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Helicopter heroes

Feb-12-2005 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT

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By BILL HUTCHENS; The News Tribune

Hollywood might have another one on its hands.

The 2001 movie “Black Hawk Down” told a riveting story of military heroism surrounding the crash of a helicopter. It bears a resemblance to what soldiers from the Army’s first Stryker brigade went through on the morning of Sept. 4, 2004, just a month before they came home from Iraq.

Friday at Fort Lewis, commanders handed out a Bronze Star and about two dozen Army Commendation Medals to “Regulars” from the 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment for their actions that day. They risked their lives while rescuing the crew of a downed helicopter and keeping the bird out of enemy hands.

Lt. Col. Karl Reed, 5-20 commander, addressed friends and family of the soldiers gathered for the outdoor ceremony on Regulars’ Field.

“Uncommon valor is a common virtue in the men you see standing before you in formation today,” he said.

After the ceremony, Reed talked about that explosive day in Tal Afar, a city of 300,000 in northern Iraq on the road from the Syrian border.

It was the first time in Iraq that he saw men returning to their Stryker vehicles to replenish their rapidly diminishing supplies of ammunition, he said. “That was a day that every man had to fight,” he said. [...]

Unlike the famed 1993 “Black Hawk Down” episode in Somalia, in which 18 American soldiers were killed, the Strykers didn’t lose a single soldier in the Iraq fight.

Five men from the battalion, in addition to the two pilots, were injured.

“We didn’t even know our guys were wounded,” Reed said Friday. “They didn’t bother to tell anybody.”

In his speech, Reed reminded his men to honor their 5-20 brothers who died during the yearlong deployment: Spc. Jake Herring, 21; Cpl. Demetrius Rice, 24; and Pfc. Jesse Martinez, 20.

Afterward, McChrystal did just that.

“Those are the real heroes,” he said.


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