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Benning sergeant earns Silver Star

Jan-20-2006 » Filed Under: 1/25 SBCT

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BY MICK WALSH, Staff Writer

The citation accompanying Thursday's award of the Silver Star to a Fort Benning soldier for his heroic actions in Iraq reads more like an action movie script.

But for Staff Sgt. Shannon Kay, now a member of the 2nd Battalion, 29th Infantry Regiment, what transpired on Dec. 11, 2004, was far from Hollywood fiction.

Then a squad leader of a Fort Lewis, Wash., Stryker outfit stationed near Mosul, Kay was manning the left-rear air guard hatch of his vehicle at a traffic stop when, without notice, a car broke the traffic pattern and accelerated toward the Stryker. Kay's gunner alerted him to the approaching car, prompting him to fire a warning off the front of the vehicle.

The vehicle did not stop, accelerating instead. Kay shot the driver, but the car was still able to impact the rear of his Stryker, exploding into a massive fireball. The fireball was enormous and the Kevlar blankets, tires and other components of the Stryker caught fire.

The entire area was littered with burning debris. Kay was wounded in four places and had six other casualties on the Stryker. Despite being wounded, he got his back ramp open and began evacuating his crew from the burning vehicle. Immediately, the position came under heavy fire from enemy small arms, rocket-propelled grenades and indirect mortar fire. Kay was bleeding from shrapnel wounds to the head, arm and hand, but he refused medical attention, instead focusing his efforts on ensuring all his men were evacuated and on extinguishing the fire on the Stryker.

The Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., native, who lives with his wife, Julie, and son, Killian, in Phenix City, then turned his attention to the enemy and moved through the perimeter, engaging and destroying an RPG team that attempted to maneuver on the disabled Stryker.


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