are no Medal of Honor winners, only Medal of Honor recipients.

One does not "win" the MOH like a trophy. It is awarded by a grateful Nation for heroic acts way above and beyond the call of duty, with extreme personal risk (and often death).

John

__________________
- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

Yup. This is something that MOH recipients are VERY sensitive about.

I am working at the Kandahar Airfield and I see these brave military personnnel working every day. America has no shortage of courage, I personnally feel the MOH is not given out often enough, compare this conflict to WWII, Korea or Vietnam. We have more military involved in two hostile countries and these battles occur daily. RIP our hero's.