Medal of Honor Awarded to fallen Soldier's Family

TeMpEsT · Apr 6, 2005

Valor in Iraq earns Medal of Honor
By Deborah Sharp, USA TODAY
Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith of Tampa left his wife and two children to go to the war in Iraq. At 33, he came to think of the soldiers he led as his "boys." Many were younger than him by a decade or more.
Sgt. 1st Class Paul R. Smith's family will receive the first Medal of Honor awarded in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
U.S. Army

Smith wrote to his family that he was prepared to give everything he had to make sure "all my boys make it home." In a battle near the airport in Baghdad two years ago, he kept that promise. But in doing so he died, the only member of his platoon lost that day, April 4, 2003.

At a White House ceremony Monday, exactly two years after his death, Smith's family will receive his Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for battlefield valor. It's a rare honor.

More than 1 million U.S. men and women have served in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001, but Smith is the first to receive the Medal of Honor. It will be the first such medal issued in 12 years, when two soldiers were given it posthumously for actions in Somalia in 1993. Their battle was recounted in the book and film Black Hawk Down.

More than 42 million Americans have served in U.S. wars, but only 3,459 Medals of Honor have been awarded since the Civil War.
FEW RECEIVE MEDAL

More than 1 million members of the U.S. military have served in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, but Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith is the first to receive the Medal of Honor, awarded for extraordinary valor on the battlefield.

Like the majority of the other 842 medals given since the beginning of World War II, Smith's award will be posthumous. He was killed in battle April 4, 2003. The medal will be given to his family Monday at the White House.

Medal of Honor recipients form an exclusive club. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the World War II icon, once said he'd sell his soul for a Medal of Honor.

Gen. George Custer was so jealous of the two his brother, Thomas, received during the Civil War that the men got into a fistfight when Thomas wore his medals to a social event. Harry Truman used to say he'd rather have the medal than be president.

Since 1861, when Abraham Lincoln authorized the medal, 3,459 have been given. More than half 1,522 were received for actions in the Civil War. Among the Medals of Honor awarded since then:

* World War I: 124
* World War II: 464
* Korean War: 131
* Vietnam War: 245

Two soldiers received it posthumously for actions in Somalia in 1993. Only 127 recipients are alive today.

The medals have stirred controversy.

Mary Walker, a Civil War physician, was the first and is still the only woman to receive a Medal of Honor. Her award was rescinded and then reinstated a century after the Civil War. At least one medal was renounced. Recipient Charles Liteky, a chaplain during the Vietnam War, gave his back in 1986 to protest the U.S. government's actions in Central America.

By Deborah Sharp

"Sgt. 1st Class Smith answered the calling, completed the mission, saved his fellow soldiers and made the supreme sacrifice in doing so," said Maj. Elizabeth Robbins, an Army spokeswoman.

Smith was based at Fort Stewart in Georgia and served in several hot spots since enlisting in the Army in 1989. Shortly after the war in Iraq began, his 11th Engineer Battalion of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division had the task of creating a holding area for prisoners of war. Smith found a spot within a courtyard near the airport in Baghdad and set his men to work building a cell.

But Iraqi forces advanced. Soon, Smith's platoon was under attack by as many as 100 enemy soldiers, according to news and military accounts.

Smith tossed a grenade over the wall, and then he climbed atop an armored vehicle. Disregarding personal danger, he sprayed the attacking troops with .50-caliber machine gun. According to the Army, he told a soldier who accompanied him to "feed me ammunition whenever you hear the gun get quiet." He aimed more than 300 rounds at the Iraqis before he was killed by enemy fire.

"Smith's actions saved the lives of at least 100 soldiers ... and resulted in an estimated 20-50 enemy soldiers killed," the citation reads.

His "conspicuous gallantry, above and beyond the call of duty," according to the citation, protected the soldiers in his platoon as well as other troops at an aid station nearby.

Smith's heroism met an important criteria for the medal: He rushed in to defend others, knowing he could lose his life in the process. Audie Murphy, a World War II hero who became a movie star, won his Medal of Honor for a similar action: Manning a machine gun on a burning, abandoned tank, he killed 50 advancing German soldiers.

"It's a situation where most rational people would back out, and they wouldn't be criticized," says David Burrelli, a Library of Congress researcher who specializes in military matters.

"It's going beyond what you're supposed to do."

Smith was born in El Paso and moved to Tampa when he was 9. One of four siblings, he loved to collect rocks and was good at taking things apart. When he stripped a radio, there were always pieces left over, but it still ended up working.

He loved to fish, "but we'd have starved to death if we'd had to depend on his fishing skills," jokes Smith's sister, Lisa DeVane, 37.

He enlisted in the Army right after graduating from Tampa Bay Technical High School. He met his wife, Birgit, when he was stationed in Germany. They married in 1992. Since her husband was killed, Birgit Smith, 38, says she's heard from the wives of other soldiers who survived that day.

"They say, 'Because of your husband, mine made it home,' " she says. "Paul laid down his life for his soldiers."

DeVane says the black-and-white, right-or-wrong ways of the military suited her brother. He rode his soldiers hard, insisting that everything be done by the book.

But he had a soft side, too. He was thrilled when DeVane gave birth three years ago to his niece. DeVane named the girl Olivia Ray, making Paul's middle name her daughter's as well.

"I still cry, and I still miss him," DeVane says. "He's the perfect example of good and decent. I learned a lot about life from my little brother."

Smith once drove 40 miles from Fort Stewart to deliver a teddy bear to the young daughter of one of his men, who was hospitalized with a serious illness. Another time, he counseled a soldier having marital problems, arranged visits with the base chaplain and financial experts, and allowed him time away from Fort Stewart to settle his problems in family court.

"I'd always seen him as this hard (guy), but when I had a problem, it was like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he was so nice," says Robert Mullins, 24, a former solider who trained under Smith at Fort Stewart and served with him in Kosovo. "He would talk to me like a brother, or a father."

Mullins, now a mechanic in Knoxville, Tenn., says he's proud of his former sergeant. But as a father of three, he also thinks about the children Smith left behind. "I don't think a medal can heal those wounds," he says.

Smith's widow says she works to keep his memory alive for their children, David, 11, and Jessica, 18. Smith adopted Jessica, Birgit's daughter from a previous relationship, after the couple married. President Bush will present the medal to young David at Monday's ceremony.

Smith's body was cremated, and most of his remains were scattered over Tampa Bay. But Birgit Smith keeps a portion of her husband's ashes in a locket that hangs from the windshield of her car. She believes her husband's spirit is still with her. Sometimes she smells his aftershave or feels the embrace of his arms around her. Once his picture fell off the wall, and she was sure it was Paul, sending a message that he's always there watching over her.

"We feel him all around us," she says.
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U.S. Army Official Site

Evan™ · Apr 9, 2005

MEN SALUTE!
pity he had to die....if the world was perfect he owulndt hav died....no wait if the world was perfect the bloody war wouldnt ahve even started....FOOK THE IRAQIS!

Todd · Apr 9, 2005

Originally posted by Linkin_EvangelionNG@Apr 9 2005, 07:46 AM
FOOK THE IRAQIS!
Click to expand...

There's nothing wrong with the Iraqis. They're the innocent ones, FUCK BUSH is what you should be saying.

That would be like saying "Fuck the Jews" because the holocaust happened

[Th3 Wkng De@d] · Apr 9, 2005

I heard about this. He totally deserves the medal, though.

Mark · Apr 10, 2005

Fuck the Iraqis? That's one bloody racist thing to say! You're stereotyping an entire citizenship of Iraq and saying they're all terrorists, just because of a few extremists? You're warned for derogatory comments/sentiments towards an entire nation.

Evan™ · Apr 12, 2005

Originally posted by Mark@Apr 10 2005, 04:17 AM
Fuck the Iraqis? That's one bloody racist thing to say! You're stereotyping an entire citizenship of Iraq and saying they're all terrorists, just because of a few extremists? You're warned for derogatory comments/sentiments towards an entire nation.
Click to expand...

okie dokie...sry iraqis...FOOK BUSH AND THE WHOLE FOOKING WAR!

FreeYourMind · Apr 17, 2005

Originally posted by Linkin_EvangelionNG+Apr 12 2005, 12:47 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Linkin_EvangelionNG @ Apr 12 2005, 12:47 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin--Mark@Apr 10 2005, 04:17 AM
Fuck the Iraqis? That's one bloody racist thing to say! You're stereotyping an entire citizenship of Iraq and saying they're all terrorists, just because of a few extremists? You're warned for derogatory comments/sentiments towards an entire nation.
Click to expand...

okie dokie...sry iraqis...FOOK BUSH AND THE WHOLE FOOKING WAR! [/b][/quote]
Ehh.. right.
That's a big thing to make a 'mistake' in to say.
and how do you type?

Ryan · Apr 18, 2005

Originally posted by FreeYourMind+Apr 17 2005, 11:54 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (FreeYourMind @ Apr 17 2005, 11:54 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>

Originally posted by -Linkin_EvangelionNG@Apr 12 2005, 12:47 PM
<!--QuoteBegin--Mark
Click to expand...

@Apr 10 2005, 04:17 AM
Fuck the Iraqis? That's one bloody racist thing to say! You're stereotyping an entire citizenship of Iraq and saying they're all terrorists, just because of a few extremists? You're warned for derogatory comments/sentiments towards an entire nation.
Click to expand...

okie dokie...sry iraqis...FOOK BUSH AND THE WHOLE FOOKING WAR!
Click to expand...

Ehh.. right.
That's a big thing to make a 'mistake' in to say.
and how do you type? [/b][/quote]
LOL

Anywyas, he totally deserves the award, congrats. To bad he had to get an award for that ype of situation.

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Medal of Honor Awarded to fallen Soldier's Family

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Medal of Honor Awarded to fallen Soldier's Family

TeMpEsT Live To Thrash LPA Super Member

Evan™ HI! I'm Randy, I'm a Bandicoot Über Member

Todd FLǕGGȦ∂NKđ€ČHIŒβǾLʃÊN LPA Administrator

[Th3 Wkng De@d] Banned

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Evan™ HI! I'm Randy, I'm a Bandicoot Über Member

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Ryan You Greasy Bastard LPA Super VIP

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