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Army
SSgt. Omar Hernandez
traveled a long, hard
road on his way to
earning the Silver Star.
Hernandez, 27, came to
the United States from
Mexico with his family
when he was 6 months
old.
He joined the Army
Reserve at age 19 as an
engineer, and went to
Iraq for the first time
in February 2003. He
switched to the regular
Army in March 2004 as an
infantryman and was
promptly sent back to
Iraq. He earned his
citizenship after his
second Iraq tour.
Hernandez was deployed
for the third time in
November 2006, as part
of the 4th Brigade
Combat Team, 1st Cavalry
Division out of Fort
Bliss, Texas. The unit
has since changed its
name to 4th Brigade
Combat Team, 1st Armored
Division.
Five months into the
deployment, Hernandez
and other 4-1 soldiers
moved from Forward
Operating Base Kalsu in
Iskandariyah to Baghdad,
where they were assigned
to Joint Security
Station "Maverick" in
Ghazaliya, a primarily
Sunni Baghdad
neighborhood.
June 6, 2007, was
supposed to be a rare
day off for Hernandez, a
team leader in charge of
mentoring four Iraqi
police recruits.
Instead, he and another
team leader were ordered
to take their Iraqi
counterparts out on a
census patrol. |
Four American soldiers
and nine Iraqis went out
on the mission.
No sooner had they set
off on foot, they got
ambushed, right outside
the JSS.
In the blink of an eye,
two Iraqi police were
shot: one in the back,
the other in the leg and
arm. They both
collapsed, bleeding, in
a T-shaped intersection.
As Hernandez turned to
return fire with his
M-4, he too was shot, in
his right thigh.
"I didn’t really feel it
too much at the time,"
he said. "I just felt a
lot of pressure on my
leg. You know, like
Forrest Gump — where he
goes, ‘Somethin’ jumped
up and bit meeee,’"
Hernandez drawled.
The bullet "bit him,"
all right. It entered
through the back of his
thigh, narrowly missed
his femoral artery, and
exited the front, taking
30 percent of his
quadriceps along with
it.
But right then, all
Hernandez was focused on
was his Iraqis, lying
vulnerable in the
street, as the enemy
fire got heavier.
"I couldn’t let anyone
die out there, exposed
like that," Hernandez
said. "They were under
my command. I didn’t
want anybody under my
command to die."
He dashed into the
intersection, grabbed
the nearest Iraqi by the
arm, and dragged him 15
feet to safety behind a
wall as the three U.S.
soldiers on the opposite
side of the street laid
down cover fire.
Then Hernandez ran back
for the second Iraqi,
straddled him, grabbed
the bleeding man’s
protective vest under
the armpits, and with
one heave, levered the
Iraqi up onto his
shoulder.
Then he made his second
mad dash for the wall.
"At the time I was
Superman, so I didn’t
know whether he was
heavy or not," Hernandez
said.
Once the Iraqis were
safe and receiving
treatment, Hernandez
began returning fire.
Finally, he accepted
medical treatment
himself.
If Hernandez had not
scooped the wounded
Iraqis off the street,
the outcome would have
been grim, Lt. Matthew
Allen, 25, platoon
leader for 2nd Platoon,
Company B, 177 Armor
Regiment and executive
officer for Hernandez’
company at the time,
told Stars and Stripes.
"In the position that
they were in, had they
been left without cover,
whoever was shooting
could easily have hit
them a couple more times
and finished the job,"
Allen said.
Hernandez learned he
would receive the
nation’s third-highest
military award in
February, and "I almost
did a back flip,"
Hernandez told Stripes.
"For a common person
like me to get something
like that — it means a
lot, and it means a lot
to my family."
But not as much as the
Army, he said. "I love
the Army, I wouldn’t
trade it for anything in
the world," Hernandez
said. "If they were to
give me $20 million for
me to get out, I don’t
think I’d take it."
By Lisa Burgess, Stars
and Stripes, July 3,
2008
Photo and information courtesy of US Army / DoD |
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