Photo By Staff Sgt. Paul Glover | Capt. Jason Penn (left), the commander of Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 149th Infantry...... read more read more
JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq — It seems to be a common theme that U.S. soldiers have heart. For four young soldiers from Harlan, Ky.’s Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 149th Infantry Regiment, 310th Expeditionary Sustainment Command, however, that heart showed Oct. 21 on Joint Base Balad, Iraq.
Around 1 p.m. at JBB, the four soldiers stood in front of a room full of their peers and leaders. There, the soldiers had the distinct honor of being the first members of the 1-149th Inf. Regt. to be awarded the prestigious Purple Heart medal since the unit’s last deployment in 2007.
At a ceremony held at the 1-149 Inf. Regt.’s headquarters building on JBB, the Soldiers received their medals for sustaining injuries during two enemy attacks that occurred Aug. 27 and 28.
“You never want to see a wounded soldier, but to see them recover from their injuries, it’s fulfilling to pin that [Purple Heart] on them,” said A Company, 1-149 Inf. Regt.’s 1st Sgt. Chris Jackson, a native of Middlesboro, Ky.
The four young soldiers, all under the age of 25 and on their first deployment, remained humble in discussing how deserving they felt in receiving the honor.
“I feel less deserving of it than a lot of people before me,” said Spc. John Luttrell, a 22-year-old native of Harlan, Ky.
Pfc. Christopher Card, one of the medal recipients and a native of Harlan, Ky., agreed and said that despite being knocked unconscious, he feels that he doesn’t necessarily deserve a Purple Heart.
“I have family that have been in almost every single war; [they] got wounded, got shrapnel, and they got nothing. I don’t feel like I deserve it,” he said.
During the attacks that earned the soldiers their Purple Hearts, each has a different perspective of what they went through.
“It felt like any other day, then we got hit and did what we had to do to keep going,” said Pfc. Joshua Wallace, one of the medal recipients and a native of Paducah, Ky.
Recovery was a different process for each of the four soldiers. For Wallace, who injured his arm during the IED explosion Aug. 28, the recovery process was still ongoing Oct. 21.
“It’s still healing,” Wallace said. “I was down for about a month with a brace on my arm, but it’s healing fine. It just hurts a little bit every now and then.”
Wallace added that he wanted to be able to go right back on the convoy escort team, but the unit kept him in the command post while he recovered. Card’s recovery process involved more of a psychological rehabilitation.
“I’d say mentally and emotionally, it was difficult,” Card said. “I know for the first few days, I cried my eyes out just when someone asked me about it.”
“It’s hard for some of the soldiers to deal with the fact that they came very close to being killed,” said Capt. Jason Penn, A Co.’s commander and a native of Barbourville, Ky. “It’s hard to come to the realization that you’ve got someone out there who’s really trying to kill you.”
Asked how it felt to award his soldiers the Purple Hearts, A Company’s commander displayed a hesitant sense of pride.
“It’s kind of a mixed emotion,” Penn said. “It’s a prestigious award, but it’s hard knowing they were hurt by the enemy. I’m proud of our soldiers, knowing we took the enemy’s best shot and lived to fight another day.”
| Date Taken: | 10.21.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 10.29.2011 09:29 |
| Story ID: | 79254 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE BALAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 904 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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