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Winlock Grad Awarded Silver Star

Feb- 1-2008 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT

By The Chronicle

TACOMA -- Staff Sgt. Jon Hilliard, a Winlock native, was one of two Fort Lewis soldiers awarded the Silver Star medal Wednesday afternoon in a ceremony in the base’s Sheridan Gym. They will be honored again Friday in ceremonies at the state capitol.

Hilliard, 26, and Sgt. 1st Class Ismael Iban were given the award for combat action while serving with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division in Iraq. The 3rd Brigade returned from Iraq in September of 2007.

The Silver Star is the nation’s third-highest military award for combat heroism, and is inscribed on the reverse with the phrase “for gallantry in action.”

According to information from Fort Lewis, on the morning of March 24, 2007, Hilliard, a weapons squad leader, was in a Stryker combat vehicle patrolling Baqubah when the vehicle was attacked by a powerful improvised explosive device. He was thrown onto the roof of the vehicle by the force of the blast and, in spite of multiple injuries to his left leg, he exposed himself to enemy small arms and machine gun fire to free a machine gun and ammunition from the burning wreckage.

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