Battle-injured Afghanistan Veteran Receives Navy Cross

From USA Patriotism:

“Sorry, guys, I can’t keep going.”

Those were the words of Lance Cpl. Brady A. Gustafson to the Marines in his vehicle as he was pulled away from his smoking machine gun minutes after his platoon was ambushed July 21, 2008, by withering enemy fire in Shewan, Afghanistan.

Nobody blamed Gustafson, 21, an infantryman with 2nd Platoon, Company G, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, for not being able to continue the fight, since the opening volley on the Marine mounted patrol included a rocket-propelled grenade that pierced the shell of the mine-resistant armor-protected vehicle in which Gustafson was manning the turret gun.

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My Comment: This is a true hero. Hat Tip to Prairie Pundit.

Two Names To Honor As Long As There Is An America (Updated II)

From The American Thinker:

You've seen or read little or nothing about Cpl. Jonathan Yale and Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter. If our media were not so biased, these two heroes would be household names. Each received the Navy Cross -- posthumously.

In six seconds, the two Marine grunts offered their lives, and prevented a massacre of dozens of Marines and Iraqis in Ramadi.

Tony Perry wrote of their heroism last December in the Los Angeles Times:

Haerter had volunteered to watch the main gate [of Joint Security Station Nasser in Ramadi], even though it was considered the most hazardous of the compound's three guard stations because it could be approached from a busy thoroughfare.

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Navy Crosses For Two Heroes

Navy Cross medals were presented today to the families of Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter and Cpl. Jonathan Yale, who were killed while thwarting a suicide bomber at a Marine compound in Ramadi, Iraq.

Navy Cross Presented To Families Of Two Slain Marines -- L.A. Times

Navy Cross medals were presented today to the families of Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter and Cpl. Jonathan Yale, who were killed while thwarting a suicide bomber at a Marine compound in Ramadi, Iraq.

Reporting from San Diego -- Navy Cross medals were presented Friday to the families of two Marines killed while thwarting a suicide bomber and saving the lives of dozens of Marines and Iraqis.

Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter and Cpl. Jonathan Yale have earned "a place of legend in Marine Corps history for generations to come," Navy Secretary Donald C. Winter said at an emotional ceremony at the National Museum of the Marine Corps at Quantico, Va.

Haerter, 19, and Yale, 21, were killed April 22, 2008, while guarding a Marine and Iraqi police compound in Ramadi, Iraq.

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More News On The Awarding Of Two Navy Crosses

Six Seconds Of Iraq Valor Saved Dozens -- CBS News
Navy Cross for Sag Harbor Marine slain in Iraq -- Newsday
Profound sacrifice, & thanks 2 who died for America given top Navy medal -- Daily News
Navy Honors Ramadi Heroes -- The Moderate Voice
Navy Crosses Awarded Posthumously To 2 Marines -- Jawa Report

A Hero That We Will Probably Never Know

Lt. Earned A Navy Cross He Can’t Wear -- Navy Times

Somewhere out in the fleet, there’s a Navy medical officer who earned the Navy Cross during vicious, hammering combat five years ago.

And he’s not authorized to wear the award — second only to the Medal of Honor.

That’s because the 2003 mission, during which the officer fought like a demon and put himself in the line of fire to save several wounded American and Afghan comrades from al-Qaida and Taliban forces, remains classified.

And so does his identity.

A spokeswoman for the Navy secretary confirmed the existence of the Navy Cross recipient after Navy Times forwarded her a copy of the officer’s citation, in which his name is redacted. So secret was the award that the Navy did not include it when queried as to the number of sailors who have earned the Navy Cross since Sept. 11, 2001. The Navy has now changed the number of recipients from six to seven, even though the seventh award was presented more than a year ago.

“The Department of the Navy has approved the awarding of seven Navy Crosses for Navy personnel,” Capt. Beci Brenton, spokeswoman for Navy Secretary Donald Winter, said Friday.

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(Hat Tip to OP-For)

My Comment: Wow .... this is the first time that I have heard anything like this.