St. Mary's, Ga., native Cpl. Ronald Smith, a mortarman of 1st
Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division looks into the
crowd of Marines after being awarded the Bronze Star medal with
combat distinguishing device May 4, 2012. Smith was awarded the
medal for actions in Afghanistan, where he moved from cover to
retrieve a fallen Afghan comrade in the heat of combat last year.
Photo by USMC Cpl. Timothy Solano |
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CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (5/14/2012) — St. Mary's, Ga., native Cpl. Ronald
Smith received one of the nation's most prestigious combat awards,
the Bronze Star medal with combat distinguishing device, during a
ceremony, May 4, in front of fellow Marines of 1st Battalion, 9th
Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, after an 11-mile battalion
hike.
Smith, a mortarman with Bravo Company, received the
prestigious award for his heroic acts displayed, July 26, 2011, when
he saved an Afghan National Army soldier's life.
The
then-lance corporal left from his patrol base on the summer day,
loaded with mortar rounds and his service rifle, prepared for
whatever his unit might encounter on patrol. He was the assistant
mortar gunner charged with being the farthest rear security Marine
alongside “Mario,” an Afghan National Army soldier who Smith had
come to call a friend.
“He was one of the few Afghans who
really interacted with us,” said Smith. “He helped us cook dinner,
played music for us, taught us Pashto and tried to learn English
from us. Nobody could say his name, so we all just called him
Mario.”
A detachment of Afghan National Army soldiers had
been working alongside the Marines of B Company to eradicate the
insurgency in an area called Trek Nawa when a firefight broke out,
putting two rounds in Mario's leg.
Toting his rifle and a
pack filled with Composition B, a heat and pressure sensitive
military grade explosive, Smith low-crawled under enemy fire through
50 meters of foot-high poppy to assess Mario's injuries. |
“Once he got hit, he was hobbling a
little, but he was still up,” said Smith, as he recalled the
Afghan soldier who he risked his life for. “When I realized
he fell down, I went back and helped him over to a berm
behind a pile of (harvested) poppy and started to treat him.
I just remember thinking, ‘I hope to God we don't start to
take fire from the opposite direction.'”
Smith, who
had been a mortarman for almost two years, responded to the
casualty instinctively, as infantry Marines are trained to
do.
“Once I crawled back to him after he got hit,
everything was such a blur,” said Smith. “I just went into
autopilot; my training kicked in, and I treated him with
what I had and kept security until the (helicopter) got
there.”
For his actions that day almost 10 months
ago, Smith now stood opposite Lt. Col. Tyler Zagurski, a
Mercer Island, Wash., native and commanding officer of 1st
Bn., 9th Marines, to receive the prestigious award. Zagurski
secured the medal below Smith's ”U.S. MARINES” nametape and
spoke on Smith's behalf to the rest of the “Walking Dead,”
as the unit is called.
“This award should show our
junior Marines that their actions don't go unnoticed,” he
said. “(Then) Lance Corporal Smith faced a challenge that
set a precedent for us as an institution that suggests that
even a Marine as junior as a lance corporal can take bold,
decisive action.”
The sweat-drenched Marines of the
battalion took turns congratulating the newly awarded
Marine. Afterward, the battalion was dismissed, leaving
Smith to look back on his time in Afghanistan before
enjoying the weekend with his friends.
“Ya know, I
really believe that (1st Bn., 9th Marines,) has an angel,”
said Smith. “Nobody in the battalion died on that tour, and
that is because someone watched over us all.”
More photos available in frame below
By USMC Cpl. Timothy Solano
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2012
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