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Priest awarded Purple Heart

Jan- 5-2008 » Filed Under: 4/2 SBCT

Profile of 4-9 INF, 4/2 SBCT soldier.

By: BARBARA L. PARSONS, The Post-Searchlight

U.S. Army Spc. Danny Priest of Bainbridge was recently awarded the Purple Heart for injuries sustained while serving in northern Baghdad, Iraq, on May 26, 2007.

Priest, a 2003 Bainbridge High School graduate and former co-captain of the varsity football team, was presented the medal Friday, Jan. 4, during an awards dinner held the night before the Army All-American bowl in San Antonio, Texas, by Secretary of the Army Pete Geren.

In spite of severe injuries to his right arm, for which he is still receiving physical therapy, he said he is "fighting for a chance to get re-assigned to Iraq" as soon as he is released from medical treatment.

"I believe in what we're doing in Iraq," Priest said during a phone interview this week. "We are working with the Iraqi Army and they are fighting as hard as any of the coalition troops to maintain their freedom."

Priest said that before he went to Iraq, he thought U.S. troops would have to do everything for the newly organized Iraqi troops, including most of the fighting. But after he was there, he realized the terrible price many of the Iraqi soldiers are paying just by being part of the army.

"A lot of Iraqi soldiers never took time off from fighting to go home to their families, and after one incident, we realized why they stayed at their posts and never went home," Priest said. "One soldier went home to see his family and when the insurgents found out where his family was, they killed every single member of his family after he left. That's the type of thing the media never talks about. We who serve with them know how hard they are fighting and at what cost."

Priest attended Valdosta State University for a year after graduating from BHS and before joining the Army on Oct. 5, 2004. He completed basic training and infantry school at Fort Benning, Ga., in January 2005 and was then assigned to Fort Lewis, Wash.

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