The Military and Veterans' Room
Fallujah Vet Will Be First Living Medal of Honor Recipient from Iraq War
The military has been reviewing valor awards from Iraq and Afghanistan and have decided to upgrade a Silver Star to the MoH.
Read the rest at the link.A former Army staff sergeant who took on enemy fighters at close range, first with an M249 light machine gun and then with a knife, will be the first living veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom to receive the Medal of Honor, Military.com has learned.
David S. Bellavia, 43, of Batavia, New York, will have his Silver Star upgraded to the highest military award for valor in a June 25 ceremony at the White House, a source close to Bellavia confirmed to Military.com. The news of the award was first posted at the American Legion's Burn Pit blog Thursday and then confirmed by Army Times. The White House is expected to announce the award next week.
Bellavia's Silver Star citation, for heroism on Nov. 10, 2004, in Fallujah, Iraq, reads like the script of an action movie. An infantryman with Company A, Task Force 2-2, 1st Infantry Division, Bellavia was ordered with his platoon to clear a 12-building block in which "jihadists" were taking shelter in order to fire on American troops, according to the citation.
After clearing the first nine buildings and finding only weapons caches, Bellavia and four other soldiers entered the tenth and found themselves under fire from insurgents. As more soldiers rushed in to reinforce the five, the close-quarters combat became hot and intense, and troops began to go down with injuries due to small-arms fire and debris.
"At this point, Sergeant Bellavia, armed with an M249 SAW gun, entered the room where the insurgents were located and sprayed the room with gunfire, forcing the Jihadists to take cover and allowing the squad to move out into the street," the citation reads.
In the street, the soldiers came under fire from enemy fighters shooting from the building's roof. As they took cover in an adjacent building, Bellavia went back into the street to call in a Bradley fighting vehicle to shell the structures. He then went back into the first building to see whether any insurgents remained alive, according to the citation.
He would find himself one man pitted against a house full of armed enemy fighters.
"I wanted that revenge. I wanted to be that leader that I promised I would be," Bellavia later said about the fight, according to a 2016 Army release. "A light switch went off."
He first encountered an insurgent with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and gunned him down.
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Originally Posted by Common
